Morality Wisdom & Life Span
Developmental Psychology
Chapter 7: Morality, Wisdom and the Life-span
Moral Development and Life-span Research:
-Longitudinal research: expensive, labor-intensive, takes a long time, research gets wrinkled and wither.
-Cross-sectional research: more suitable for research on moral development across the life span.
Definition of "Moral Maturity":
1. What is established in the early years remains more or less fixed throughout life; later experiences may expand this, but it is essentially a cumulative process: maturity is reflected in the range and depth of knowledge and skill the individual has acquired, and how effectively they are used.
2. Development across the life-span is through continual change and transformation; what we know or understand is integrated into successively more complex systems or stages. There is individual variation in the speed and extent of this progression. We expect adults to show more integrated and elaborated morality, but not all adults show equal levels of 'moral maturity'.
3. The life-span has specific 'phases' or 'developmental tasks': these are common to everyone, but they may be negotiated differentially by different individuals: 'maturity' is defined by how successfully the individual negotiates the sequence of life phases.
-Studies of children and adolescents tell us about the processes of moral development, studies of adults can tell us about three things:
(1) Later stages in progress towards moral complexity
(2) 'normal'; adult moral functioning;
(3) 'exceptional' and unusual 'moral maturity' or 'wisdom'.
Ways of Thinking about Moral Development:
Philosophers:
Frankena (1973): Difference bet. deontic theories and aretaic theories.
Deontic Theories: focus on judgments of moral obligation e.g. what we ought to do? how shall we judge what is right? ...etc....
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