Chapter 17: Moral Development ⚖️
Moral Development ⚖️
- Children learn right vs wrong based on social/cultural norms, rules, laws 🏫👨👩👧
- Parents teach children to distinguish right from wrong
- Studied scientifically since 1950s 🔬
Piaget's Theory of Moral Reasoning 🧠
- Moral reasoning develops by interacting with others, not just following rules 🤝
- Young children: focus on consequences ("moral realism") ⚡
- Older children: focus on motives, fairness, cooperation 🤔
- Four stages:
- Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs): explores world with senses; reflex-based learning 👶👋
- Pre-Operational (2-7 yrs): symbolic thinking, language, intuitive thought 🗣️🎨
- Concrete Operational (7-11 yrs): logic, abstract ideas like love, pain, happiness ❤️💔
- Formal Operational (11+ yrs): abstract thinking, values, "shades of gray"; ignoring others’ rights → aggression ⚖️
- Moral reasoning needs formal operations; awareness of others’ rights prevents violence ✋
Bio-Psychological Model 🧬
- Crime linked to genetics and biological predispositions; environment can help or hinder 🌱
- Traits increasing crime risk:
- Low constraint: impulsive, risk-taking, little concern for others ⚡
- Negative emotionality: easily upset, quick to anger, aggressive 😡
- Extreme view: criminals "uncorrectable"; severe punishments suggested ⚖️
Attachment Theory 💞
- Early attachment with parents/caregivers shapes emotions, empathy, and behavior 🍼
- Trauma or abuse can numb emotions → cold-blooded violence 🥶
- Attachment styles:
- Secure: protests separation, accepts comfort, explores 🏃♂️💖
- Avoidant: little distress, ignores parent, explores independently 🚶♀️
- Ambivalent: distressed, inconsistent responses, stressed easily 😰
Adler’s Model 🌟
- Humans driven by will to power and growth 🌱
- Sexual crimes may express will to power, not desire ⚡
- Inferiority complex → overcompensation → aggression 😤
- Superiority complex → domination, vanity, unrealistic expectations 👑
- Birth order affects development; childhood experiences shape behavior 🍼➡️👦
- Key: inferiority, superiority, will to power, crimes as expression of power
Michel Foucault’s Model 🏛️
- Criticized social institutions: schools, prisons, psychiatry, medicine
- Society punishes differences; enforces conformity ⚖️
- Schools and prisons similar: structured, control, punish noncompliance 🏫🔗
- Mental institutions and psychology enforce conformity
- Key: societal intolerance, compliance, structured control, similarity of institutions
| Key Concepts | Highlights |
|---|---|
| Moral Development | Learned from social norms; studied since 1950s |
| Piaget's Theory | Jean Piaget (1896-1980): four stages; formal operations prevent aggression |
| Bio-Psychological Model | Genetics, low constraint, negative emotionality increase crime risk |
| Attachment Theory | Early bonds shape empathy; trauma leads to violence |
| Adler’s Model | Alfred Adler (1870-1937): inferiority/superiority complexes, will to power |
| Foucault’s Model | Michel Foucault (1926-1984): societal control, conformity in institutions |