Psychology Of Moral Development Research Articles

Javanese Traditional Songs for Early Childhood Character Education


 
 
 Character education in early childhood is not new, and character education is also not just a transfer of knowledge, but something that needs to be built early on through various stimula- tions. This study aims to develop the character of early childhood through audio-visual media with traditional Javanese songs. Using educational design-based research to develop audio-visual media from traditional songs, this media was tested in the field with an experimental design with a control group. Respondents involved 71 kindergarten students from one experimental class in one control class. The data revealed that character education in children shows the average value of the experi- mental class is higher than the control group, this means character education in children can be built through traditional songs. Further research can be done to improve the character of early childhood through a variety of media that interests children.
 Keywords: Early Childhood, Character Education, Javanese Traditional Songs Media

DrugsandHugs: Stimulating Moral Dispositions as a Method of Moral Enhancement

AbstractAdvocates of moral enhancement through pharmacological, genetic, or other direct interventions sometimes explicitly argue, or assume without argument, that traditional moral education and development is insufficient to bring about moral enhancement. Traditional moral education grounded in a Kohlbergian theory of moral development is indeed unsuitable for that task; however, the psychology of moral development and education has come a long way since then. Recent studies support the view that moral cognition is a higher-order process, unified at a functional level, and that a specific moral faculty does not exist. It is more likely that moral cognition involves a number of different mechanisms, each connected to other cognitive and affective processes. Taking this evidence into account, we propose a novel, empirically informed approach to moral development and education, in children and adults, which is based on a cognitive-affective approach to moral dispositions. This is an interpretative approach that derives from the cognitive-affective personality system (Mischel and Shoda, 1995). This conception individuates moral dispositions by reference to the cognitive and affective processes that realise them. Conceived of in this way, moral dispositions influence an agent's behaviour when they interact with situational factors, such as mood or social context. Understanding moral dispositions in this way lays the groundwork for proposing a range of indirect methods of moral enhancement, techniques that promise similar results as direct interventions whilst posing fewer risks.

An Analytical Overview of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development in College Moral Education in Mainland China

Kohlberg’s theory of moral cognitive development is temporarily the most influential theory in moral development psychology in the west and is still applied into practice and proved effective by moral theorists and educators all over the world. This paper takes this theory as the basis to analyze some problems existing in college moral education in China. It also suggests effective strategies to improve college moral education in China, i.e. Chinese colleges should reform the mode of moral education to increase students’ moral judgment competence, respect the developmental rules of moral cognition, make full use of the “Zone of proximal development” theory for moral education to develop students’ moral autonomy, attach great importance to “moral regression” period, and guide the Chinese moral education to transit from “teach how to obey” to “teach how to choose.”

Coercion, Stability, and Indoctrination in the Pejorative Sense

John Rawls argued in A Theory of Justice that ‘justice as fairness … is likely to have greater stability than the traditional alternatives since it is more in line with the principles of moral psychology' (TJ 399). In support, he presented a psychology of moral development that was informed by a comprehensive liberalism. In Political Liberalism, Rawls confessed that the argument was 'unrealistic and must be recast' (PL xix). Rawls, however, never provided a psychology of moral development informed by a specifically political liberalism, leaving it at a disadvantage with respect to comprehensive liberalism itself. I argue that no coherent account is available. But, because Rawls’s Liberal Principle of Legitimacy, along with its implied stricture against 'indoctrination in the pejorative sense', is a creature of ideal rather than non-ideal theory, the deficiency is far less significant than many would assume.

Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

At first glance, one of the most obvious places to look for moral progress is in individuals, in particular in moral development from childhood to adulthood. In fact, that moral progress is possible is a foundational assumption of moral education. Beyond the general agreement that moral progress is not only possible but even a common feature of human development things become blurry, however. For what do we mean by ‘progress’? And what constitutes moral progress? Does the idea of individual moral progress presuppose a predetermined end or goal of moral education and development, or not? In this article we analyze the concept of moral progress to shed light on the psychology of moral development and vice versa; these analyses are found to be mutually supportive. We suggest that: moral progress should be conceived of as development that is evaluated positively on the basis of relatively stable moral criteria that are the fruit and the subject of an ongoing conversation; moral progress does not imply the idea of an end-state; individual moral progress is best conceived of as the development of various components of moral functioning and their robust integration in a person’s identity; both children and adults can progress morally - even though we would probably not speak in terms of progress in the case of children - but adults’ moral progress is both more hard-won and to a greater extent a personal project rather than a collective effort.

