Showing papers on "Social cognitive theory of morality published in 1989"

Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract: Current theoretical accounts of learning view students as active seekers and processors of information (Bandura, 1986; Pintrich, Cross, Kozma, & McKeachie, 1986). Learners’ cognitions can influence the instigation, direction, and persistence of achievement-related behaviors (Brophy, 1983; Corno & Snow, 1986; Schunk, 1989; Weiner, 1985; Winne, 1985). Research conducted within various theoretical traditions places particular emphasis on students’ beliefs concerning their capabilities to exercise control over important aspects of their lives (Bandura, 1982; Corno & Man-dinach, 1983; Covington & Omelich, 1979; Rotter, 1966; Weiner, 1979).

Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective

Abstract: Introduction.1. The Self-Defeating Nature of Immoral Business Practice.Introduction Immoral Actions Are Based on Self-Defeating Maxims Inconsistency and Immorality Applications to BusinessIt Seems Right in Theory But Does It Work in Practice?Objections to the Application of Kantian Ethics to BusinessExtending the Reach of Categorical Imperatives: Pragmatically Inconsistent MaximsWhy Neither Being Trustworthy nor Not Trusting in Business Involves a Pragmatic Contradiction.Transition to Chapter 22. Treating the Humanity of Stakeholders as Ends rather than as Means Merely.IntroductionThe Respect for Persons PrincipleNot Using Employees: Neither Coercion nor DeceitBusiness Practices That Reduce or Remove Coercion and DeceptionAn Objection and RepliesPositive Freedom ad Meaningful Work: Respecting the Humanity in a PersonKant's Reflection s on WorkMeaningful Work and Contemporary Business3. The Firm as a Moral Community.IntroductionViewing Organizations and Human NatureCreating the Kantian Moral Firm: The Kingdom of Ends Formulation of the Categorical ImperativeThe Principles of a Moral FirmImplications for Organizational Studies4. Acting from Duty: How Pure a Motive.IntroductionKant's Position on the Purity of Moral MotivesStrategic Payoffs and Moral MotivesReasons and Emotions: A Brief AsideMultiple Moral Motives5. The Cosmopolitan Perspective.IntroductionThe Morality of the MarketInternational Business Can Contribute to World Peace, Universal Rights, and DemocracyObjections and RepliesConclusionBibliographyFurther ReadingIndex

The Moral Muteness of Managers

Abstract: This article examines the pervasive reluctance of managers to talk about moral issues of business in ethical terms. It examines several factors that give rise to this avoidance of moral talk, or "moral muteness." Moral talk is perceived by many business people as constituting threats to organizational harmony, to managerial effectiveness, and to their own images of power. Moral muteness, in turn, creates several long-term costs for managers, including moral amnesia about ethical dimensions of business practice, moral stress for individual managers, neglect of moral abuses, and decreased authority for ethical standards. This article concludes with a series of recommended interventions to reduce these problems.

Stories Told and Lessons Learned: Toward a Narrative Approach to Moral Development and Moral Education

Abstract: The telling of stories in moral education has a long and universal tradition. In the study of moral development, however, the uses and power of narrative in both forming and conveying a moral sense have been largely ignored. Mark Tappan and Lyn Brown argue that narrative is central to the study as well as to the teaching of morality, and that acknowledgment of authorship of moral choices, actions, and feelings marks the endpoint of the development of moral sensibility. Children's storytelling, they believe, creates authorship when the audience is responsive and the story told represents real experience. By presenting thoughtful and challenging evidence for the role of storytelling, these authors represent a perspective much needed in the field of moral development.

An empirical study of moral reasoning among managers

Abstract: Current research in moral development suggests that there are two distinct modes of moral reasoning, one based on a morality of justice, the other based on a morality of care. The research presented here examines the kinds of moral reasoning used by managers in work-related conflicts. Twenty men and twenty women were randomly selected from the population of first level managers in a Fortune 100 industrial corporation. In open-ended interviews each participant was asked to describe a situation of moral conflict in her or his work life. The results indicated a clearly preferred mode of moral reasoning among the participants who described moral conflicts. Nearly all of these predominated with a justice orientation. These findings suggest that a correlation between gender and preferred mode may be context specific.

