CHAPTER #12: MORALITY & RELIGION ? Intro ? Secularization theory: religion is on the decline and that people are discovering new secular and rational ways to make sense of their lives as the world develops and progresses, and science continues to make one discovery after another, religious explanations of phenomena are becoming supplanted by rational and scientific ones Only for places like Scandinavia and East Asia But still very much alive in the US where there are many scientific advances Islam and Christianity growing quickly . If anything, religion may even be growing in importance across the planet . Ethnocentrism and Cross-Cultural Morality Enthonocentrism: leads people to assume that their own culture's way of life is in some ways better, or more natural, than that of others ? cultures tend to value more those characteristics for which their own culture is particularly accomplished "Who comes out on top, in any ranking system, is really about who is doing the ranking" . Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development o Cognitive abilities underlie moral reasoning and those abilities progress as individuals develop, mature, and are educated o Level 1: The Preconventional Level individuals understand the cultural rules and labels of what is good and bad but interpret those labels in terms of the physical or hedonistic consequences of their actions people interpret morality based on a calculation of how much better or worse off they would be for acting in a certain way What determines whether an action is good or bad is whether it satisfies a person's own needs, and occasionally the needs of others trying to behave in a way that provides the best overall return o Level 2: The Conventional Level people are able to identify themselves with a particular group and social order, to which they show loyalty The social order of the group is actively maintained, supported, and justified by the efforts of individuals to live up to the groups standards actions are considered morally correct if they help maintain and facilitate the social order . Actions are morally wrong if they involve violating any rules or laws the social order has established, regardless of what those rules or laws are about Rightness means following the rules, and individuals should not question where those rules come from
o Level 3: The Postconventional Level moral values and principles are seen to exist separately from the authority of the social groups that hold them based on the consideration of abstract ethical principles about right and wrong, and moral decisions are i cached based on the logical extensions of those principles Good behavior is seen as that which is consistent with a set of universal ethical principles that emphasize justice and individual rights Cross-Cultural Evidence for Kohlberg's Model Researchers are more interested in the reasons participants give to justify their answers than in the answers themselves universal because the levels always follow the same sequence The different levels of the model reflect different abilities and motivations for focusing on moral concerns