The Potential Value of the Adoption of an Aristotelian-Centred Communitarian Vocabulary: Facilitating a Character Turn

This article sought to encourage the adoption of novel ethical approaches at the interstice between political and international relations (IR) theory, and character-based approaches in particular. It was argued that though the Fourth Debate has encouraged debate about the ethics of IR theory, surprisingly, character-based approaches have not been discussed, with communitarian and cosmopolitan performative ethics maintaining a conceptual hegemony. The concept of Jus in Bello was nominated for deconstruction since it has traditionally been understood cosmopolitan or communitarian manner based on performative ethic. An Aristotelian vocabulary was adopted in order to deconstruct the concept of Jus in Bello, with Jonathan Haidt's moral psychology, Lawrence Kohlberg's moral development psychology, Immanuel Kant's ethics, and social contract theory all being used to supplement the nominated Aristotelian reading of Jus in Bello. It was concluded that an Aristotelian reading of Jus in Bello is a viable alternative to and hence an Aristotelian vocabulary could be adopted when attempting to understand certain concepts and phenomena at the interstice between political and IR theory.

Ethics, law, and business

Contents: Preface. Part I: Basics of Ethics, Law, and Business. Introduction to Basic Concepts in Ethics, Law, and Business. Law and Jurisprudence. A Primer on Ethics. Psychology of Moral Development. Theories of Distributive Justice. Part II: Social Justice Concerns. Individual Welfare and the Common Good. The Role of Higher Education in a Free Society. Through the Gender Lens. The Ethos of Violence. Part III: Civil Rights. U.S. Civil Rights Years. The Affirmative Action Debate. Media and Free Speech Issues. Current Issues in Freedom of Expression. Part IV: Federal Regulation and Current Workplace Issues. U.S. Business and the Decline of Competition. Rise of Regulation and Corporate Social Responsibility. Workplace Issues I: Employment Versus Personal Dignity. Workplace Issues II: Designing a Better Organization. Part V: The Environment, Wealth, and Success. Environmental Issues. Wealth, Hunger, and Poverty. The Good Life and Its Discontents. Success and the American Dream. Part VI: Appendices. Appendix A1: The Declaration of Independence. Appendix A2: The U.S. Constitution. Appendix A3: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863. Appendix A4: Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Book Review: The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason about Ethics

The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason About Ethics, by Lee Wilkins and Renita Coleman (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005) 162 pages, $19.95The main title of this book might lead those unfamiliar with the authors' work to expect an apologia for media increasingly distrusted by the public. Lee Wilkins of the Missouri School of Journalism and Renita Coleman of Louisiana State University's Manship School of Communication do show that journalists display higher-level ethical reasoning than adults in general as well as in several professional groups. This book, however, does much more than demonstrate that journalists may be more moral than the public perceives. It also provides a concise introduction to the psychology of moral development, a provocative examination of the role visuals play in ethical reasoning, and interesting lessons in research methodology.The book, which includes sections by Seow Ting Lee of the Department of Communication at Illinois State University and Anne Cunningham of LSU, contains 10 chapters centered on a series of studies done by Wilkins, Coleman and Lee on ethical reasoning among journalists and by Cunningham on ethical reasoning among advertising professionals. All but one of these studies used the Defining Issues Test, a paper-and-pencil test of moral development designed by psychologist James Rest in the 1970s. The opening chapters of The Moral Media are usefully devoted to placing the test and the business of determining media professionals' ethics-related thinking into the context of psychology's quest to map moral development.This will be familiar ground for media ethics professors who have used Media Ethics: Issues and Cases (McGraw-Hill, 2001), the textbook written by Wilkins and Philip Patterson, which contains a nice chapter outlining basic ideas on moral development. In The Moral Media, Wilkins and Coleman are able to go deeper, providing a more complete introduction to psychological theories of moral development that will be valuable for mass communication graduate students just beginning to wrestle with media ethics research and, one might hope, a prompt for more interdisciplinary work among established ethics scholars.The heart of The Moral Media, six chapters recounting the execution and results of the studies, also may be familiar to some in journalism and mass communication because reports using some of the data have previously been published in journals or presented at conferences. In this book, however, the authors are able to establish the links and the logical progression among the studies.They start by reporting the quantitative results of a study of 249 journalists, selected through multistage cluster sampling, that found those journalists, on average, use higher-level ethical reasoning than was found in similar studies of nurses, lawyers, veterinary students, orthopedic surgeons, adults in general, accounting auditors and other groups. The journalists were behind only seminarians/philosophers, medical students and practicing physicians. The book then reviews the qualitative data journalists provided when asked to explain their reasoning about the ethical dilemmas presented in the Defining Issues Test. Although reasonable people might quibble with a few of the categorizations of these comments, this section, like any good qualitative study, provides ample evidence from which readers can draw their own conclusions. …