Investigative journalism and the moral order

Abstract: In this essay, we examine the cultural consequences of a press that seeks to be both a detached observer of fact and a “custodian of conscience.” Drawing upon interviews with distinguished investigative journalists, we examine the diverse ways that these reporters have found to work within, but never resolve, the tension between objectivity and adversarialism. We also examine the particular contribution of investigative journalists to moral order within their communities (i.e., the “objectification” of standards by which the public can make moral judgments). In conclusion, we argue that this sort of journalism may oversee the reinforcement and relegitimation of enduring or dominant moral values but that it may also preside over the definition and development as well as the debasement and dissolution of those values.

Domain-Specific Social Judgments and Domain Ambiguities.

Abstract: A domain-specific approach to social judgments is presented. Epistemologica! is sues are considered that are informed by identifying and defining domain boundaries. It is proposed that analyses of systems of knowledge are necessary for study of development and behavior. Research is reviewed in support of a model including moral, social-conventional, and psychological concepts, as well as a distinction between conceptual and informational knowledge. Criticisms of the domain approach are considered. Some criticisms are based on the miscon ception that examples of category mixture invalidate domain demarcations. Other criticisms are addressed through propositions regarding the role of domain-specificity in analyses of cultural influences.

On Moral Personhood: Philosophy, Literature, Criticism, and Self-Understanding

Abstract: In this remarkable blend of sophisticated philosophical analysis and close reading of literary texts, Richard Eldridge presents a convincing argument that literature is the most important and richest source of insights in favor of a historicized Kantian moral philosophy. He effectively demonstrates that only through the interpretation of narratives can we test our capacities as persons for acknowledging the moral laws as a formula of value and for acting according to it. Eldridge presents an extensive new interpretation of Kantian ethics that is deeply informed by Kant's aesthetics. He defends a revised version of Kantian universalism and a Kantian conception of the "content" of morality. Eldridge then turns to literature armed not with any "a priori "theory but with an interpretive stance inspired by Hegel's phenomenology of self-understanding, more or less naturalized, and by Wittgenstein's work on self-understanding as ongoing narrative-interpretive activity, a stance that yields Kantian results about the universal demands our nature places on itself. Eldridge goes on to present readings of novels by Conrad and Austen and poetry by Wordsworth and Coleridge. In each text protagonists are seen to be struggling with moral conflicts and for self-understanding as moral persons. The route toward partial resolution of their conflicts is seen to involve multiple and ongoing activities of reading and interpreting. The result of this kind of interpretation is that such literature literature that portrays protagonists as themselves readers and interpreters of human capacities for morality is a primary source for the development of morally significant self-understanding. We see in the careers of these protagonists that there can be genuine and fruitful moral deliberation and valuable action, while also seeing how situated and partial any understanding and achievement of value must remain. "On Moral Personhood" at once delineates the moral nature of persons; shows various conditions of the ongoing, contextualized, partial acknowledgment of that nature and of the exercise of the capacities that define it; and enacts an important way of reading literature in relation to moral problems. Eldridge's work will be important reading for moral philosophers (especially those concerned with Kant, Hegel, and issues dividing moral particularists from moral universalists), literary theorists (especially those concerned with the value of literature and its relation to philosophy and to moral problems), and readers and critics of Conrad, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Austen."

The value of cognitive foundations for dynamic social theory

Abstract: It is possible to develop models of social behavior that are predicated on detailed mechanical models of cognition. Cognitively based social models are potentially unified theoretical frameworks that can be used to explain a wide variety of social phenomena. Moreover, if a knowledge representation scheme and a knowledge acquisition scheme are specified in the underlying cognitive model then it is possible to produce a dynamic social model. The resulting social model can thus be used to predict and explain not only conditions for specific behaviors but changes in those behaviors over time. Constructuralism is a theory of social behavior that rests on a cognitive model. The cognitive model specified has a knowledge representation scheme, knowledge acquisition procedures, and control procedures for shifting cognitive attention. The resulting social model is a dynamic model that can be used to explain both conditions for the occurrence of a behavior and social and individual changes that accrue do to a series...

