Moral Development and Reality: Beyond the Theories of Kohlberg, Hoffman, and Haidt

376 Pages·2013·2.69 MB·English

by  John C. Gibbs

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Moral Development and Reality
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Moral Development
and Reality
Beyond the Theories of Kohlberg,
Hoffman, and Haidt
third edition
John C. Gibbs
3
3

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gibbs, John C.
Moral development and reality : beyond the theories of Kohlberg, Hoffman, and Haidt /
John C. Gibbs. – Third edition.
pages cm
Revised edition of the author’s Moral development & reality : beyond the theories of Kohlberg and
Hoffman, published in 2010.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–997617–1
1. Moral development. I. Title.
BF723.M54G5 2014
155.2′5—dc23
2013017566
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
■ Dedicated to the memory of J. Lowell Gibbs
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c o n t e n t s
Foreword by David Moshman ix
Personal Preface and Acknowledgments xi
About the Author xvii
1. Introduction 1
Social Perspective-Taking, Reversibility, and Morality 2
Th e Right and the Good: Th e Moral Domain 6
Introducing Chapters 3 through 10 10
2. Beyond Haidt’s New Synthesis 17
Th ree Th emes 17
Conclusion and Critique 31
3. “Th e Right” and Moral Development: Fundamental
Th emes of Kohlberg’s Cognitive Developmental Approach 39
Early Childhood Superfi ciality 41
Beyond Early Childhood Superfi ciality 50
Stages of Moral Judgment Development 60
Evaluating Haidt’s Challenge 79
Summarizing Comment 80
4. Kohlberg’s Th eory: A Critique and New View 81
Background 81
Kohlberg’s Overhaul of Piaget’s Phases 84
Adult Moral Development in Kohlberg’s Th eory 91
A Critique and New View 93
Conclusion 97
5. “Th e Good” and Moral Development: Hoff man’s Th eory 98
Th e Empathic Predisposition 99
Modes and Stages of Empathy 101
Empathy and Prosocial Behavior: Cognitive Complications
and Empathy’s Limitations 113
Empathy, Its Cognitive Regulation, and Aff ective Primacy 1 21
Th e Empathic Predisposition, Socialization, and Moral
Internalization 123
Conclusion and Critique 130
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viii ■ Contents
6. Moral Development, Moral Identity, and Prosocial
Behavior 133
Prosocial Behavior: Th e Rescue 133
Individual Diff erences in Prosocial Behavior 137
Conclusion: A Spurious “Moral Exemplar” 148
7. Understanding Antisocial Behavior 152
Limitations of Antisocial Youths 152
A Case Study 169
8. Treating Antisocial Behavior 175
Th e Mutual Help Approach 176
Remedying the Limitations and Generating Synergy:
Th e Cognitive Behavioral Approach 184
Social Perspective-Taking for Severe Off enders 203
9. Beyond the Th eories: A Deeper Reality? 206
Two Case Studies 208
A Deeper Reality? 215
Moral Insight, Inspiration, and Transformation 230
Conclusion 236
10. Conclusion 238
Revisiting the Issue of Moral Motivation and Knowledge 241
Moral Perception and Reality 249
Appendix 257
Notes 265
References 2 83
Author Index 3 29
Subject Index 3 41
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f o r e wo r d
Moral Development and Reality is serious about morality, development, and even
reality. John Gibbs is not just out to explain moral development: he is out to
explain morality itself. Morality, he argues, is not just whatever we happen to like
or whatever our cultures happen to favor. Morality is rooted in the reality of social
interconnections and develops as we come to understand that reality.
Th is advanced text, now in its third edition, is not just a systematic overview of
the literature on moral development; it is also an original theoretical contribution
to that literature. In fact, I would go so far as to call it the most important contri-
bution to the study of moral development since the turn of the century. Gibbs has
recognized what is most fundamental in the contributions of Lawrence Kohlberg,
Martin Hoff man, and Jonathan Haidt. Th ese are not just three theorists he hap-
pens to like. (In fact, he fi nds plenty to criticize in all of their theories, especially
Haidt’s.) Rather, they represent three distinct theoretical traditions that usually
either ignore or actively disparage each other. Integrating their complementary
insights and contributions makes this a unique and indispensable book.
Gibbs takes from Kohlberg a Piagetian conception of moral rationality and
objectivity that allows for genuine developmental change. Th is moral epistemol-
ogy draws strongly on the ethics of philosopher Immanuel Kant. Gibbs is far from
alone among current developmentalists in his rationalist moral epistemology.
Cognitive social domain theory—as seen in the work of Elliot Turiel, Larry Nucci,
Judith Smetana, Melanie Killen, Charles Helwig, Cecilia Wainryb, and many oth-
ers—shares with Gibbs his Piagetian moral epistemology. Social domain theorists,
however, reject Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, whereas Gibbs believes
a modifi ed version of them provides the cognitive core of any viable theory of
moral development. Gibbs is not only neo-Piagetian, as was Kohlberg and as are
the social domain theorists; Gibbs is specifi cally neo-Kohlbergian, in contrast
to the social domain theorists. Th is is refl ected in the fact that he has far more
to say about moral development beyond the preschool years than most current
developmentalists.
But morality, Gibbs insists, is not just about what is right and not just a matter
of knowledge and reasoning. Morality also concerns the good, and owes as much
to emotion as to cognition. Here Gibbs draws on Hoff man, who highlighted the
emotional side of moral development, including our deepening empathy for
others. Intimately interrelating Hoff man’s theory with that of Kohlberg produces a
theory that transcends either. Moral perspective–taking is recognized as simulta-
neously cognitive and emotional. Moral development represents progress in both
justice and care.
But there’s more. Moral behavior is a function of many factors and cannot be
predicted simply from developmental status. In the complex realm of social behav-
ior, moreover, theorists do not always agree on what counts as moral behavior.
ix