MINDFULNESS & MORALITY 2: PSYCHOLOGY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

To Christchurch, Clarendon Park Road, this evening for the second session in the course, "Mindfulness & Morality". It's the second of twelve sessions, part two of the "faith-neutral" introductory segment, before handing over to a different faith contributor each week.

Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons (from Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group) devised the course. They  deliver this session jointly, as they did last week. This session is entitled, "The Psychology of Moral Development". Ian and Kevin outline some of the biological, neurological and behavioural aspects of development of the mind and of our moral faculties.

Developmental psychology argues that development occurs in individuals as they interact with their environment. The sub-school of cognitive development involves a change of mental structure as individuals are exposed to a situation, or problem, that stretches their ability to find a satisfactory solution. This process generates cognitive conflict which individuals seek to resolve to restore their equilibrium. Having reached an understanding of the problem and worked out a strategy for its solution, individuals are able to apply the insight gained when similar problems arise, even if the content of the situation is different. this reinforces the new logical structure that has been acquired, or is in the process of acquisition.

Jean Piaget
During the first half of the twentieth century Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist described what he believed to be the first stages through which human beings develop cognitively. These are:

Stage: Sensory-motor (birth-2 years)
Characterised by: Differentiates self from objects; Self as agent of action (acts inentionally); Achieves object permanence.

Stage: Pre-operational (2-7 years)
Characterised by: Language (represent objects by images and words); Egocentric; Simple classification (single feature).

Stage: Concrete operational (7-11 years)
Characterised by: Thinks logically about objects and events; Conservation of number, mass and weight; classification by several features; Order (e.g. by size).

Stage: Formal operational (11 years and up)
Characterised by: Thinks logically about concepts/ideas; Test hypotheses systematically; Concerned with hypotheticals (future, ideology).

Lawrence Kohlberg
In the second half of the twentieth century Lawrence Kohlberg used Piaget's work as the basis for his own research which led to the construction of his six stage theory of moral development. On the basis of this research he asserted that:

1. There are clearly defined stages.
2. The stages are sequential and in an invariant order.
3. There is a statistical tendency for stages to be related to age.
4. People tend to prefer to make judgements at their highest level of attainment.
5. There is a correspondence between cognitive development and development of moral judgment.
6. The existence of formal operational thinking is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for the higher moral stage.
7. Individuals can "role play" the stage below their level, but not above.
8. Individuals have no comprehension of arguments that are two stages above their level.
9. People can be pushed up by one stage at a time.

Kohlberg's six stages
The Pre-Conventional Level
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation (How can I avoid punishment?)
Right is blind obedience to rules and authority, avoiding punishment and not doing physical harm
Stage 2: Self-interest orientation (What's in it for me?)
Right is serving one's own or others' needs and making fair deals in terms of concrete exchange.

The Conventional Level
Stage 3: Interpersonal accord and conformity (Social norms or the good boy/good girl attitude)
Right is playing a good (nice) role, being concerned about other people and their feelings, keeping loyalty and trust with partners and being motivated to follow rules and expectations.
Stage 4: Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality)
Right is doing one's duty in society, upholding the social order and welfare of society or the group.

The Post-Conventional Level
Stage 5: Right is upholding the basic rights, values and legal contracts of a society, even when they conflict with the concrete rules and laws of the group.
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)
Right is being guided by universal self-chosen ethical principles which all humanity should follow. the principles are justice, equality of human rights and respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.

James Rest and the Defining Issues Test (DIT)
The DIT uses a numerical scale to give quantitative rankings to a number of moral dilemmas, the data from which are then analysed to produce information about three areas of moral reasoning the Personal Interests Schema, the Maintaining Norms Schema and the post-conventional Schema. This test updates the original that was used to assess the transition of moral development from adolescence to adulthood. The new DIT has been dubbed "Neo-Kohlbergian" as it emphasises cognition, personal construction, development and post-conventional moral thinking, drawing on the work by Lawrence Kohlberg and his stages of moral development.

As was the case last week, we're given an activity in the second half of the session, to help us focus on relevant moral issues.

Andrew's Dilemma

Andrew worked in the development laboratories of a well known pharmaceutical company. The organisation was developing a pain-killing drug which would greatly improve the quality of life of chronic pain sufferers such as those suffering with arthritis and spinal complaints.

Andrew's job was to inject rats with a pain-inducing substance and then administer the pain-killing drug in controlled doses. He did not enjoy this aspect of his work, however, he felt that the expected end justified the means.

One day the head of Andrew's department informed him of the plan to accelerate the development by using chimpanzees for the tests. He promised Andrew a good increase in salary if he could conclude his testing programme on the apes within three months.

Andrew sat at his bench and loo0ked into the intelligent, accusing eyes of the chimps. He was saving up to get married and the final goal was a good one.

(Quoted from Assignments in Business Studies by Commons, Greensmith and Moore - McGraw-Hill Book Company (UK) Ltd, 1983)

Activities

In a small group you will be asked to address the following questions:

"What is the moral dilemma facing Andrew?"

"What should he do? Should he undertake the new programme?"

"Why, why not? Give your reactions and share your feelings about the case."

I won't be attending next week's session. I'm giving a presentation to the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire at County Hall, Glenfield, on "Religion and the Media" with Nick Carter and John Florance. I've made a general appeal for guest blogging of next Monday's session here (which might be put together from notes taken by more than one person).

In the photo above: Barbara Butler and Beatta Dehner, two of the mainstays of Christians Aware, sponsors of this course.