Mr. Wilson - ERC
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)

Born in Switzerland, this Philosopher /
Psychologist focused on people’s stages
of development.
 Sensory Motor Stage – Birth to age 2
 Preoperational Stage – 2 to 7 years
 Concrete Operational Stage – 7 to 12 years
 Formal Operational Stage – 12 onwards
Lawrence Kohlberg
Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s theory of
development by adding the extra facet
of MORALITY or ETHICS.
 His theory is that as you go through life,
you are faced with certain moral
dilemmas, and your decisions vis a vis
these dilemmas should provide us with
an idea of your moral development.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
1.
Level one – Pre-Conventional
1.
2.
2.
Obedience and Punishment (How can I avoid
punishment?)
Self-Interest Orientation (What’s in it for me?)
Level two – Conventional
1.
2.
Interpersonal accord and conformity (social norms,
The good boy/girl attitude)
Authority and Social Order maintaining orientation
(law and order mentality)
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
1.
Level three – Post-Conventional
1.
2.
Social contract orientation
Universal Ethical principles (principled conscience)
The Heinz Dilemma
 A woman was near death from a special
kind of cancer. There was one drug that the
doctors thought might save her. It was a
form of radium that a druggist in the same
town had recently discovered. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was
charging ten times what the drug cost him to
produce.
The Heinz Dilemma
 The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money, but
he could only get together about $1,000
which is half of what it cost. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked
him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But
the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug
and I'm going to make money from it." So
Heinz got desperate and broke into the
man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
The Heinz Dilemma
Should Heinz have broken
into the laboratory to steal
the drug for his wife? Why
or why not?
Quickly write down your answer!
(in your copybooks!)
Stage one (obedience):
Heinz should not steal the medicine
because he will consequently be put in
prison which will mean he is a bad
person.
 Or: Heinz should steal the medicine
because it is only worth $200 and not
how much the druggist wanted for it;
Heinz had even offered to pay for it and
was not stealing anything else.

Stage two (self-interest):
Heinz should steal the medicine
because he will be much happier if he
saves his wife, even if he will have to
serve a prison sentence.
 Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine
because prison is an awful place, and
he would probably languish over a jail
cell more than his wife's death.

Stage three (conformity):
Heinz should steal the medicine
because his wife expects it; he wants to
be a good husband.
 Or: Heinz should not steal the drug
because stealing is bad and he is not a
criminal; he tried to do everything he
could without breaking the law, you
cannot blame him.

Stage four (law-and-order):
Heinz should not steal the medicine
because the law prohibits stealing,
making it illegal.
 Or: Heinz should steal the drug for his
wife but also take the prescribed
punishment for the crime as well as
paying the druggist what he is owed.
Criminals cannot just run around without
regard for the law; actions have
consequences

Stage five (human rights):
Heinz should steal the medicine
because everyone has a right to choose
life, regardless of the law.
 Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine
because the scientist has a right to fair
compensation. Even if his wife is sick, it
does not make his actions right.

Stage six (universal human
ethics):
Heinz should steal the medicine,
because saving a human life is a more
fundamental value than the property
rights of another person.
 Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine,
because others may need the medicine
just as badly, and their lives are equally
significant.

Where does your answer fall?
The Cheating Situation

Georgia’s hands were sweating. She
was fifteen minutes into her math final
when she began to panic. This exam
was worth most of her grade in the
class. She understood math—even
liked it—and usually did really well. Her
constant problem was that she wasn’t a
strong test-taker. Her grades never
reflected her understanding of the
material she studied…
Now, here she was, once again stuck
on one problem worth twenty-five points
on the test, and she was drawing a
blank. She put her head down on the
desk and concentrated as hard as she
could. She remembered doing a similar
problem in class and explaining it to her
friend Jessie, but now she was so
stressed out by the test, she couldn’t
even remember how to begin the
problem…
She lifted her head and stared at her
test. She listened to the clock tick on the
wall and imagined her parents’
expression when she receives her report
card. Jessie was sitting right in front of
her. He is always a good test taker and
had already solved the problem. The
teacher had his backed turned and was
on the other side of the room. Georgia
could look over Jessie’s shoulder, get
the answer, and no one would know.
Georgia needed to think quickly. She
thought about how unfair it was that
she regularly does badly on tests
even though she works so hard in
class and understands the material,
too. She thought about how often
she helped Jessie in class
throughout the semester. What
should she do?
She prided herself on doing what
was right. But how right is it that
she has to work in a system that
doesn’t reward such hard work?
Finally, she took a deep breath. She
looked to see if the teacher was still on
the other side of the room, and glanced
over Jessie’s shoulder just long enough
to get the final answer to the question.
Then, she figured out the rest of the
problem on her own. In the moment, she
felt great about her decision. She felt she
had sort of created an ethical
compromise.
But on the way home on the bus,
Georgia’s good feelings started to
fade. “What exactly is an ethical
compromise anyway?” she thought
to herself. Should she tell her
teacher what she did or move
forward and forget about the whole
thing?
Reasons why Students Cheat





Denial of Injury: “No one’s hurt by it.” Twenty-nine
percent of students polled in one of Schulman’s studies
said cheating was justified if the student learned from it.
Denial of Victim: Blame the teacher for their behavior or
say the work was meaningless anyway.
Appeal to Higher Loyalties: Seventy-five percent of
students polled cited a need to please their families, or
they felt peer pressure.
Denial of Responsibility: “Everyone does it. If I don’t, I’m
left in the dust. Good guys finish last.”
Fear of Failure: Student doesn’t cheat to get ahead—
student cheats because of fear of embarrassment or
failure. “I have to go to Univeristy. I have to win.”
Question #1
Can
you answer Georgia’s
question at the end? Is there
such a thing as an ethical
compromise?
Question #2
 Can you think of a time when
you did something you knew
could be considered ethically
wrong, but decided it was worth
it? What was the situation?
Question #3
 What
do you think about
Georgia’s point about how it is
unfair that she works so hard
but isn’t rewarded for her work?
Do you feel she should be given
more leeway for making the
choice she did?
Question #4
 Have you ever had someone
cheat off of you? What did it
feel like? How did you handle
it? Would you handle it the
same way if you could re-live
the same situation?
Question #5
 Given
the list of five reasons
(above) that students say they
cheat, which make more sense
to you than others? Can you
relate to any of them
personally?
Question #6
 What should Georgia do?
Should she tell her teacher
what she did?
Question #7
 What would you do in this
situation? Would you cheat?
If so, could you do it and feel
okay given the situation?
Other Interesting Developments….
Diffusion of Responsibility – Kitty
Genovese
 The “Bystander” Effect
 Sex Role Socialization
 Hyper-sexualization of the Male
