DIT and Components
What does it mean to have "high" moral motivation
Prioritizing moral values over competing personal motives when making a decision on how to act.
According to Gilligan, in what way are traditional theories in Developmental Psychology biased?
Gender bias: Oriented towards male development.
How does SDT define morality?
The basis of morality is in trying not to harm other people
What moral domain (cogntive, emotional, behavioral) is Hoffman's theory primarily focused on?
Emotional domain.
Define Moral identity:
The extent to which moral values are central to one's self-concept, are significant to oneself
Provide an example of a qualitative interview question and one disadvantage of qualitative research methods
Examples:
-Open ended questions with no pre-defined response options
Disadvantages:
-less objective, more difficult to code, can be more demanding for participant
What is Gilligan's common methodological criticism of the research conducted by Piaget and Kohlberg?
Piaget and Kohlberg developed their theories initially from observations of male participants.
-Piaget (Game of Marbles mostly played by males)
-Kohlberg (Dissertation research only included males)
Name two differences between moral and social-conventional rules
Moral: issues of harm, Universal, Inflexible, intrinsic force
Conventional: norms and standards, context-specific, flexible, extrinsic force
Define cognitive and affective (emotional) empathy
Cognitive empathy: Perspective - taking, understanding the feelings, emotions of others
Affective (emotional) empathy: Vicarious experience of the emotions of others
Judgements on whether one is responsible for actually performing the behavior that was determined to be morally right.
How does the empirical evidence from the DIT differ from the traditional method?
DIT (being a preference-rating task) yields higher prevalence of postconventional reasoning.
What did Walker's thorough review on gender differences in moral reasoning show?
Gender differences are exceedingly rare. Studies showing gender differences are divided in whether males or females score on average higher on moral judgement interview.
What is a mixed domain issue? Provide an example
Issues that are classified differently by different people.
Explain the inductive parenting technique
Parental messages that prompt perspective taking and help child draw causal connections.
Define moral disengagement and give an example
Moral disengagement - Convincing oneself that moral standards do not apply to oneself in a particular situation.
What are Rest's three phases in the acquisition of a new stage?
1. Indicating preference for stage-prototypic statements
2. Being able to elaborate stage-prototypic statements presented by others to demonstrate understanding
3. Being able to spontaneously articulate the reasoning statement.
What was Gilligan's issue with Kohlberg's hypothetical dilemma interview method?
Pull for a justice orientation by requiring a detached perspective. No possibilities to fill in blanks and understand relationships between protagonists?
How do SDT findings compare with Piaget's claim of children's heteronomous morality?
Children seem to understand rule violations not only based on external consequences
Describe one way how parental nurturance (warmth and support) promotes child empathy.
-Providing a secure base from which other-oriented concern is easier
-Promotes internal working models of positive social expectations
-More attentive to parental guidance
How do schemas become chronically accessible?
Frequent activation
Schemas represent our preferences, experiences, what matters most to us.
How can a strong moral identity increase moral sensitivity?
Through chronically accessible moral schemas that readily come to mind when encountering situations with ethical nuances.
How did Kohlberg respond to Gilligan's criticism?
Acknowledged that "moral" can have two meanings. One concerned with justice (impartiality, universlizability), the other concerned with care (acting responsibly).
Emphasized that both are not alternatives but can exist together.
What are the Piagetian roots of Social Domain Theory?
Domain-specific knowledge is developed from children's active interactions with the environment.
Explain Paul Bloom's main criticism that empathy is a poor moral guide.
It is biased towards the "here and now" and interferes with cost-benefit analysis.
What is the difference between a concrete vs. abstract moral identity?
Concrete: Setting specific goals that can eventually be completed
Abstract: Having a general goal to always adhere to one's values.