Progress and Prospects in the Psychology of Moral Development

This commentary on the psychology of moral development provides a critical analysis of some important theoretical trends and empirical advances marking past progress and also discusses some future prospects for the field. The primary concern is that contemporary moral psychology suffers from a conceptual skew that is evidenced by a theoretical and empirical focus on moral cognition as applied to interpersonal problems and the consequent inattention to moral personality and other intrapsychic aspects of the domain. A priority for the field is to move beyond single-variable models to ones that specify a more coherent and comprehensive account of moral functioning. Among other things, such accounts should entail a realistic depiction of moral maturity, meaningfully incorporate character traits and virtues, identify early childhood precursors, and address the significance of religion and spirituality in moral functioning. Over the last several decades, the psychology of moral development has rightly come to occupy a position of central concern in the field. The vigorous research activity and scholarly debates reflect the significance of the study of morality both for developmental science and for practical applications to broader society. Morality is important for developmental science because it pervades human functioning; thus, moral psychology is relevant to many different theoretical perspectives, processes, and content areas across developmental psychology. Morality is also obviously important for broader society because it is essential to the human condition; thus, moral psychology has the potential to make vital contributions to parenting, education, corrections, and other areas of intervention. The intent of this commentary is twofold: first, to reflect back at our progress in the psychology of moral development and provide a critical analysis on some

Social justice and moral reasoning: An empirical integration of two paradigms in psychological research

Distributive and procedural justice are of central importance to past and current theories of the psychology of moral development and the social psychology of justice. In order to explicate the relationships among theories, participants responded to both a measure of moral reasoning and a measure of 15 various justice criteria. Analyses showed that each schema of moral reasoning was significantly predicted by different concerns about social justice. Furthermore, individuals' judgments about justice were best represented by four factors, offering a broader definition of justice in relation to moral schemas. The findings were consistent with Kohlbergian theory; moral reasoning appears to proceed from concerns about self-interest to distributive fairness to procedural justice.

David Carr., Educating the Virtues. An Essay on the Philosophical Psychology of Moral Development and Education

David Carr., Educating the Virtues. An Essay on the Philosophical Psychology of Moral Development and Education

Business, Ethics, and Carol Gilligan's “Two Voices”

