Cross Cultural: Chapter 13

Ethic of community

*2nd code of ethics *emphasizes that individuals have duties that conform with their roles in a community or social hierarchy. *According to this code, there is an ethical principle to uphold one's interpersonal duties and obligations towards others. *Immoral behaviors are perceived as those that involve a failure to live up to the duties and obligations associated with one's roles. *defines moral agents in terms of their social groups and views moral obligations as stemming from the individuals memberships in those groups, seems to characterize all religious orientations, regardless of whether one is more orthodox or progressivist.

Ethic of divinity

*3rd code of ethics *Concerned with sanctity and the perceived "natural order" of things. *This code contains the ethical principle that one is obligated to preserve the standards mandated by transcendent authority. *It involves a beliefe that God (gods) has created a sacred world, and everyone's obligation is to respect and preserve the sanctity of this world. *In this ethic, actions are seen as immoral if they cause impurity or degradation to oneself or others, or it one shows disrespect for Gods or God's creation.

Evolutionism

*3rd perspective on cultural variation. *Maintains that cultural variability reflects genuine differences in psychological processes. *Also, maintain that there really is only one way that the mind has evolved to think. *Maintains that some ways of thinking are more mature or advanced than others, and people of different cultures would all think in the same ways once they reach the same point of development or participated in a cultural context that allowed for the full expression of the mind's capabilities. *Tends to be met with the most resistance by cultural psychologists because of concerns about whether one can objectively identify a standard for evaluating a psychological phenomenon.

Cross cultural evidence for kohlberg's model

*Cross-cultural research results indicated some universality in moral reasoning. *In all cultural groups there were adults who reasoned at conventional levels, and in no cultural groups did the average adult reason at the preconventional level, although many samples of children revealed evidence of preconventional reasoning. *Evidence on postconventional reasoning was not universally found. *An evolutionist interpretation of this pronounced cultural difference is that the traditional societies do not provide the educational experiences necessary for their members to reason about justice and individual rights in post conventional terms. *A relativist interpretation-would emphasize that urban Western environments are one kind of environment and tribal environments are another kind of environment, and that people develop a moral framework that best fits their environment. *A lack of reasoning about justice and individual rights among tribal and folk populations suggests to the relativist that there might be different categories of moral reasoning that are missing from Kohlberg's framework.

Level 2: The Conventional Level

*Follows the conventions of others and society 1) Stage 3: Interpersonal accord and conformity; live up to the expectations of people close to you. *"His family will think he's good if he steals" 2) Stage 4: Social accord and system maintenance. "He should follow the law, because the law is what is right" *This level dictates that morality is about following the rules, and individuals should not question where those rules come from.

Carol Gilligan

*Has made the case that interpersonal obligations represent a kind of morality that is distinct from an emphasis on individual rights, and that women are more likely to reason this way than are men 1) Males view = "morality of justice" *Rationality, impersonality 2) Females view = "morality of caring' *Relationships, caring, commitment

Secularization Theory

*Holds that religion is on the decline, and that people around the world are discovering new secular and rational ways to make sense of their life.

Ethic of community in India

*Indians are more likely to resolve the conflict by fulfilling their interpersonal obligations than are Americans.

Universalism

*Is the perspective that sees people from different cultures as largely the same, and that any observed cultural variability exists only at a superficial level. *Assume that people are the same wherever you go and the differences that we see across cultures are largely differences in terms of conventions and are of little significance.

Gesellschaft

*Literally means, "Association" or "society" *More characteristic of modern Western societies, treat relationships as imaginary, instrumental, and a means to an end. *The primary focus within these groups is on autonomous individuals who are bound to one another through social convention. *These relationships tend to be perceived as relatively impersonal and somewhat contractual, which leads to the necessity of justice obligations to govern disputes between individuals. *When interpersonal relations are reduced to serving utilitarian means among autonomous individuals, as they largely are in these groups, then a morality of justice should take precedence.

Level 1: the Preconventional Level

*Needs and fears 1) Stage 1: fear of punishment, should obey authority *"Shouldn't steal, because Heinz will get in trouble." 2) Stage 2: Personal interest; equal exchange and satisfying needs *"Shouldn't steal, because his wife needs the medicine more that the druggist needs money" *Suggest that people interpret morality based on a calculation of how much better or worse off they would be for acting in certain way. *Morality at this level is about trying to behave in a way that provides the best overall return.

Progressive

*Religions emphasize the importance of human agency in understanding and formulating a moral code. *Ethic of autonomy has many similarities with progressivsts' conceptions of morality.

Relativism

*The second way of making sense of cultural diversity. *Maintains that cultural diversity in ways of thinking is not superficial but reflects genuinely different psychological processes. *Cultural practices are viewed to lead to certain habitual ways of thinking, and because cultural practices vary considerably across cultures, relativists also expect ways of thinking to vary. *For the most part, cultural psychologists tend to emphasize a relativistic perspective.

Ethic of Autonomy

*This ethic views morality in terms of individual freedom and rights violations. *Inherent in Kohlberg's model *There is emphasis on personal choice, the right to engage in free contracts and individual liberty. *An act is seen as immoral under the ethic of autonomy when it directly hurts another person or infringes on another's rights and freedoms as an individual.

Level 3: The Postconventional Level

*Universal moral principles. 1) Stage 5: Should generally follow laws because they are a social construct with moral considerations. 2) Stage 6: Follow universal moral principles (of justice and individual rights), regardless of law. *"Heinz should steal because it is always wrong to allow a person to die when you have the power to prevent it, regardless of what the law says."

Gemenischaft

*Which loosely translates from german as "community". *Characteristic of smaller folk organizations,and within these groups, interpersonal relationships play an especially important role. *Gemeniischaft relationshops bind people together with the social glue of concord-that is, relationships are viewed as real, organic, and end in themselves. *People feel connected to others because they feel a unity of spirit, and these relationships tend not to be thought of in instrumental terms, nor are they evaluated or negotiated. *The integral role of interpersonal relations in the group suggest that obligations associated with one's relationships would take on the weight of full moral obligations.

Orthodox

*religious adherents who follow this are committed to the idea of transcendent authority. *Ethic of divinity seems to bear a close affinity with orthodox conceptions of morality

Shweder and colleagues

1) Ethic of autonomy 2) Ethic of community 3) Ethic of divinity *Justice and individual rights *Interpersonal Obligations

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

1) Level 1: The Preconventional level *Stages 1 and 2 2) Level 2: The Conventional level *Stages 3 and 4 3) Level 3: The Postconventional level *Stages 5 and 6 *Kohlberg maintains that the three levels in his model represent a universal pattern of moral development the world over. *The model is proposed to be universal because the levels are always seen to follow sequentially. *The model presupposes cultural variation in the extent of people's moral reasoning capacities. *This model is an example of an evolutionist perspective of cultural variation

Moral obligations

1) Moral obligations are viewed as objective obligations -that is, people believe that they have an obligation to act in a certain way, even if there is no official rule or law that requires them to do so. *If the obligation exists only when a law is present, then the obligation is perceived as a matter of convention, and is not an objective obligation. 2) Moral obligations are perceived ad legitimately regulated *Violations are considered to be moral ones only if they are objective obligations that can be legitimately regulated.