The uses of moral talk: Why do managers talk ethics?

Abstract: When managers use moral expressions in their communications, they do so for several, sometimes contradictory reasons. Based upon analyses of interviews with managers, this article examines seven distinctive uses of moral talk, sub-divided into three groupings: (1) managers use moral talk functionally to clarify issues, to propose and criticize moral justifications, and to cite relevant norms; (2) managers also use moral talk functionally to praise and to blame as well as to defend and criticize structures of authority; finally (3) managers use moral talk dysfunctionally to rationalize morally ambiguous behavior and to express frustrations. The article concludes with several practical recommendations.

Why Be Moral

Abstract: Noted philosopher Kai Nielsen offers an answer to this fundamental question - a question that reaches in to grasp at the very heart of ethics itself. Essentially, this innocent inquiry masks a confusion that so many of us get caught in as we think about moral issues. We fail to realise that there is a difference between judging human behaviour within an ethical context, or set of moral principles, and justifying the principles themselves. According to Nielsen, it is precisely this basic muddle that has spawned all sorts of challenges to morality, from relativism and institutionism to egoism and scepticism.Nielsen first argues the case for these challenges in the strongest possible terms; then he shows that their failure to establish themselves demonstrates a fundamental flaw - an inability to understand what it means to have good reasons for the moral claims we make. In his search for "good reasons" Nielsen must face the innocent question "Why be moral?" He tries to show us that skirmishes among supporters of specific moral principles require a different sort of resolution than those that occur between groups of ethical principles. Justifying an action within a moral point of view is quite different from making the case for having a moral point of view in the first place.

Rethinking moral reasoning theory.

Abstract: Many nursing studies on moral reasoning and ethics have used Kohlberg's theory of moral development. The body of knowledge that resulted from these studies indicated that nurses and nursing students had consistently lower than expected levels of moral reasoning. Educational offerings were developed to assist nurses to improve their moral reasoning. This article explores the cognitive-developmental theory of moral development as one way of determining the moral development of nurses. Since this theory of moral reasoning focuses on the rational thought of the individual and does not consider the impact of the environment, it is of limited applicability in nursing. A new theory of morality needs to be developed--a more holistic one that will include both universal principles and contextual tissues.

Sexual attitudes and moral values: The importance of idealism and relativism

Abstract: The present study tested a model of individual differences in moral thought, which assumes that attitudes concerning prescribed and proscribed social actions are part of an integrated conceptual system of personal ethics. When individuals who have varying personal moral philosophies were compared, those who emphasize the validity of fundamental moral principles (nonrelativists) expressed relatively negative attitudes about proscribed forms of sexual behavior, whereas relativists’ reactions were more positive. The impact of relativism on attitudes, however, was tempered by idealism: when individuals endorsed highly idealistic ideologies, relativism was unrelated to attitudes. These findings suggest that variations in sexual attitudes are linked to individual differences in moral outlook.

Moral theory for social work

Abstract: This article focuses on the need to develop ethical theory appropriate to the moral nature of social work practice. Common ethical theories originating in the traditions of philosophy are considered to be limited as guides to practice decisions. Instead, a perspective is proposed in which caring is recognized as a primary underlying good, a good integrally related to justice which has consistently been recognized as a professional value in social work. Feminist thought and virtue theory are discussed as resources in this effort to clarify these issues which are seen to be embedded in the nature of practice itself.

Morality: A New Justification of the Moral Rules

Abstract: This book is a substantial revision (thus the new title) of the author's earlier book The Moral Rules , first published in 1970. In the new version, Gert develops a complete moral theory whose core is an analysis of morality as impartial rationality and from which he derives a substantive moral system. There is space to give only the barest outline of his moral theory and system. He conceives of morality as a public system applying to all rational persons and whose goal is the minimization of evil. Gert rejects common accounts of rationality as merely instrumental and instead defines it in terms of a substantive definition of goods and evils. Evils are what all rational persons desire to avoid for themselves and others they care about and are specifically death, pain, disability, and loss of freedom or pleasure. Goods are what no rational person will avoid without a reason and

The Voices in Children's Literature: The Impact of Gender on the Moral Decisions of Storybook Characters.

