Abstract
The nature of the moral domain remains implicit in our pre-theoretical judgments and valuations regarding what is right and wrong, good and bad across a wide range of situations. These, however, are admittedly idiosyncratic and biased, conditioned as they are by our upbringing, social practices, and traditions in which we have been raised. The ancient philosopher Aristotle (1962) reminds us that while the character of an individual or society is the result of the encouragement or suppression of certain habits; conversely, character determines what habits are regarded as worth inculcating. Character is an organ of perception where to see the good, one first has to be good. The ancient philosopher Plato provides the now paradigmatic example. Despite Socrates’ best efforts to be reasonable, the tyrant Callicles remains unconvinced. His malformed character distorts his perception—calling fair, foul and foul, fair (Plato, 1971).
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
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revision). Washington, DC: Author.
Arendt, Hannah (1977). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Pengu in Books.
Aristotle. (1962). Nichomachean Ethics [translated by M. Ostwald]. New York: Macmillan.
Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development (Vol. 1: Theory). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Baron, M. (1991). Impartiality and friendship. Ethics, 101, 836 - 857.
Baumeister, R. F., and Sommer, K. L. (1997). What do men want? Gender differences and two spheres of belongingness: Comment on Cross and Madson (1997). Psychological Bulletin, 122, 5 - 37.
Bell, D. (1976). The cultural contradictions of capitalism. New York: Basic Books.
Bigelow, A. E. (2001). Discovering the self though other: Infant’s preference for social contingency. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic (Special Issue), 65, 335 - 346.
Blasi, A. (1984). Moral identity: Its role in moral functioning. In W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behavior, and moral development (pp. 128 - 139 ). New York: Wiley.
Boling, P. (1991). The democratic potential of mothering. Political Theory, 19, 606 - 625.
Broverman, D. M., Clarkson, F., and Rosenkrantz, P. S. (1972). Sex role stereotypes: A current appraisal. Journal of Social Issues, 28, 59 - 78.
Brown, R., and Hernstein, R. J. (1975). Psychology. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkley: University of California Press. Cottingham, J. (1983). Ethics and partiality. Philosophical Studies, 43, 83 - 99.
Cottingham, J. (1991). The ethics of self-concern. Ethics, 101, 798 - 817.
Clancy, S. M., and Dollinger, S. J. (1993). Photographic depictions of the self: Gender and age differences in social connectedness. Sex Roles, 29, 477 - 495.
Colby, A., and Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York: Free Press.
Colby, A., and Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgment (Vol. 2 ). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cross, S. E., and Madson, L. (1997). Models of the self: Self-construals and gender. Psychological Bulletin, 122, 38 - 44
Cross, S. E., Morris, M. L., and Gore, J. S. (2002). Thinking about oneself and others: The relational-interdependent self-construal and social cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 399 - 418.
Descartes, René (1955). Discourse on the Method. In Philosophical Works of Descartes, Vol. 1 [translated by E. Haldane and G. Ross]. New York: Dover. (Original published 1637 )
Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Flanagan, C., Miller, C., Reuman, D., and Yee, D. (1989). Self-concepts, domain values, and self-esteem: Relations and changes at early adolescence. Journal of Personality, 37, 283 - 310.
Eisenberg, N., and Lennon, R. (1983). Sex differences in empathy and related capacities. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 100 - 131.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. L., and Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. New York: Other Press.
Franco, F. (1997). The development of meaning in infancy: Early communication and social understanding. In S. Hala (Ed.), The development of social cognition (pp. 95 - 160 ). East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.
Gardner, H. (1985). The minds new science: A history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gilligan, C. ( 1986, Spring). [Letter to D. Baumrind]. Newsletter of the APA Division on Developmental Psychology, pp. 10 - 13.
Gilligan, C., and Wiggans, G. (1986). The origins of morality in early childhood relationships. In C. Gilligan, J. V. Ward, and J. M. Taylor (Eds.), Mapping the moral domain: A contribution of women’s thinking to psychological theory and education (pp. 111 - 138 ). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Glover, J. (2000). Humanity: A moral history of the twentieth century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Graham, T., and Ickes, W. (1997). When women’s intuition isn’t greater than men’s. In W. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic accuracy (pp. 117 - 143 ).
Hall, J. A. (1984). Nonverbal sex differences: Communication accuracy and expressive style. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Hall, J. A. (1987). On explaining gender differences: The case of nonverbal communication. In P. Shaver and C. Hendrick (Eds.), Review of personality and social psychology: Sex and gender (Vol. 7, pp. 177 - 200 ). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Hare-Mustin, R. T., and Marecek, J. (1988). The meaning of difference: Gender theory, postmodernism, and psychology. American Psychologist, 43, 455 - 464.
Hennig, K. (in press). Care gone awry: The role of attachment and reflective functioning. In Thorkildsen, T. A., Manning, J., and Walberg, H. J. (Eds.), Nurturing morality. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Josephs, R. A., Markus, H. R., and Tafarodi, R. W. (1992). Gender and self-esteem. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 63, 391 - 402.
Kant, I. (1964). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals [translated by trans. H. J. Paton]. New York: Harper and Row. (Original published in 1785 )
Kekes, J. (1989). Moral tradition and individuality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Klemperer, V. (1998). I Will Bear Witness: A diary of the Nazi years [translated by Martin Chalmers]. New York: Random House.
Kohlberg L., and Armon, C. (1984). Three models for the study of adult development. In M. Commons, F. Richards, and C. Armon (Eds.), Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development (pp. 383 - 394 ). New York: Praeger.
