Discuss one or more theories of Moral Understanding and evaluate its conclusions Essay Example for Free

Discuss one or more theories of Moral Understanding and evaluate its conclusions Essay The term morality, according to Shaffer (1993) means â€Å"a set of principles or ideals that help the individual to distinguish right from wrong and to act on this distinction. Morality is important to society, as it would not function effectively unless there is some agreement of what is right and wrong. There are many underlying processes and environmental factors, which limit or promote social, cognitive and moral development in children. In modern society, television could be considered to be one of the major influences on a child’s moral development. There are three approaches to moral development; the cognitive approach, the psychodynamic approach and the social learning theory. The Cognitive-Developmental approach of Piaget and Kohlberg studies how children become more able to reason morally and make moral judgements, whereas the Freud’s psychodynamic approach is more concerned with the development of the conscience and moral feelings such as guilt and anxiety. The social learning theory of Bandura and Mischel investigates the development of moral behaviour and how role models in the family, society and the media, influence it. The theory I am going to discuss is Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Approach. His theory of moral development is concerned with how the child’s moral knowledge and understanding change with age. Piaget saw morality as any system of rules, which governs interaction between people. The methods of investigation he used to develop his theories were, he looked at the way children imposed rules in their games. He used games to study the development of children’s moral development as he thought that by studying rules in the context of a game, he could study the child’s spontaneous though directly. He also, assessed changes in the child’s moral judgements by telling hypothetical stories about children who lied, stole or broke something. When using hypothetical stories, Piaget was generally more interested in the reasons why the children give the answers they did and not particularly the answers. Piaget identifies stages of moral development just as he identified stages with cognitive development. His theories of the way children think and their moral reasoning goes through a series of stages, as they are adapting to the world, these are also known as the processes of accommodation and assimilation. He believed that as children’s reasoning about the world changes when they grow older and gain more experience, so does their reasoning about morality. Their ability to think about the world in more complex ways is what causes them to move on from one stage to the next. This is known as cognitive development. Piaget stated that infants don’t understand much about morality until they are about three or four years of age. Their development divides into two main stages after infancy. His stages of moral development are: Pre Moral Stage (up to three or four years) Children don’t understand about rules, and so they don’t make moral judgements Stage of Heteronomous Morality (aged three – six years) Children at this stage think rules are absolute and unchangeable, and the goodness and badness of an action is judged largely on the basis of its consequences rather than by taking intent into account. Stage of Autonomous Morality (from around six or seven) Children at this stage now see rules as more changeable and intentions are taken into account. Children also start to believe that it is possible to break rules and get away with it, whereas earlier they tended to think they will always be found out and possibly punished. Researchers from Europe and America have tested some of Piaget’s theories and have concluded that distinct stages of development do seem to exist however, other research found that children do not see all rules as being equally important as Piaget thought they did. Heteronomous Morality, also known as moral realism, means when the child is subject to another’s laws or rules. Children think that rules must be obeyed no matter what the circumstances. A child at this stage will think that rules are only made by authority figures, such as, parents and teachers. Two other features that are displayed in moral reasoning at this stage are, first they expect bad behaviour to be punished in some way, they believe that the punishment should be expiatory – the wrongdoer must make amends for the crime by paying with some kind of suffering. They have the view that the amount of punishment should match the badness of the behaviour. Secondly, if the bad behaviour goes undetected then the child believes in immanent justice – where any misfortune occurring after the bad behaviour can be seen as a punishment. For example, if a child tells a lie and gets away with it, then later trips and falls, the younger child could consider this as a punishment. In general, they believe punishment should be fair and that wrongdoing will always be punished in some way. Autonomous Morality, which means when the child is subject to one’s own laws and rules. It involves moral relativism whereby the child comes to realise that rules evolve from social relationships. Due to the child ‘decentring’ and their developed ability to think more flexibly about moral issues, they have began to realise it is important to take other people’s opinions into account. At this stage a child will have developed the understanding that sometimes rules of morality can be broken in certain reasonable circumstances. They believe in reciprocal punishment, whereby the punishment should fit the crime. For example, if a child takes another child’s sweets, the first child should be deprived of their sweets or should make it up to the victim in some other way. This is known as the principle of reciprocity. Children will also have learnt at this stage that wrongdoers often avoid punishment, diminishing any belief in immanent justice. They see punishment as a method of making the offender understand the nature of the crime and that punishment is also a deterrent. The move from heteronomous morality to autonomous morality is influenced by two factors. Children around the age of seven begin to move on from the pre operational stage of an illogical and an egocentric way of thinking to more logical and flexible way of thinking, in the operational stage. Their growing awareness that other people have different views allows them to develop more mature moral reasoning. However, moral development lags at least one to two years behind cognitive development because the whole process depends on the cognitive changes occurring first. Kohlberg expanded Piagets theory to form a theory that also explained the development of moral reasoning. While Piaget described a two-stage process of moral development, Kohlberg’s theory outlined six stages within three different levels. Kohlberg extended Piaget’s theory, proposing that moral development is a continual process that occurs throughout the lifespan. A study by Colby et al (1983) criticised Piaget’s assumption that children of ten and eleven years old had reached an adult level of moral reasoning. Piaget was always focusing on what an average child was capable of achieving so he neglected the idea of great variations between the individual child’s ways of thinking. In general, Piaget’s cognitive theory has been criticised for the methods of investigation not being as precise as they could have been. Methods he used were seen as complicated, leading critics to think he under estimated younger children’s capabilities of what they could and could not do. This was because later research went on to conclude that children could actually take other motives into consideration, when they understood what motives were involved. Despite criticism, Piaget’s work is still regarded as a revolutionary step forward in the way we understand how children think. It has led to a much more realistic ways of understanding children’s moral development. Many attempts to test Piaget’s theories from researchers around the world have resulted in acceptance that some of his views and methods do appear to exist.

