Moral Psychology & Philosophy
What is the naturalistic fallacy?
Drawing conclusions about the "Ought" based on the "Is"
What is cognitive disequilibrium?
A cognitive conflict resulting from an imbalance of parts and wholes
Define heteronomous and autonomous moral reasoning
Heteronomous: Following rules out because they come from authority figures
Autonomous: Following rules because you have decided that they are worth following so it comes from within you. Develops by interacting with peers and learning the purpose of rules.
What is the moral orientation of stage 2 reasoning and what are its key characteristics.
Name at least one advantage of the Just-Community Approach over traditional dilemma discussions for moral education.
-Deals with real-life situations rather than hypothetical dilemmas -> more applied
-Encourages autonomous moral reasoning and perspective taking of a variety of people.
-Learning to practice democracy
-Listening to everyone's concerns -> better policies
-Creating community of peers and adults
-Rules more likely to be followed when having played part in setting the rules.
What would utilitarianists determine the right course of action in the Trolley problem?
Whatever it takes to save the greatest number of people.
What is the invariant sequence assumption?
That development always follows the same sequence with no stage skipping or regression
Describe the key limitation of moral realism judgements as compared to moral relativist judgements in Piaget's moral theory.
Moral realism is focused on the consequences and fails to consider intentions behind an action.
What was Kohlberg's central goal when developing the moral stage theory?
Defeating ethical relativism (on psychological grounds)
What is the Blatt Effect?
Moving up one stage on the Moral Stage Model when discussing moral dilemmas over a time period with someone else who is reasoning one stage above theirs
What moral principle is provided by Kant's Categorical Imperative?
An action is only morally just if
-you would want it to become the universal law,
-humans are treated as ends in themselves not means to an end
What is the "received view" of the structured wholeness assumption (structure d'ensemble)?
That once a stage is reached, the individual always operates on that stage across content areas (functional globality).
What is syncretism?
Dominance of the whole over the parts (a cognitive disequilibrium)
What was the dual claim of the moral stage theory?
Higher stages are psychologically/cognitively better (more differentiated, reversible)
Higher stages are morally better (closer to universal ethical principles)
In which setting was the first implementation/trial of the Just-Community Approach? In a great school climate, average school climate, or a poor school climate.
In a climate that can be considered poor. Lots of fights and misbehaviors on school grounds.
Describe the thought experiment "Veil of Ignorance" by John Rawls.
Taking the original position: Involves constructing rules from a prior-to-society perspective and not knowing who you will be in that society based on fixed traits.
What is meant by horizontal decalage?
The finding that individuals do not always use the same thought structure (stage) across different areas of content
What are motor, coercive, and rational rules in children's understanding of the Game of Marbles?
Motor: Purely physical laws (e.g., gravity)
Coercive: Rules learned from authorities (e.g., parents that are regarded as sacred)
Rational: Rules agreed on with peers through mutual consent
What are aretaic moral judgements?
Judgements about the moral worthiness of people or actions.
Name one potential problem of the Just-Community Approach:
-Difficulties for youth transitioning into a Just-Community school from a different school
-Introverted/shy youth may experience difficulties participating in community meetings / voicing their concerns
What is Plato's understanding of human morality?
Moral values are universal, absolute, and exist for their own sake (Idealism)
Humans are inherently moral, no one does evil on purpose. If they are educated through rational means they will come to see the "good"
What did Piaget mean by the concept of relational holism?
That the whole is more than the sum of its parts and that parts and wholes are in a dynamic relationship to one another.
(sometimes parts dominate over the whole or the whole dominates over the parts. Also, wholes at one stage can become parts at a higher stage).
What are two key criticism of social domain theory in Piaget's theory?
-Even young children (age 3) can distinguish between moral rules and conventional rules and thus must have a moral understanding that goes beyond blind obedience to authority.
-Children's moral understanding cannot be understood based on the reasoning and respect of rules that are social-conventional and not moral by nature (e.g., Game of Marbles).
Name the at the time leading psychological paradigm by BF Skinner that Kohlberg found unfit to defeat ethical relativism and explain why.
Behaviorism: Focus on external environmental responses (punishment and reinforcement) in learning and development. External environmental responses are relative to culture and context.
Describe a procedural safeguard Kohlberg implemented in the Just-community approach to counteract the potential issue described as a tyranny of the majority.
Scholastic dispute: Discussion style where one can only make an argument after giving an approved summary of the argument of the other person.
Straw Vote: First round of voting is to get an idea of general opinion, which is followed by an interim discussion, where the voting minority gets the first chance to present their arguments. Only after this interim discussion, the real vote will take place.