Moral Reasoning

Definition

Moral reasoning refers to the processes involved in how individuals think about right and wrong and in how they acquire and apply moral rules and guidelines. The psychological study of morality in general is often referred to as the study of moral reasoning, [Page 591]although moral psychology is now understood as encompassing more than just the reasoning process.

Many of the topics that social psychologists were originally interested in (such as obedience and conformity) had to do in one way or another with questions of moral judgment and behavior. Despite this early interest in morality, the study of moral reasoning specifically had its beginnings in the work of moral philosophers and developmental psychologists rather than in social psychology.

History

Although morality was originally the domain of religion and theology, interest in the psychology of morality has been around since at least the time of the early Greek philosophers. Plato and Aristotle, for instance, devoted much of their discussion to how people came to acquire moral notions. The tradition continued, as Western philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and David Hume wrote much on the psychological processes involved in moral judgment. These two philosophers famously debated the role of reason versus emotion in moral judgment, with Kant placing a much greater emphasis on rational thought as the proper foundation for moral judgment.

Kant's ideas, particularly his emphasis on reason as the foundation of moral judgment, influenced some of the earliest psychological work on moral reasoning, that of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget believed that children developed a mature sense of morality as their ability to reason unfolded. Particularly important for Piaget was the idea that mature reasoning caused a shift from children seeing the world from only their perspective (egocentrism) toward being able to take the perspective of others. For Piaget, this developing ability to reason when combined with the natural social interactions children had with one another (which often involved having to share, take turns, and play games together) caused children to move from a morality based on rules, authority, and punishment (heteronomous morality) to a morality based on mutual respect, cooperation, and an understanding of the thoughts and desires of other individuals (autonomous morality).

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, expanded upon Piaget's stage theory of development to include multiple stages of moral reasoning spanning through adulthood. Kohlberg first outlined his theory of moral development in 1958, in what was to become one of the most influential psychological dissertations of all time. Heavily influenced by the rationalist philosophies of Kant and John Rawls (whose theory of justice was one of the most influential political theories of the 20th century), Kohlberg, like Piaget, believed that as reasoning developed, so did moral judgment. For Kohlberg, individuals progressed from an early, egocentric morality based on the fear of punishment and the desire for reward (stages 1 and 2, preconventional morality), toward a more mature morality based on social norms (stages 3 and 4, conventional morality), and finally (though not always) to an understanding of universal moral principles that existed independently of social convention (stages 5 and 6, post-conventional morality). Like Piaget, Kohlberg believed that being exposed to social interactions involving moral conflicts could cause progression from one stage of moral reasoning to the next.

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