Kohlberg, L. (1971). From Is to Ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away with it in the study of moral development. In T. Mischel (Ed.), Cognitive development and epistemology (pp. 151 - 235 ). New York: Academic Press.
Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development: Vol. 1. The philosophy of moral development. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
Kohlberg, L. (1986). A current statement on some theoretical issues. In S. Modgil and C. Modgil (Eds.), Lawrence Kohlberg: Consensus and controversy (pp. 485 - 546 ). Philadelphia: Falmer.
Krebs, D. L., Vermeulen, S. A., Carpendale, J. I., and Denton, K. (1991). Structural and situational influences on moral judgment: The interaction between stage and dilemma. In W. M. Kurtines and J. L Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Research (Vol. 2, pp. 139 - 169 ). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Langdale, C. J. (1996). A re-vision of structural-developmental theory. In G. L. Sapp (Ed.), Handbook of moral development: Models, processes, techniques, and research (pp. 15 - 54 ). Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press.
Lapsley, Daniel. 1992. Pluralism, Virtues, and the Post-Kohlbergian Era in Moral Psychology. In F. C. Power and D. Lapsley (Eds.), The Challenge of Pluralism: Education, Politics, and Values. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Lapsley, D. and Serlin, R. ( 1983, April). On the alleged degeneration of the Kohlbergian research program. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in child Development, Detroit.
Lasch, C. (1979). The culture of narcissism. New York: Norton.
MacIntyre, A. (1981). After virtue: A study in moral theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Mackie, J. (1977). Ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
McGuire, W. J., and McGuire, C. V. (1982). Significant others in self space: Sex differences and developmental trends in social self. In J. Suls (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. 1, pp. 71 - 96 ). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mensch, J. (2003). Ethics and Selfhood: Alterity and the Phenomenology of Obligation. New York: SUNY Press
Miller, J. B. (1986). Towards a new psychology of women. Boston: Beacon Press.
Montefiore, S. S. (2003). Stalin: The court of the Red Tsar. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Murdoch, I. (1970). The sovereignty of the good. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Phillips, D.C. and Nicolayev, J. (1978) Kohlbergian moral development. A progressing or degenerating research programm? Educational theory, 28, 286 - 301.
Plato. (1971). Gorgias [translated by W. Hamilton]. London: Pengu in Books.
Pratt, M. W., Golding, G., Hunter, W., and Sampson, R. (1988). Sex differences in adult moral orientation. Human Development, 34, 61 - 80.
Puka, M. L. (1991). Toward the redevelopment of Kohlberg’s theory: Presenting essential structure, removing controversial content. In W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development (Vol. 1, pp. 373 - 394 ). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Power, F. C., and Lapsley, D. K. (1992). Pluralism, virtues, and the post-Kohlbergian era in moral
psychology. In F. C. Power and D. K. Lapsley (Eds.), Pluralism, virtues, and the post-Kohlbergian era in moral psychology (pp. 169-200). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rest, J. R. (1994). Background: Theory and research. In J. R. Rest (Ed.), Moral development in the professions. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Rest, J. R., Narváez, D., Bebeau, M. J., and Thoma, S. J. (1999). Postconventional moral thinking: A neoKohlbergian approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sandel, M. (1982). Liberalism and the limits of justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sartre, J-P. (1948). Existentialism and humanism [translated by P. Mairet]. London: Methuen. (Original published 1946 )
Singer, P. (1995). How are we to live: Ethics in an age of self-interest. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
Snodgras, S. (1992). Further effects of role versus gender on interpersonal sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 154 - 158.
Sommers, C. H. (1986). Filial morality. The Journal of Philosophy, 83, 439 - 456.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Walker, L. J. (1989). A longitudinal study of moral reasoning. Child Development, 60, 157 - 166.
Walker, L. J. (1991). Sex differences in moral reasoning. In W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Research (Vol. 2, pp. 333 - 364 ). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Walker, L. J. (1995). Sexism in Kohlberg’s moral psychology? In W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Moral development: An introduction (pp. 83 - 107 ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Walker, L. J., de Vries, B., and Trevethan, S. D. (1987). Moral stages and moral orientations in real-life and hypothetical dilemmas. Child Development, 58, 842 - 858.
Walker, L. J., and Pitts, R. C. (1998). Naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity. Developmental Psychology, 34, 403 - 419.
Walker, L. J., and Taylor, J. H. (1991). Stage transitions in moral reasoning: A longitudinal study of developmental processes. Developmental Psychology, 27, 330 - 337.
Walker, L. J., and Hennig, K. H. (1997). Moral development in the broader context of personality. In S. Hala (Ed.), The development of social cognition (pp. 297 - 327 ). East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.
Walker, L. J., and Hennig, K. H. (in press). Differing Conceptions of Moral Exemplarity: Just, Brave, and Caring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Walker, L. J., Gustafson, P., and Hennig, K. H. (2001). The consolidation/transition model in moral reasoning development. Developmental Psychology, 37, 187 - 197.
Walker, L. J., and Hennig, K. H. (2003). Differing Conceptions of Moral Exemplarity: Just, Brave, and Caring Manuscript submitted for publication.
Williams, B. (1981). Moral luck. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hennig, K. (2004). Morality and Selfhood. In: Thomasma, D.C., Weisstub, D.N. (eds) The Variables of Moral Capacity. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2552-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2552-5_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6677-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2552-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive