...Individual: Influence of Moral Reasoning Due: August 12, 2012 Individual: Influence of Moral Reasoning In the article by R.Scherer “Did Penn State Officials Ignore Sexual Abuse Allegations?” the actions of Gary Schultz. Gary Schultz was the Senior Vice President of Penn State University who had the responsibility of the campus police was informed by Tim Curley, the Penn State athletic director about allegations of sexual abuse against Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky by an eyewitness graduate student. The graduate student witnessed Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy (on Penn State facilities). Gary Schultz, the Vice President did not take action until two weeks after this report. It was not until two weeks later that Gary Schultz took initiative to speak to the graduate student who witnessed the abuse. After speaking to the graduate student, Gary Schultz then reported the claim as “horseplay” to the President of the University Mr. Graham Spanier. Gary Schultz downplayed the graduate student’s eye witness claim of sexual abuse to mere “horseplay”, which led the President of the University that the claim was not serious and no action needed to be taken. Gary Schultz, withholding the truth and seriousness of the claim resulted in chain of negative outcomes. Also, when he went to court, he lied on the stand and stated that he was not informed of the abuse by the graduate student...
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...Influence of Moral Reasoning Rohana Bjorkquist Crt/205 03/16/2014 The person I chose to write about and discuss moral reasoning is the assistant coach Mike McQuery. Some actions he decided to take was witness Sandusky having sex with the boys in the showers but not reporting it to the police or child protection agencies. The impact of the action that McQuery took is that he allowed Sandusky to continue sexually abusing these boys for years because he didn’t say anything to authorities. He allowed the abuse to continue for another 8 years before Sandusky finally had to face legal consequences for his actions. By not saying anything to authorities it is also giving Sandusky an okay to continue with his sexual acts since he does not have to face any consequences. The assistant coach may have feared that he would lose his job or that no one would believe him regarding the immoral actions that Sandusky committed. McQueary had a moral duty to those boys to stick up for them when he knew what was happening was morally wrong. Though in other countries or societies it may not be but in our culture and society, molesting children is morally and ethically wrong. McQueary ended up testifying to witnessing Sandusky’s acts but that did not happen until eight years later in 2010 when he witnessed the acts in 2002. Though he did come forward in the end, but his ethical and moral response should have been to alert the authorities when he first witnessed the act. If I would have been...
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...Determinants Of Moral Development In Curbing Adolescents’ Moral Decay. Surname: Zondo Initials: G. L. Student number: 43097855 Examination period: October/November 2015 1 The Determinants Of Moral Development In Curbing Adolescents’ Moral Decay. Abstract The study explored the determinants of moral development in curbing adolescents’ moral decay. These determinants included identity development, gender, parental (mother) relationship with adolescent, and ethical and moral values. A mixed-model method (both quantitative and qualitative) was used to conduct the study. Participants were sampled through convenience sampling. The sample of a total of 1387 from the pooled data was used for the quantitative part of the research. While for the qualitative study a sample of 20 adolescents (10 boys and 10 girls) who were high-school students (in grade 10 and 11) from 12 to 18 years of age from Gebeni High School in Swaziland was used. The researcher aimed to investigate the extent of determinants of moral development in curbing adolescents’ moral decay and to make recommendations on the development of socialization structures to curb adolescents’ moral decay. Findings revealed that the determinants played a major role in adolescents’ moral development. However, further research is needed to be conducted with a lager sample for the qualitative study. 2 From a scholarly point of view, the interest in moral development among psychologists was inspired by Kohleberg’s work on moral judgment...