Abstract: The study examined the moral and self orientations of 212 male and female characters in 50 works of fiction for school-aged children. A modified version of Lyons' coding scheme was used for differentiating between Justice and Care moral orientations, and Separate/Objective and Connected self orientations. It was hypothesized that male characters would demonstrate Justice morality and a Separate/Objective self, whereas female characters would demonstrate Care morality and a Connected self, regardless of sex of author. The results confirmed the hypotheses. The importance of literature in providing symbolic models of moral decisioning and the need to expand children's moral orientations beyond gender-linked stereotypes was discussed.

Neutrality and Commitment in Teaching Moral and Social Issues in a Multicultural Society

Abstract: Much has been written about the value of procedural neutrality in teaching controversial social issues. Although the paper recognises the value of some of the objectives of procedural neutrality, it nevertheless questions the relevance of this procedure in teaching social issues relating to racial or sexual discrimination, which the paper sees as essentially moral issues. These moral issues are seen to be relevant and, therefore, universalisable to everyone. Consequently, a teacher who is committed to educate must also be committed to the fundamental values of justice, fairness and respect for others. The paper concludes by suggesting procedures whereby these values could be taught to pupils. it is a condition of the existence of any human community, that certain expectations of behaviour on the part of its members should be pretty regularly fulfilled: that some duties . . . should be performed, some obligations acknowledged, some rules observed . . . the sphere of morality . . . is the sphere of the obse...

Can ethics take pluralism seriously

Abstract: Est, there can be no serious question that we live in a world marked by a plurality of moral perspectives. There is profound disagreement regarding the morality of euthanasia, abortion, embryo research, and the use of neocortical (or higher brain centers) oriented definitions of death. Even if we conceded that many (perhaps even most) individuals wish through political structures to realize such societal goals as liberty, equality, security, and prosperity, there is still a dramatic disagreement about how to rank these goals or integrate our concerns regarding them. Individuals and groups disagree regarding their vision of a good society and of good health care. There is a real pluralism with regard to many, if not most, important ethical and bioethical issues. For example, whether embryo research is viewed with moral horror or as a promising technique will depend on the moral community or vision within which the question is considered. Pluralism and relativism are indisputable sociocultural realities. Second, there appears to be no philosophical deliverance from much of the pluralism and relativism that constitutes our contemporary condition. We cannot identify a particular understanding of a hypothetical decisionmaker, an ideal observer, a rational decisionmaker, rational preferences, or the proper ranking of consequences such as liberty, equality, security, and prosperity without begging the fundamental question: How do we establish in general secular terms a particular moral viewpoint as generally morally canonical? To identify the correct moral sense (or ranking of values), we need already to have a guiding moral sense (or ranking of values). The serious question is thus not whether we should accept a circumstance stance of pronounced pluralism in which moral relativism appears triumphant, but whether any other choice can be defended in general secular moral terms. This is an intellectual question, for we must recognize that the religiously or politically passionate may out of frustration abandon the niceties of rational argument and resort to the use of coercive force, including the coercive force of a political majority. Our central cultural challenge is to establish in general secular terms a commonly acknowledgeable basis for moral constraints on our actions. The modem as opposed to the medieval moral assumption was that we can through rational argument secure a secular surrogate for the Christian God, and through rational argument alone justify the general lineaments of Western morality. If anything characterizes the post-modern period, it is the loss of this pretense. As Alasdair Maclntyre has observed, we are left with conflicting moral intuitions and conclusions severed from the particular moral communities and arguments that originally supported them. There is only one deliverance from nihilism, unconstrained relativism, and pluralism, when moral strangers (individuals who do not participate in a common moral vision) meet in a noncoercive society. If they cannot appeal to God or reason to provide a secular deliverance, then they must rely on what is implicit in the practice of secular ethics as the commitment to resolving moral controversies without a primary appeal to force: mutual respect in the process of negotiating points of collaboration. …