This article argues that Carol Gilligan's research in moral development psychology, work which claims that women speak about ethics in a “different voice” than men do, is applicable to business ethics. This essay claims that Gilligan's “ethic of care” provides a plausible explanation for the results of two studies that found men and women handling ethical dilemmas in business differently. This paper also speculates briefly about the management implications of Gilligan's ideas.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Old Testament Criticism in the Nineteenth Century: England and Germany. By John Rogerson. The Prophetic Persona: Jeremiah and the Language of the Self (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 32). By Timothy Polk. God's Prophet, Cod's Servant: A Study in Jeremiah and Isaiah 40–55. By John Goldingay. A History of Israel from the Beginnings to the Bar Kochba Revolt, AD 135. By J. Alberto Soggin. The New Testament as Canon: An Introduction. By Brevard S. Childs. Resurrection: New Testament Witness and Contemporary Reflection. By Pheme Perkins. II Corinthians (Anchor Bible 32A). Translation and Commentary by Victor Paul Furnish. Der leidende Gerechtfertigte (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe, 13). By Karl Theodor Kleinknecht. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles: Studies in Chronology. By Gerd Lüdemann, translated by F. Stanley Jones. The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity. By Margaret Barker. Jews and Christians: Graeco‐Roman Views (Cambridge Commentaries on Writings of the Jewish and Christian World 200 BC to AD 200: 6). By Molly Whittaker. The Jewish and Christian World 200 BC to AD 200 (Cambridge Commentaries on Writings of the Jewish and Christian World 200 BC to AD 200: 7). By A.R.C. Leaney. Die stadtrömischen Christen in den ersten beiden Jahrhunderten (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament [2 Reihe] 18). By Peter Lampe. Christian Origins. By Christopher Rowland. The Rise of Christianity. By W.H.C. Frend. Saints and Sinners in the Early Church. By W.H.C. Frend. Pagan Rome and the Early Christians. By Stephen Benko. What Crucified Jesus? By Ellis Rivkin. The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition. By Paul J. Alexander, edited by Dorothy de F. Abrahamse. Die Synoden Englands bis 1066. By Hannah Vollrath. Jewish Bankers and the Holy See. From the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization). By Léon Poliakov, translated by Miriam Kochan. Judaism on Trial. Jewish‐Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization). Edited and translated by Hyam Maccoby. The Jews of Islam. By Bernard Lewis. Human Rights in Jewish Law. By Haim Cohn. Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the Muslims. By Benjamin Z. Kedar. Lefèvre. Pioneer of Ecclesiastical Renewal in France. By Philip Edgcumbe Hughes. The Protestant Reformation in Ireland, 1590–1641 (Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity 34). By Alan Ford. Galileo and his Sources: The Heritage of the Collegio Romano in Galileo's Science. By William A. Wallace. Politics and Language in Dryden's Poetry. By Steven N. Zwicker. The Anglican Tradition. Edited by Richard Holloway. The Anglican Church Today and Tomorrow. By Michael Marshall. Popular Catholicism in Nineteenth‐century Germany. By Jonathan Sperber. The Russian Church under the Soviet Regime 1917–1982. By Dimitri Pospielovsky. Daniel Mannix and Ireland. By Colm Kiernan. The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict. By John F. Pollard. The Vatican, the Bishops and Irish Politics 1919–39. By Dermot Keogh. Martin Buber: A Centenary Volume. Edited by Haim Gordon and Jochanan Bloch Religious Education: Philosophical Perspectives. By John Sealey. The Psychology of Moral Development. By Lawrence Kohlberg. Can Modern War Be Just? By James Turner Johnson. The Tragedy of Political Science: Politics, Scholarship and Democracy. By David M. Ricci. Metaphysics. By D.W. Hamlyn. Metaphysics: Its Structure and Function. By Stephan Körner. Plotinus, Enneads IV and V (Loeb Classical Library). Translated by A.H. Armstrong. Lectures‘chrétiennes’de Nietzsche. By Yves Ledure. Social Classes in Marxist Theory. By Allin Cottrell. Wittgenstein: A Critique. By J.N. Findlay. Erring: A Postmodern A/theology. By Mark C. Taylor. God of Chance. By David J. Bartholomew. Images of Christ: An Introduction to Christology. By Glenn F. Chesnut. Christology: Basic Texts in Focus. By Leopold Sabourin. The Divine Mother: A Trinitarian Theology of the Holy Spirit. By Donald L. Gelpi.

Gilligan and Kohlberg: Implications for Moral Theory

Carol Gilligan's body of work in moral development psychology is of the first importance for moral philosophy.' At the same time certain philosophical commitments within contemporary ethics constitute obstacles to appreciating this importance. Some of these commitments are shared by Lawrence Kohlberg, whose work provided the context for Gilligan's early (though not current) work. I will discuss some of the implicit and explicit philosophical differences between Gilligan's and Kohlberg's outlooks and will then defend Gilligan's views against criticisms which, drawing on categories of contemporary ethical theory, a Kohlbergian can and does make of them. Gilligan claims empirical support for the existence of a moral outlook or orientation distinct from one based on impartiality, impersonality, justice, formal rationality, and universal principle. This impartialist conception of morality, as I will call it, 2 in addition to characterizing Kohlberg's view of morality, has been the dominant conception of morality in contemporary Anglo-American moral philosophy, forming the core of both

The Psychology of Moral Development. Vol. 2: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages. Lawrence Kohlberg

<i>The Psychology of Moral Development. Vol. 2: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages</i>. Lawrence Kohlberg

Book Review: Essays on Moral Development 2: The Psychology of Moral Development

Book Review: Essays on Moral Development 2: The Psychology of Moral Development

The Psychology of Moral Development

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn K. McCrearyJohn K. McCreary, associate professor of psychology, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, maintains: (1) that morality is an emergent, developmental phenomenon and achievement which is dependent on experience and guidance and (2) that an atmosphere of freedom is essential to the growth of responsibility and socially cooperative dispositions. He states the implications of these two ideas with reference to the elementary school and the development of mature individuals.