Abstract
We contend that the formation of the contemporary mind should emphasize the development of respect and ethics. Individuals with respectful minds welcome differences between themselves and other individuals and groups and seek to work effectively with all parties. Individuals who possess ethical minds acknowledge their membership within numerous local, national, and international communities; they consider the effects of their actions upon these communities. The multiple intelligences of human beings – particularly logical–mathematical intelligence and the personal intelligences – are the core capacities upon which policymakers and practitioners must call when seeking to foster young people's respectful and ethical minds. Here, we offer a number of experiences that can enhance relevant facets of young people's logical–mathematical and personal intelligences and help them to employ their intelligences in prosocial ways.
It is difficult to turn on the news or open a newspaper in twenty-first century America without learning of yet another high-profile ethical lapse. The millennium began with the demise of Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom in some of the largest cases of corporate fraud in our nation's history. Since that inauspicious beginning, dozens of our nation's top athletes have been caught using illegal drugs to gain a competitive advantage in sports such as baseball, cycling, and track; leading academics and intellectuals have published books with passages plagiarized from other sources; and congressmen, senators, and cabinet members have been implicated in a bribery scandal involving illegal lobbying and campaign contributions. In The Cheating Culture, David Callahan (2004) described these and more mundane examples of unethical behavior as having become routine over the past 2 decades. Likewise, interviews with hundreds of young professionals by our colleagues at the Good Work Project have revealed that, as they enter the real world, many young adults believe the competition to get ahead necessitates such ethical compromises (Fischman et al. 2004). Scholars have found a similar mindset to be prevalent amongst high achieving high school students as well (Howard 2007; Pope 2003).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
* The research reported in this chapter was supported by the Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
References
Aboud, F. (1988). Children and prejudice. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Augoustinos, M., & Rosewarne, D. L. (2001). Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19(Pt 1), 143–156.
Anderson, S., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. (1999). Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in prefrontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1032–1037.
Ashe, A., & Rampersad, A. (1993). Days of grace: A memoir. New York: G.K. Hall.
Barendsen, L., & Gardner, H. (2008). Good for what? Young workers in a global age. In A. Linley, S. Harrington, & N. Page (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology and work. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press (in press).
Callahan, D. (2004). The cheating culture: Why more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. New York: Harcourt.
Clark, W., & Hankins, N. (1985). Giftedness and conflict. Roeper Review, 8, 50–53.
Colby, A., & Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York: Free Press/Macmillan.
Damon, W. (2008). The path to purpose: Helping our children find their calling in life. New York: Free Press.
Davey, A. (1983). Learning to be prejudiced: Growing up in multi-ethnic Britain. London: Edward Arnold.
Dunham, Y. (2007). Assessing the automaticity of intergroup bias. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Fischman, W., Schutte, D., Solomon, B., & Lam, G. (2001). The development of an enduring commitment to service work. In M. Michaelson & J. Nakamura (Eds.), Supportive frameworks for youth engagement (pp. 33–45). New York: Jossey-Bass.
Fischman, W., Solomon, D., Greenspan, D., & Gardner, H. (2004). Making good: How young people cope with moral dilemmas at work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic.
Gardner, H. (2006a). Multiple intelligences: New Horizons. New York: Basic.
Gardner, H. (2006b). Response to my critics. In J. Schaler (Ed.), Gardner under fire (pp. 277–344). Chicago, IL: Open Court.
Gardner, H. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Gardner, H., Kornhaber, M., & Warren, K. (1996a). Intelligence: Multiple perspectives. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
Gardner, H., Kornhaber, M., and Wake, W. (1996b). Intelligence: Multiple perspectives. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
Gibbons, P., & Gomes, P. (2002). A call to heroism: Renewing America's vision of greatness. Boston, MA: Atlantic Monthly Press.
Gibbs, W., & Lyall, S. (2007, October 13). Gore shares peace prize for climate change work. The New York Times, p. A1.
Greene, J. (2001). From neural “is” to moral “ought”: What are the moral implications of neuroscientific moral psychology? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, 847–850.
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834.
Hauser, M. (2006). Moral minds: How nature designed our universal sense of right and wrong. New York: Ecco.
Hersh, R. (2007). Terms of engagement. AACU Peer Review, 9, 30–31.
Hollingworth, L. (1942). Children above 180 IQ: Origin and development. New York: World Book.
Howard, A. (2007). Learning privilege: Lessons of power and identity in affluent schooling. New York: Routledge.
Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development. Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages. New York: HarperCollins.
Lovecky, D. (1992). Exploring social and emotional aspects of giftedness. Roeper Review, 15, 18–25.
Mendaglio, S. (1995). Sensitivity among gifted persons: A multi-faceted perspective. Roeper Review, 17, 169–172.
Moran, S., & Gardner, H. (2006). Extraordinary achievements: A developmental systems analysis. In W. Damon, R. Lerner, D. Kuhn, R. Siegler, N. Eisenberg, A. Renniger, & I. Sigel (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, 6th Ed. New York: Wiley.
Oliner, S., & Oliner, P. (1988). The altruistic personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. New York: Free Press.
Pianta, R. (1992). Beyond the parent. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Pope, D. (2003). Doing school: How we are creating a generation of stressed-out, materialistic and miseducated students. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Roeper, A. (2003). The young gifted girl: A contemporary view. Roeper Review, 25, 151–153.
Seider, S. (2006). Frame-changing experiences: A key to the development of a commitment to service-work and social action in young adults. Journal for Civic Commitment. Fall.Seider, S. (2006). Frame-changing experiences: A key to the development of a commitment to service-work and social action in young adults. Journal for Civic Commitment. Fall.
Seider, S. (2007). Catalyzing a commitment to community service in emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22, 612–639.
Seider, S. (2008a). “Bad things could happen”: How fear impedes the development of social responsibility in privileged adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research (in press).
Seider, S. (2008b). Overwhelmed and immobilized: Raising the consciousness of privileged young adults about world hunger and poverty. International Studies Perspectives (in press).
Seider, S. (2008c). Resisting obligation: How privileged adolescents conceive of their responsibilities to others. Journal of Research in Character Education (in press).
Silverman, L. (1994). The moral sensitivity of gifted children and the evolution of society. Roeper Review, 17, 110–116.
Singer, P. (1981). The expanding circle: Ethics and sociobiology. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.
Terman, L. (1925). Genetic studies of genius: Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children, Vol. 1. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Seider, S., Davis, K., Gardner, H. (2009). Morality, Ethics and Good Work: Young People's Respectful and Ethical Minds* . In: Cross, T., Ambrose, D. (eds) Morality, Ethics, and Gifted Minds. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-89368-6_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-89368-6_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-89367-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-89368-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)