Michael Dillon
Profesor Owens
General Psychology
November 2, 2018
Moral development
It’s the last day of school in the third grade. Every kid in the school is impatiently waiting for that last bell to ring. Every friday the school lets kids who bring money, go to the counselors office to buy some candy. I grew up not having much money, but my grandma spared me a dollar that day. As they announce on the intercom, about thirty minutes before school was over, to come buy some candy if you have money, I reached in my pocket and grabbed my crisp one dollar bill. John, Langston, Talent, and I were in Mrs. Nelson’s class when the intercom went off. We all met up at the front of the class and started discussing what candy we were going to buy. Of course, everyone knew I was settling for nothing less than four Airheads for one dollar. Considering I only had one dollar, the four pieces of candy for the same price others were buying one piece for was a good deal to me.
As we make our way to buy the candy, all my friends were pulling wads of money from their pockets. So keep in mind, I felt ashamed and out of place already. The environment and the people I am surrounded by are influencing my emotions and gut feelings. The isolation I feel from being the poor kid is a feeling that tugs at my gut and makes me feel anger inside. Moral development is the understanding of morality from infant all the way through adulthood. Morality is the distinction between what is the right or wrong choice or what is the right or wrong behavior. Many things can influence our moral judgements. Things like, the environment someone is surrounded by, people who impact their lives daily, and emotions. Emotions play a huge role in influencing our moral judgements. (Charlton, Sobel, & Sobel, 2018, p. 149). As we approach the office, I make my way to the back, because now I am embarrassed that I won’t be able to buy a dozen pieces of candy like my friends. As they all enter the room I feel a wave a anger feel my body. I start thinking ” Why can’t I have money? Why can’t a be able to buy more than a few pieces of candy?” At this point I am in the second level and stage three of moral development. There are a total of three stages in moral development. The first being, Preconventional: when the human is still unaware of social conventions. The second being, Conventional: at this point, humans in the early teens or late teen ages. At this point humans tend to take authority from social groups or people who are family and friends. The third being, postconventional morality: In this stage humans tend to represent their own ethics and stand for human rights. (Dubuc B, Jan to Sep 2002, The brain from top to bottom: Moral development.) http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_09/i_09_s/i_09_s_dev/i_09_s_dev.html ”
I began to feel the need to satisfy the satisfaction of other people in my group of friends. I was angry and my emotions started making me rethink actually buying some candy. As my emotions took over, they lead me to believe it would be a good idea to steal some candy rather than pay for it. My pride, hatred, jealousy, and more sunk in and changed my moral intuitions. Moral intuitions are gut feelings that can drive decisions, such as a desire for vengeance when witnessing a deliberately harmful act or and urge to pay it forward after an act of kindness. (Charlton, Sobel, & Sobel, 2018, p. 149). The room started to crowd and overflow the room where we were buying candy. As people started clustering around the counselor, I found the perfect opportunity to grab quite a few pieces. After I snatched a few pieces I realized just how dumb it was. I felt so excluded. I felt as if I didn’t belong in the group.
As I made my way back to class and caught up with my friends they were stoked to see how much candy I had. They asked to trade and asked for a few pieces, and them being my friends I went ahead and did it. After trading and giving some away I ended up with nearly nothing. I realized something at that point in time. The ones who fairly traded and the ones who gave me some were my true friends. They were the ones who truly cared for me. I realized that a certain group of people were excluding people that weren’t like them. The rich kids would merely tolerate the poor kids. The mean kids never accepted the nice kids unless they wanted something from them. In fact according to a couple authors, certain researches and discoveries declare that youth is exposed to confusing or mixed messages that regards the acceptance of members outside their particular group. “Lapsley D, Carlo G. (2013). Moral development at the crossroads: New trends and possible futures. US : American Psychological Association”. As humans get older these morals tend to exit and other morals make their way into the human brain. This is somewhat obvious because as you get older, your mind matures and you develop more sophisticated ideas. Around the final stage humans develop morals that let them know that some laws and rules have a ideal level of validity. If these laws or rules mess with their dignity or ideas they believe in, they will declare them invalid or unnecessary.
Morals are things embedded in our DNA, figuratively. You will not go through life without developing them or experiencing hem changing. In fact, as you finish reading this, think of some old memories as you were a child and think of something that you did that wasn’t exactly the right thing, but you did it to fit in anyways. Think about times as you got older, if people ever rejected you for no particular reason, but think now that there was a reason. It more than likely wasn’t nothing personal. They had certain moral developments they were experiencing and going through at the time. Think about what moral changes you possibly experienced last. Think about what moral changes you might experience in the future. They develop constantly.
WORK CITED PAGE
Dubuc B, Jan to Sep 2002, The brain from top to bottom: Moral development. http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_09/i_09_s/i_09_s_dev/i_09_s_dev.html
Lapsley D, Carlo G. (2013). Moral development at the crossroads: New trends and possible futures. US : American Psychological Association.