The Dam Debate :: Environmental John Muir Ecology Essays

The Dam Debate In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, John Muir, a naturalist, and Marsden Manson, an engineer for the city of San Francisco, engaged in a heated debate over the construction of a dam in Hetchy Hetchy Valley. Muir wanted to preserve nature for the future, so he objected to the dam because he felt it would destroy the beauty of the area. On the other hand, Manson believed building a dam would provide water and electricity to the thousands of people who lived in the city of San Francisco, and this would preserve the well being of the human race for the future. Both men had good points and arguments to support their views; however, in the end you have to look out for your own kind. If there is a choice about the well being of the human race or nature, I believe there is only once choice to be made – the future support of the human race. John Muir supported saving Hetchy Hetchy Valley for several reasons. He believed building a dam would close the area to the public and restrict access for people to enjoy the outdoors through camping, hiking, or just getting in touch with nature (Muir). Manson, however, believed that there was more need to provide a future source of water and electricity to the tens of thousands of people who lived in the city during that time (Manson). It is possible that Manson saw the influx of people moving to San Francisco and knew the population would explode over the years and thus, saw the need for preserving some basic essential needs for human survival. He felt that preserving nature for a few hundred people who might go hiking or camping was far less important than preserving the human race. We all know that electricity is not an essential need to survive, because people have lived by fire and candlelight for centuries, but water is essential to survival. Another argument that was discussed was building a dam would exclude the public to the watershed above the dam. This was only partially true because it would only be closed for about three and a half months of the year. Yosemite Valley had been doing this for decades to keep Tuolumne Meadows clean. Closing the area for a brief time as Yosemite Valley does would be for the same reason – to keep the watershed clean.

‘On My First Sonne’ by Ben Johnson and ‘Mother Any Distance’ by Simon Armitage Essay

From reading ‘On My First Sonne’ by Ben Johnson and ‘Mother Any Distance’ by Simon Armitage I can see that both of these poems are based on a parent/ child relationship. There are two main types of relationships one is where two things interact an example of this could be a car on a road. This would show us how us how the two things would fit with each other. The other type of relationship which we could have would be things such as Marriage, by Blood etc. In the Poem Mother Any Distance the relationship in it is both of those two described above because there is a relationship between the two people which is very straight forward who could be measuring and there the close relationship between the mother and son by blood. In Mother Any Distance both of the parties are still alive therefore the relationship between the two parties is able to continue, therefore the relationship between the two is able to change through out their live. Where as in On My First Sonne one of the parties is dead this then leading into a fixed relationship between the two existing in the memory of one. By looking at both of these poems I can see that the structures of these two poems are completely different. When looking at it for the first time you can clearly see that Mother Any Distance has three stanzas where as On My First Sonne there is only one stanza. By reading the poem On My First Sonne the one stanza completely makes sense, but if you just read one stanza in isolation in Mother Any Distance you can get different views about the situation depending on which stanza you read. If you read all three stanzas (as the poet intended), it changes again showing that there is a relationship between the three stanzas. In On My First Sonne you can see that there are rhyming couplets throughout the poem. Whereas in Mother Any Distance there is only two sets of rhyming couplets this is at the end of the first stanza and at the end of the third stanza which seems to finish the poem with a flourish. In this poem I can see that there are internal rhymes some of the lines rhyme and some do not. Old things such as God and fate are used in the poem On My First Sonne. This shows us that this poem is older than Mother Any Distance. In Mother Any Distance things are slightly more modern such as ‘Space Walk’. On My First Sonne there is a lot of rhetorical questions such as ‘ O, could I loose all Father, now.’ There is a use of enjambment in the one poem Mother Any Distance ‘ up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling years between us. Anchor. Kite.’ This is enjambment because you could jus read the line saying ‘ up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling’ this would make perfect sense in which the context it is used in but, if continue to read onto the next line without stopping it still makes sense. Both poems are clearly a conversation between the writer and the subject of the poem. Because, Ben Johnson is talking to his dead son and Simon Armitage is talking to his mother. Mother Any Distance uses a extended metaphor which is the tape measure. The ways in which he is able to do this is by explaining the emotional distance between his mother and himself and by explaining how to measure a room, ‘unreeling years between us’. In My First Sonne there is also a extended metaphor which is the loan of his child from god ‘Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me and I thee pay’. When reading Mother Any Distance I get a powerful image of the son space walking through the empty bedrooms. The language in both of these poems is completely different this could be to the fact that they were completely different people but the main reason is due to the fact that they both lived in completely different worlds. Sonne uses words like ‘yeeres’ and ‘miserie’ which are Middle English words whereas the words in Mother are Modern English words. In Mother Any Distance the words that stood out to me where ‘Anchor. Kite.’ This stood out to me due to the fact that these two items are completely different to each other and sum up the whole poem. The words that stood out the most to me in On My First Sonne were ‘and fleshes rage,’ this caught my eye because the expression ‘fleshes rage’ is more powerful than just using the words growing old. ‘To have so soone scap’d worlds’ quoted in line 7 in On My First Sonne is alliteration. The themes of the poems are the same because they are both writing about their feelings towards a blood relative. They both express their feelings of loss towards someone for whom they feel affection. However in some ways the poems are quiet different this being due to the fact that in ‘On My First Sonne’ Ben Johnson is the father who has lost a blood relative whereas in Mother Any Distance it is the child who is losing a blood relative. The difference being is that Ben Johnson blames himself for the tragic incident because that is generally what parents do, ‘My sinne was too much hope of thee’. Simon Armitage is the child and does not blame anyone for the what is happing he just believes that it is the way of life. On My First Sonne Ben Johnson has no doubt about how he feels about his son whereas in Mother Any Distance Simon Armitage is unsure about how he feels for his mother. Both of these poems don’t really make me feel anything in particular, but I did feel some sympathy for the mother in Mother any Distance. I did feel sympathy because I think that the mother probably didn’t understand how her son was feeling about her. On the other hand I do feel some empathy for Ben Johnson in On My First Sonne this was due to the fact that I have also lost a blood relative in my life. This means that I was able to connect to the poem easily because I was able to put myself in his situation. I hope that my relative has found ‘ Rest In Soft Peace’. I had a preference for Mother Any Distance due to the fact that the language was more modern and was easier for me to understand. This was probably because it was written by a younger person and it was also written a long time after the other poem.

Social Science Essay Dorothy Lee - 1041 Words

In this chapter, Dorothy Lee’s reading gave us a good view of different types of cultures and the personal autonomy of the people .Lee believes that â€Å"the principle of personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework (lee,5) She explores this by comparing our Western society to several north American aboriginal societies. When we think of our society we are only free to do things to a limit. Whether that limit may be good or bad, otherwise our individual autonomy is restricted in this society. The key problem that Dorothy Lee is addressing in this reading is the conflict between individual autonomy and social structure. Lee presents different material from a number of different societies to show â€Å"how the principle of personal†¦show more content†¦When asked why the child’s hair has not been cut, the mom simply replies â€Å"he has not asked to have it cut†(Lee,7). The mother simply would not act without the request of her child. T his belief shows that† the individual shown absolute respect from birth and valued as sheer being for his own uniqueness. When raising a child in this society we find ourselves asking questions like â€Å"to what extent can we allow a child to make his own decision† (lee,2). We have no trust in these kids, whereas in many other societies we know,† it would be presumption for any person to â€Å"allow† another to take what is essentially his prerogative† (lee, 4). The Wintu Indians believe the child should decide for himself. â€Å"It is in the parent’s mentality to give permission or freedom because it is not within their rights to give† (lee, 7) .An example of this would be .There is no time schedule for their children. When a child is hungry, they will feed them, when a child is sleepy, they will put them to sleep. They are showing the respect for the individual’s personal being. The individual is shown absolute respect from birth and valued as sheer being for his own uniqueness. 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