Moral Education as Grounded in Faith

Abstract: Inquiry into the grounding of moral education inevitably raises questions of the relation of morality and religion. To break through this perplexing issue, it is helpful to shift conceptual ground and focus on moral education as grounded in faith. Consistent with Cantwell Smith and Tillich, faith can be understood as that which is of ultimate concern, that which is the focus of trust and commitment. Kohlberg's theory is examined in this essay as a test case for the claim that moral education is grounded in faith. It is argued that a pre‐reflective acceptance of the intrinsic worth of persons represents the convictional core of Kohlberg's theory. The worth of persons is accepted by Kohlberg not as a conclusion of reason, but as an article of faith. This convictional core lends a radically human‐centered thrust to Kohlberg's theory, and brings it into varying degrees of tension with orientations which operate from a differing convictional core. If it makes sense to regard moral education as grounde...

Situational Effects on the Decisions of Adolescent Offenders to Carry Out Delin-quent Acts. Relations to Moral Reasoning,Moral Goals, and Personal Constructs

Abstract: Society has an obvious interest in understanding the individual and situational factors which contribute to delinquent behavior in adolescents. The present study, of largely cognitive and social psychological orientation, investigates a variety of such factors in two groups of adolescent boys — the one consisting of boys with overt problems of delinquency, and the other of boys not known to possess such problems. The aspects of behavior examined include moral reasoning and moral development level, goal priorities and values, the manner of evaluating the wrongness of various delinquent acts, the personal constructs used in assessing significant others, the readiness to carry out delinquent acts of various types, and the dependence of this on situational factors. The study’s point of theoretical departure is the question of the applicability to delinquent behavior of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (Kohlberg, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1984; Kohlberg . Freundlich, 1973; Kohlberg, Levine . Hewer, 1983). Various of the factors other than moral development level considered here are ones, of seeming relevance to delinquent behavior, about which Kohlberg’s theory has relatively little to say or which work within the framework of his theory has tended to neglect.

Justice and Caring and the Problem of Moral Relativism: Reframing the Gender Question in Ethics.

Abstract: The relatively recent addition of women's voices to the study of moral development has led to the postulation of two separate moral contexts defined by gender, each with its own dominating concerns; guiding principles, forms of reasoning and hypothetical end point. While many developmental theorists agree that mature moral reasoning entails some sort of integration of these two perspectives, the exact nature of that reconciliation is a matter of considerable speculation and debate. This paper begins with the premise that the mark of a moral developmental model's philosophical adequacy is its handling of the problem of moral relativism. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of the justice and caring approaches in regulating the contextual relativism inherent in genderized moralities. And it concludes by proposing that only by reframing the gender question in broader, teleological terms than present theories have attempted can the problem be resolved.

Moral justification of acts judged to be morally right and acts judged to be morally wrong

Abstract: In Kohlberg's approach the person's stage of moral development is inferred from the quality of the justifications offered for a moral choice regardless of which course of action is judged as the morally correct. This may imply that moral choice is independent of level of moral reasoning. The study under report suggests otherwise. When subjects offered justifications for alternative courses of action in a moral dilemma, these justifications were of a higher level of moral reasoning when the act was in accord with the subject's own choice than when it was not. This was obtained despite the fact that moral choice and moral reasoning appeared to be independent across individuals. This finding suggests that although moral choices may not evidence a developmental ordering similar to that found for moral reasoning, these choices are probably ranked for each individual in terms of the level of moral reasoning that can be marshalled in their support, and this ordering affects moral decision.

Moral and Social Education

Abstract: Publisher Summary Kohlberg's theory of moral development has generated intense professional interest in moral and social education. Adolescence is a fertile period for intervention because much of a child's moral development can be expected to occur during this part of the lifespan. During adolescence, a child begins to engage in conventional levels of moral reasoning, and the goal of interventions is to motivate this development and to consolidate developmental gains. This chapter discusses the recent developments in moral and social education. It also explores recent research on the plus-one convention, transactive discussion, and moral atmosphere approaches to moral education. The chapter highlights a number of issues in the fields of moral and social education. Recent research offers no consensus on what constitutes optimal stage disparity in plus-stage interventions, the optimal duration for effecting structural change, or the form of the intervention. Recent emphasis on transactive moral discussion suggests that communication skills may be an important precondition for advancing moral thought in plus-stage interventions.