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...A Summary of Kohlberg’s Theory Tiffany Easterling, Sandra Maxey, and Nakeia Trimble PSYCH/600 – Developmental Psychology October 5, 2014 Vicki Koenig Abstract How the development of morality in children develops has been a big question for parents and philosophers for decades. The issue of moral development has been and has become a hot topic within education and psychology. “One of the best known theories was developed by a psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg who modified and expanded up Jean Piaget’s work to form a theory that explained how children develop moral reasoning” (Cherry, 2014). Moral development was described in two stages by Piaget. Kohlberg took those two stages described by Piaget and elaborated on them. The theory of moral development, which is described by Kohlberg, outlines three levels with six stages. Kohlberg believes that political liberalism “will not be replaced by a new ideology of the West but will continue to be its dominant ideology for the next century” (Crain, 1985). Kohlberg’s proposed moral development is a process that is continuous and occurs over the period of a person’s lifetime. “Furthermore, Kohlberg believes that the liberalistic concept of justice represents a higher conceptualization of justice in the same sense in which a higher developmental stage in morality represents a higher understanding of justice” (Crain, 1985). However, Carol Gilligan a well-known psychologist, ethicist, and feminist is against Kohlberg’s...
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...Question 1: Identify the stakeholders and how they were affected by Heene's actions? The stakeholders in the “Balloon Ball Hoax” are the boy, Falcon Heene; the parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, brothers, Bradford and Ryo Heene; Larimer County sheriff; Jim Alderman; Denver International Airport travelers and employees; National Guard unit; local police; search and rescue teams; media and news services; Colorado taxpayers; and the public. The public through the media watched and worried about the fate of the boy in the balloon. Colorado taxpayers footed the bill for the 50,000 USD cost of personnel time, equipment and other incidentals to track the balloon, search the rescue mission, and investigation of the hoax. Denver International Airport closed to avoid collision with the balloon. Travelers were delayed and flights rerouted and rescheduled. Airport employees had to remain calm and courteous as travelers became frustrated with delays, missed flight times and rescheduling. Local police, the National Guard unit, and search and rescue teams spent hours and used expensive equipment to track and hunt for the balloon and boy while Falcon was safe the whole time. Sheriff Jim Alderman had to conduct investigation under intense media scrutiny. At first, the media was incredulous that the parents were being questioned and investigated. Then Mr. Alderman was ridiculed for not detecting the hoax sooner. Falcon Heene was used by his parents to pull out the hoax that he was on a hot...
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...examine the theories of five leaders on the subject of development. Jean Piaget believed in four stages of development that were fairly concrete in description (Atherton, 2010). 1. Sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years old) – Children begin to make sense of the world around them based on their interaction with their physical environment. Reality begins to be defined. 2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) – Concrete physical stimuli are needed in order for a child to develop new concepts. 3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11) – As a child accumulates experience with the physical world, he/she begins to conceptualize to explain those experiences. Abstract thought is also emerging. 4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) – Conceptual reasoning is present and the child’s cognitive abilities are similar to an adult’s (Atherton, 2010). Piaget was firm in his concept of these stages. He was convinced that a person had to progress from one stage to the next, that this was a natural biological process influenced by the environment and experiences. Biology limits the point in time, but the environment determines the quality of development. Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES 3 interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks...
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...more pragmatic approach. They review research designed to evaluate Kohlberg’s model, describe how they revised the model to accommodate discrepant findings, and explain why they concluded that it is poorly equipped to account for the ways in which people make moral decisions in their everyday lives. The authors outline in 11 propositions a framework for a new approach that is more attentive to the purposes that people use morality to achieve. People make moral judgments and engage in moral behaviors to induce themselves and others to uphold systems of cooperative exchange that help them achieve their goals and advance their interests. Keywords: moral development, cognitive development, cooperation, moral judgment After two decades of research on Kohlberg’s (1984) cognitive– developmental model of morality, we abandoned it in favor of a more pragmatic approach. In this article, we explain why. We identify problems with Kohlberg’s model, describe revisions aimed at solving them, and offer reasons why a new approach is necessary. We end with a new beginning, introducing a more pragmatic approach in a set of propositions that, we argue, is better equipped than Kohlberg’s model to account for the ways in which people make moral decisions in their everyday lives. This approach rests on the assumption that individuals invoke a variety of affectively and cognitively-based strategies to pursue goals and advance their...
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...stand on what is right or wrong.This branch of ethics gradually develops since childhood and tend to emulate the things which are set as an moral value to us by our parents or guardians in the family. It can heavily be influenced from any major incident in our life. Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and situations that they deal with in everyday life. Professional ethics defines adherence to rules and regulation. The individual is expected to follow religiously, the code of ethics framed by the organization .It can be heavily influenced by the culture of the organization but it cannot change as frequently as the personal ethics. Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere to in respect of their interactions and business dealings in their professional life. PERSONAL ETHICS VERSUS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS A person's ethical code determines their views on right and wrong, and influences how they interact with other people. 1.Influences • Personal ethics depend largely on a person's background and life relationships and concern. They are also influenced by the experiences you had growing up with dilemmas such as lying, cheating or even violence. Personal ethics may change as you learn and experience more, they often retain much of this early influence. Professional ethics are based heavily on the requirements or principles of your profession. 2.Responsibilities • With...
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...Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Early childhood is not only a period of amazing physical growth, it is also a time of remarkable mental development. Cognitive abilities associated with memory, reasoning, problem-solving and thinking continue to emerge throughout childhood. When it comes to childhood cognitive development, it would be impossible to avoid mentioning the work of psychologist Jean Piaget. After receiving his doctoral degree at age 22, Jean Piaget began a career that would have a profound impact on both psychology and education. Through his work with Alfred Binet, Piaget developed an interest in the intellectual development of children. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."Piaget created a theory of cognitive development that described the basic stages that children go through as they mentally mature. He believed that children are like "little scientists," actively trying to make sense of the world rather than simply soaking up information passively. Schemas One of the key concepts in Piaget's theory is the use of schemas. According to Piaget,schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help people organize and interpret information. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to or completely change previously existing schemas. For example, a young...
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...living Aristotle’s view of the good life. Aristotle separates reason into two distinct categories: practical reason and theoretical reason. Practical reason can be thought of as the ability, through contemplation, to decide what one ought to do. Theoretical reason, on the other hand, can be viewed as reasoning that is directed at answering questions that are, coincidentally enough, theoretical. By theoretical I mean questions that are concerned with explaining and predicting what is going on around us. Going back to Aristotle’s assertion that reason is what separates us from lower beings, we can see that he is probably referring more to theoretical reason as opposed to practical reason. Any animal can exercise practical reason in determining what to do to survive, but can an animal reason theoretically? Aristotle says no and that is what separates human beings from animals. It is through reason, both practical and theoretical, that we develop virtue. According to Aristotle, virtue is the next step towards eudaimonia and it is developed through the exercise of reason. Just like with reason, Aristotle separates virtue into two categories. The first form of virtue is moral virtue. Moral virtue is excellence in...
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...such as unidentified assessment, procedure, technique, and the arrangement of the problem. Problem-solving occurs in every area of life because problems occur in daily life. Insight and creativity in problem-solving allow the person to use imagination, critical thinking skills, and creativity to develop a solution to his or her problem. Therefore, insight and creativity are two important factors in problem-solving. The constraints of a problem depend upon problem representation to uncover ways to solve the problem. In addition, problem representation forces a person to empower his or her cognitive skills to investigate problems. Analyzing the abilities and functions of reasoning, judgment, and decision-making in problem-solving process occurs to determine the existence of new measures in the decision and reasoning approaches in the search for ethical solutions. The ethical solutions in problem-solving guarantee the results are trustworthy and accurate. Therefore, the need for accurate problem-solving skills is a necessity to find solutions to problems people experience. Approaches of Problem-Solving Problem-solving have three significant characteristics. 1) A problem is an unidentified assessment, procedure, technique, arrangement, or belief valuable to finding an answer to. 2) According to Newell and Simon, (1972), for a person to come across the unidentified problem-solving lead to the mental image of the problem. The individual problem solvers...
