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Kohlberg Moral Development. Moral theory of development, different from previous 3, but based on cognitive development similar to Vygotsy.  Looked at how people developed their morals, and the way moral reasoning changes as people grow.  Also looked at children. He told stories to children and gauged their response. • Most famous story was the Heinz Dilemma, his wife was dying from cancer and drug was discovered made my local chemist that could save her. Chemist charged 10x the price it took to make the drug, and more than Heinz could afford. Only had half the family, so explained to chemist his wife was dying, but chemist refused. He broke into chemist’s office at night and stole the drug. • Asked children questions like what if Heinz didn’t love his wife, if person dying was a stranger, should he have stolen it, and should police arrest chemist for murder if woman died. • After analyzing these, he came up with 3 moral stages, each split into 2. 1. Pre-Conventional (pre-adolescent)  1. Obedience vs. Punishment – reasoning is based on physical consequences of actions, so obeying the rules is a means to avoid punishment.  2. Individualism and Exchange – recognize not just one right view by authorities, different individuals have different viewpoints. 2. Conventional  3. Good Boy and Good Girl - Authority is internalized, but not questioned, and reasoning is based on group person belongs. Individual is good in order to be seen as good by others, emphasis on conformity.  4. Law and Order – maintaining social order, child is aware of wider roles of society and obeying laws. 3. Post-Conventional (moral)  5. Social Contract – Individual becomes aware that even though rules and laws exist for greater good, there are times this law works against interest of particular people. • Ex. for Heinz, is protection of life more important than breaking/stealing? People at this stage said yes.  6. Universal Ethical Principle – people develop own set of moral guidelines, which may or may not fit the law, and principles apply to everyone. People who uphold and believe in these have to be prepared to act towards these even if they have to obey consequences. Very few people who reach this stage, ex. Ghandi. Social Influences. How imitation, roles, reference groups, and culture are all parts of social influence. Imitation – a type of individual social influence, one of most basic forms of social behavior. Begins with understanding there’s difference between others and self.  Andrew Meltzoff questioned theory that understanding between self and others happens soon after birth. Picture baby 12-21 days old, baby copies sticking tongue out. Imitating experimenter.  Was it true imitation or something else? Picture you opening mouth, baby should also open mouth. Had to ensure it wasn’t a reflex or conditioning either.  Suggests we are born with built-in capacity to imitate others.  Evidence suggests we have mirror neurons, when one fires another fires when we observe same action performed by other person. Roles – define what we do and who we are. Social norms are the accepted standards of behavior of a social group, use it to guide our behaviours. We respond to their approval when we play our roles well, and disapproval when we play roles badly. Expect people to behave in way that fits that role, and have them even more when roles are stereotyped.  Ex. Prison experiment. Reference groups – the group to which people refer in evaluating themselves. People’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviours.  Constantly looking for external groups that align with our beliefs/attitudes/behaviours. Influences our social decisions. Culture and socialization – important contributions of society to our personal development, the people and culture in which we live. George Herbert Mead: The I and the Me. Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead both thought others could play a significant role in how we view ourselves, but differed in how they thought this would happen.  Cooley thought everyone a person interacts with in a lifetime influences their identity  Mead thought this was more restricted – only certain people can and only in certain periods of life. Mead developed the idea of social behaviourism, the mind and self-emerge through the process of communicating with others (beginning of symbolic interactionism).  Infants + children were not influenced by others in any way, merely imitate others, and see themselves as being the focus of their own world and don’t care what others think of them. Lack ability to take perspective of another person – related to Piaget’s concept of egocentrism. As we grow up, how others perceive us is more important, 3 stages: 1. Preparatory stage – imitation, ex. play with pots and pans when parents are cooking. As they grow older, focus more on communication with others instead of simple imitation, and get practice using symbols (gestures/words). 2. Play stage – more aware of social relationships, reflected in children’s tendency to pretend role play as others like firefighters, doctors, etc.  Mentally assuming perspective of others and acting based on their perceived point of view. 3. Game stage – Start to understand attitudes/beliefs/behavior of “generalized other” (society as a whole). With this comes whole new understanding of society. Also realize people can take on multiple roles. Also realize others perceive them, and are influenced by these perceptions and are concerned by reactions of others to what they do. But don’t care about reactions of everyone, only significant others (important relationships, ex. parents/teachers/close peers). • Believe this last stage led to development of the “I” and “me”. • Me = how the individual believes the generalized other perceives it, the social self, and the “I” is our response to the “me”. • I = the response of the individual to the “me” aka attitudes of others. • Me = society’s view (that’s me!), the part of self-formed in interaction with others and social environment, and I = individual identity stepping in and our personal responses to what society thinks. • The “I” is the spontaneous and autonomous part of our unified self. Charles Cooley – Looking Glass Self. Socialization describes the process by which people learn the attitudes, behaviours, and values expected by their culture/community.  Can be learned through parents, peers, person at supermarket, celebrity, etc.  Socialization also shapes our self-image, and Charles Cooley used the term “looking glass self” to describe this process – idea that a person’s sense of self develops from interpersonal interactions with others. Thought this happened in 3 steps 1) How do I appear to others? 2) What must others think of me? (shy, intelligent, awkward) 3) Revise how we think about ourselves (based on correct OR incorrect perceptions). Critical aspect of this theory is Cooley believed we are not actually being influenced by opinions of others, but what we imagine the opinions of other people to be.  Ex. Say we have teacher grading paper harshly, and doing it because they think that student has a lot of potential. But student gets paper back, think the teacher did so because student is not very intelligent, and came to conclusion they’re not very good at literary analysis. Might result in student putting less effort into the class.  But can also be influenced by future interactions – student might talk to teacher, and student was able to revise their incorrect perceptions and develop a different perspective.