Promoting Development of Advanced Morality among Adolescents. Suraj Ketan Samal. University of Nebraska-Lincoln

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1 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 1 Promoting Development of Advanced Morality among Adolescents Suraj Ketan Samal University of Nebraska-Lincoln Author Note Suraj Ketan Samal is now a doctoral student at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Suraj Ketan Samal, 122A, Avery Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE Contact: ssamal@cse.unl.edu

2 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 2 Promoting Development of Advanced Morality among Adolescents Adolescence is a stage of life believed to bring in a number of changes important for an individual. Like a healthy fruit that has matured, fully grown, ready to ripen and separate from its plant so that it can establish its own separate identity, adolescents gradually demonstrate independence from parents and start building their own view of society, identity, life goals, rational beliefs and moral values. Youth in general, are in a continuous process of development. Teenagers are known to be irresponsible risk takers, and involved in conflicts with parents & authorities, considered impolite, display aggression, violate laws and get involved in crimes and even engage in substance abuse, though the behavior is seen to reduce as they move into adulthood (Berk, 2012). Recent studies have shown an increase in adolescent delinquencies in all parts of the world and across cultures. Although peer (symmetric-social) relationships play an important role in construction of advanced levels of morality during adolescence, they also tend to create peer pressure (e.g rejection from a group) that can cause an individual to adopt aggressive behavior considered immoral or unjustified by the society and at most times even by law. Other factors attributing to such behavior has often been related to family conflicts (e.g high rates of divorce), environmental factors (e.g hardship, poverty) and environmental stress (rejection in peer groups or academic failure) (Berk, 2012). With advancement in electronic media (internet, television etc) and unrestricted access of information, anti-social or immoral values are as likely to impact an individual as pro-social & moral values. Hence, it is essential to take steps to generate awareness and promote development of morality among youths (early adults) to advanced levels by building an environment where youths can interact with their peers and construct advanced moral reasoning.

3 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 3 Morality, in simple words, can be described as determining if a particular action is right or wrong. The principles governing morality are known to involve rational cognition, perception, intuition and emotion (Moshman, Ch6, p86). However, deciding whether an action is moral (moral relativism) can at times be highly difficult and influenced by a number of factors including ethnic, social, religious, cultural, historical, political and changing environment. At this time, gay marriage rights, abortion, and assisted suicide are considered as moral in certain countries while immoral in others. On one hand, today, we have organizations arguing about rights for animal & plant kingdom on moral grounds, on the other hand, history is witness to numerous instances of humans killing others (up to an extent of cannibalism) and still considering their actions moral. Universal morality involves attaining moral standards that is justified across humanity across the world (e.g human rights adopted by UN). Moshman describes morality as a developmental process and states that adolescents gradually progress towards advanced morality that involves principled morality, advanced perspective taking and moral identity (Moshman, Ch7, p89, 90). Moshman describes that principled morality involves creation and usage of advanced rules constructed from simple rules or ethical principles (typically previously learnt) through the process of abstraction, reflection and social interaction. It leads to better understanding of moral agreements, disagreements enabling meta-ethical insights to justify diverse actions and behavior. (Moshman, p90). Advanced perspective taking is another important constituent in the development of advanced morality (Moshman, p94). It involves visualization, co-ordination and understanding of multiple points of views. More or less all researchers consider empathy and cognition to be the vital aspects of advanced perspective taking. Adolescents are known to

4 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 4 demonstrate both principled reasoning & third-party perspective taking better than children; however they fall short of adults (Moshman, p95, 96). The next obvious question that arises is How to promote development of such advanced levels of morality? One way is to allow construction of principled reasoning using role plays and peer discussions (e.g Heinz dilemma discussed in the class) at home & at school. Switching perspectives and building understanding like the Nora North/Simon South example (Moshman, p55) can be highly helpful. Other activities involving adolescents to empathize with other person's pain and suffering and respond to them effectively can be really beneficial and even improve their relationships with peers (Berk, 2012). Advanced perspective taking can be enhanced by increasing awareness of multiple domains e.g health, science, history and other cultures. I (and most likely others) were bothered and wondering why Moshman & Slack chose to describe the case study of FGC (Moshman, p66) in a painful & brutal manner (to an extent that some were happy not having the book), until one of colleagues (history scholar) in a separate group justified how important, it is for historians to describe historical incidents (such as racism, slavery, genocide etc) and behavior of society in an exact way they occurred. He believed it would be rather unfair (and hence immoral) to his domain if description of such issues were diluted or moderated. A very important aspect involved in construction of advanced morality is how adolescents perceive interaction with their environment (i.e peers, family and groups). Behavioral psychologist & economist, Dan Ariely claims people are more likely to cheat if they view their peers display similar behavior and consider it moral. In a study, where participants involving groups from two universities were given opportunity to cheat along with an acting student (wearing jersey of one of the university) who role played cheating, he says,

5 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 5 So it wasn't so much about the probability of being caught again. It was about the norms for cheating. If somebody from our in-group cheats and we see them cheating, we feel it's more appropriate, as a group, to behave this way. But if it's somebody from another group, these terrible people --I mean, not terrible in this but somebody we don't want to associate ourselves with, from another university, another group, and all of a sudden people's awareness of honesty goes up., Ariely,Dan (2009) Additionally, role of education and electronic media to encourage pro-social behaviors can be an important factor in describing moral principles, justifying actions and serving as a basis for explanation (Moshman p93). Finally, looking from a macro-morality view, one might argue that deliquescent behavior is essential in the constructive process involved in development of advanced morality. If adolescents don t experiment and simply follow rules created by society (or law), how would they visualize what is considered wrong and its unknown consequences? If they don t make mistakes, what would they learn from? Is this even moral to understanding and development of advanced morality? Also how should we then update our policies to reflect the changing social norms? In an environment where change is deemed to be constant and morality constantly changes from one domain to other and evolves from time to time, what appears to stay constant is empathy (understanding multiple perspectives) and principled reasoning behind in its construction. Hence, it becomes very crucial to promote development of advanced morality in early adulthood. References: Ariely,Dan (2009): Our buggy moral code, Ted Talk, Filmed Feb Berk, Laura (2012): Moral Development (Chapter 12) in Child Development, 9 th ed, p

6 PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED MORALITY 6 Moshman, David(2011): Adolescent Rationality and Development, 3 rd edition.