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...is an individuals' moral character established throughout his lifespan? What factors influence the decisions that we make and what processes do we go through in making those decisions? Are the decisions that we make simply intuitions of right from wrong or are they governed by outside factors that dictate our decision making abilities? All of these questions are questions that many dynamic psychologists have tried to answer and define throughout the years. More notably are Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, who both addressed the concerns of moral development in the individual, but in differing ways. Piaget, who was best known for his work in how we learn throughout our development, gave Kohlberg a foundation to establish his focused study of how the moral fibers of an individual are created and developed throughout the lifespan (Kretchmar, 2015). Both found that each individual will establish a code of moral ethics throughout their lifespan, but the "why's" of those ethical decisions are often something that are hard to determine. Kohlberg set out to define the moral development of the individual through his studies of human dilemmas. The theory of moral development, formalized by Lawrence Kohlberg is one of significance in study of the lifespan, as it addresses our ability to distinguish right from wrong. The theory also questions if morality was a result of one's true emotional stance or one's expected rationale based on societal rules. With the moral development theory...
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...primary barriers and obstacles that cause us to breach our moral & ethical values 2. How do they cause you to breach your moral and ethical values - Things that cause us to do the wrong things (temptations) ex: how does self interest cause us to do the wrong things 3. What needs be done to over come those obstacles 4. Do this for each of the primary barriers Week 3 presentation: 10 points 1. Provide background on issue- extent of it taught in schools MARCELA Ex: polls, legislature, historical value 2. ID and discuss all arguments on either side of the question (broad implications of this issue) Do schools have the rights where do their rights begin and end JAMES What are the rights of the parents where do their rights begin and end JOE 3. Team conclusion- 4. Justify conclusion, why was one side more compelling than the other MIKE 20 min presentation * Construction (4 out of 10 points) * accuracy * COPY OF PPP 3 slides to each page NOTES Metaethics: understanding where do our ethical principles come from Normative: Study of ethical theories Applied ethics: examination of specific controversial ethical issues- practical application Ethics= search for the truth Ethics= what you do when no one is looking Ethics= involves values, honesty, integrity, character, trust & respect Ethics is the study of morality: Ethics is the discipline that examines one’s moral...
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...Joshua Westcott Kohlberg’s Moral Development April 30, 2012 As children’s cognitive abilities mature and expand, so does their ability to reason about moral issues. If we can begin to understand the ways children reason about moral issues, it might help parents and therapists better attune themselves to each child, so as to help each child develop in a positive direction. By attuning to children, the parent or therapist will be better equipped to reason with children at ‘their’ level of development; otherwise, what the adult is trying to communicate will get lost in translation. If we can learn to speak the child’s language, than we can help each child use his or her ‘logic/reasoning’ to effect change in his or her world. Who are the major theorists in the area of moral development? A few of the major theorists in the field of moral development are John Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Elliot Turiel, and Carol Gilligan. Gilligan is a brilliant feminist psychologist who is best known for her 1982 work, “In a Different Voice” (see http://www.amazon.com/In-Different-Voice-Psychological-Development/dp/0674445449/ref=lp_B000APQF3Q_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335926229&sr=1-1). Turiel is best known for developing his ‘domain theory’, which is discussed in his exceptional work, “The Development of Social Knowledge: Morality and Convention” (see http://www.amazon.com/The-Development-Social-Knowledge-Convention/dp/0521273056/ref=lp_B001HD1YF4_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335926449&sr=1-2)...
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...Kohlberg’s Moral Development Linda Jones University of Phoenix Moral development over an individual’s lifespan remains a major topic of interest for psychologists. There are many theories that have been developed over time but one of the most well-known was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg expanded the work of Jean Piaget and modified it to explain moral reasoning and how it develops. While Piaget described a process of moral development that occurred in only two stages, Kohlberg’s theory grew to include six stages within three different levels. Kohlberg proposed three these six stages and three levels that moral reasoning was a process that continued through an individual’s life. Level 1 of Kohlberg’s Moral Development is Preconventional Morality. It contains two stages. The first stage is Obedience and Punishment. This marks the earliest formation of moral development and is typically seen in young children though adults are also able to express this reasoning. In the first stage the individual sees rules as unchanging and absolute. Obeying the rules becomes a top priority because it is the only way to not be punished (Brans & Blu, 1998). The second stage of Level 1 is called Individualism and Exchange. Children begin to account for their own points of view. They also begin to judge actions based on intent as well as how the action serves the individual (Graham, et al., 2011). Reciprocity begins to be an option but only if the individual’s needs are also...
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