Nov. 23, 2005
ADOLESCENT COGNITIVE AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
A. Transition to Adolescent/Adult Reasoning (Piaget's views)
1. Formal Operational Stage (age 13 to adulthood) – main characteristics:
2. What are the implications of Piaget's formal operations, for adolescent behavior?
B. Newer Views of Formal Operational Reasoning
1. Formal thinking is not universal
2. Information processing (see text)
C. Teenage Employment - analyze on your own in terms of mediators and moderators
D. Moral Judgements
1. Kohlberg's theory
a. Famous Heinz dilemma (in text). Write your responses. Same for cheating (on back of handout).
2. Kohlberg's stages
a. Preconventional moral reasoning
1) General characteristics
2) Stage 1: Obedience orientation (roughly age 5-8; many criminals)
3) Stage 2: Instrumental orientation (roughly age 7-12)
b. Conventional moral reasoning
1) General characteristics
2) Stage 3: Interpersonal norms (age 12-adulthood)
3) Stage 4: Social system and conscience (age 12 - adulthood)
c. Post-conventional moral reasoning
1) General characteristics
2) Stage 5: Social contract orientation (10% of adults in U.S.)
3) Stage 6: Universal ethical principles (<5% of adults) - dropped this stage in 1985.
d. Kohlberg's cross sectional data support the age progression (see fig. 15-3 in text)
e. Other people's longitudinal data confirms the sequence
D. Moral Behavior - what is the relation between moral reasoning and moral behavior?
1. Describe methodology of cheating study
2. 15% of college students at stage 5 cheated, 55% at stage 3 or 4, 70% at stage 1 or 2
3. Delinquents, criminals more likely to be at stage 1 or 2
E. Are there cultural differences in moral reasoning and behavior?
1. Kohlberg thought the stages were innate & universal
2. Discuss cultural differences in Turkey, Yucatan, and among Hindus
3. Developmental psychologists now regard stages 3, 4 and 5 as equivalent
F. What are the origins of moral thinking and behavior? How can we promote it?
1. Concrete operations necessary but not sufficient for conventional reasoning
2. Formal operations necessary but not sufficient for post-conventional reasoning
3. Families that discuss moral issues have children with higher reasoning levels
4. Experimental "just community" model has been used in some high schools
G. Are there sex differences in moral thinking or behavior?
1. Kohlberg's morality, as we saw, is a morality of justice
2. Carol Gilligan thought women tended to think in terms of a morality of care
3. Three levels: care for the self, care for needy others, and promoting care in all human relationships
4. The moral dilemmas have to be rewritten to take this orientation into account
5. But when you give adolescents and adults care-based vs. justice-based problems: no sex differences
6. Both men and women use care-based and justice-based reasoning, depending on the situation.
7. Conclusion: Gilligan's work enriches Kohlberg’s theory.
1. Heinz dilemma
In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist
in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost
him to make. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, wet to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he
could only get together about half of what it would 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." The husband got desperate and
broke into the man's drug store to steal the drug for his wife.
Heinz dilemma: My reasoning was at stage ____________
2. Cheating dilemma
Suppose you are in the following situation: you are taking a difficult final exam. Half the course grade
depends on it, and you are getting a C in the course. The professor leaves the class for 5 minutes to make a
phone call. This is against the university’s rules. While the prof is gone, two students begin to discuss
answers. Several other students tell them to be quiet, but they continue, and soon a dozen or more people are
discussing answers and several more are exchanging their answer sheets. Your friend is sitting next to you
and asks you how you answered one questions. What will you do? Why?
Cheating dilemma: my reasoning was at stage ______________