Moral Development Theory

Moral development theory is concerned with:

• How people think or reason.
• How they actually believe.
• How they feel about moral issues.

Moral development is connected to changes in cognitive development.

Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

Piaget developed a two-stage moral development theory that complimented his stages of cognitive development.

Source: Robbins, S.P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human behavior theory. Allyn & Bacon. 

Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg also developed a theory of moral development that expanded Piaget’s theory; Kohlberg believed moral development was more complex than Piaget’s theory. Kohlberg’s theory has levels and stages, and he believed most persons do not achieve the third level of morality (post-conventional).

Source: Robbins, S.P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human behavior theory. Allyn & Bacon. 

Video Resource

Learning Theories

Overview

There are various theories about learning.

Learning theories include:

• Cognitive theory
• Behavioral theory
• Social learning theory

Behavior theory focuses on physical, observable, and “objective” behavior.

The three main approaches:

• Stimulus-response: Focused on environmental factors that elicit and maintain behavior.
• Behavior analysis: Focused o the consequences of behavior.
• Social learning theory: Adds a concern with cognitive mediational processes.

Source: Walsh, J.F. (2013). Theories for direct social work practice. Cengage Learning.

Behavioral theories

Respondent or Classical Conditioning

The following information is adapted from: 2.4: Exploring Behavior is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and authored, remixed, and/or curated by Laura Overstreet.

Classical conditioning explains how we develop many emotional responses to people or events or our “gut level” reactions to situations. New situations may bring about an old response because the two have become connected. Attachments form in this way. Addictions can be affected by classical conditioning. For instance, when a person tries to stop smoking cigarettes, everything associated with smoking can make them crave cigarettes.

Ivan Pavlov (1880-1937) was a Russian physiologist interested in studying digestion. As he recorded the amount of salivation his laboratory dogs produced as they ate, he noticed that they actually began to salivate before the food arrived as the researcher walked down the hall and toward the cage. “This,” he thought, “is not natural!” The dogs knew the food was coming because they had learned to associate the footsteps with the food. The key word here is “learned.” A learned response is called a conditioned response.

Pavlov began to experiment with this “psychic” reflex. He began to ring a bell, for instance, prior to introducing the food. Sure enough, after making this connection several times, the dogs could be made to salivate to the sound of a bell. Once the bell had become an event to which the dogs had learned to salivate, it was called a conditioned stimulus. The act of salivating to a bell was a response that had also been learned, now termed in Pavlov’s jargon, a conditioned response. Notice that the response, salivation, is the same whether it is conditioned or unconditioned (unlearned or natural). What changed is the stimulus to which the dog salivates. One is natural (unconditioned), and one is learned (conditioned).

Video Resource: Classical Conditioning

Treatment Examples

Systematic Desensitization:

• Counter-conditioning intervention used in treating phobias involving relaxation training, construction of the anxiety hierarchy, and desensitization in imagination (pairing of relaxation and mental images of items from the least to the most anxiety-producing image until the person can visualize all images without becoming anxious).

In Vivo Desensitization

• Pairing of relaxation and real-life experiences with an anxiety-producing stimulus until the person no longer responds to the experience with anxiety.

Video Resource: Systematic Desensitization

Video Resource: In Vivo Exposure

Operant Conditioning

The following information is adapted from: 2.4: Exploring Behavior is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and authored, remixed, and/or curated by Laura Overstreet.

Operant Conditioning is another learning theory that emphasizes a more conscious type of learning than classical conditioning. A person (or animal) does something (operates something) to see what effect it might bring. Simply said, operant conditioning describes how we repeat behaviors because they pay off for us. It is based on a principle authored by a psychologist named Thorndike (1874-1949) called the law of effect. The law of effect suggests that we will repeat an action if it is followed by a good effect.

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) expanded on Thorndike’s principle and outlined the principles of operant conditioning. Skinner believed that we learn best when our actions are reinforced. For example, a child who cleans his room and is reinforced (rewarded) with a big hug and words of praise is more likely to clean it again than a child whose deed goes unnoticed. Skinner believed that almost anything could be reinforcing.

Video Resource: B.F. Skinner Foundation- Pigeon Turn

A reinforcer is anything following a behavior that makes it more likely to occur again. It can be something intrinsically rewarding (called intrinsic or primary reinforcers), such as food or praise, or it can be something that is rewarding because it can be exchanged for what one really wants (such as using money to buy a cookie). Such reinforcers are referred to as secondary reinforcers or extrinsic reinforcers.

Sometimes, adding something to the situation is reinforcing, as in the cases we described above with cookies, praise, and money. Positive reinforcement involves adding something to the situation in order to encourage a behavior. Other times, taking something away from a situation can be reinforcing. For example, the loud, annoying buzzer on your alarm clock encourages you to get up so that you can turn it off and get rid of the noise. Another example: Children can repeatedly ask for something in order to get their parents to “give in.” When the parent provides the child with their request so their child will stop the behavior, negative reinforcement has been used.

Operant conditioning tends to work best if you focus on trying to encourage a behavior or move a person in the direction you want them to go rather than telling them what not to do. Reinforcers are used to encourage a behavior; punishers are used to stop the behavior. A punisher is anything that follows an act and decreases the chance it will reoccur. But often, a punished behavior doesn’t really go away. It is just suppressed and may reoccur whenever the threat of punishment is removed. For example, a motorist may only slow down on the highway when the state trooper is on the side of the freeway. Another problem with punishment is that when a person focuses on punishment, they may find it hard to see what the other does right or well. And punishment is stigmatizing; when punished, some start to see themselves as bad and give up trying to change.

Reinforcement can occur in a predictable way, such as after every desired action is performed, or intermittently after the behavior is performed a number of times, or the first time it is performed after a certain amount of time. The schedule of reinforcement affects how long a behavior continues after reinforcement is discontinued. So a parent who has rewarded a child’s actions each time may find that the child gives up very quickly if a reward is not immediately forthcoming.

Video Resource: Operant Conditioning

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is unique from traditional behavioral theories because social learning theory indicates reinforcement and conditioning are not necessarily needed. Albert Bandura believed behavior is learned, and his approach considered the role of social context in how we learn (Schultz & Schultz, 2013).

Modeling

• The weakening of an inhibition or restraint through exposure to a model.

Disinhibition

• The weakening of an inhibition or restraint through exposure to a model.

Three Factors That Influence Modeling

• Characteristics of the models
  • Influence is stronger when there is similarity of the model. This includes gender and age. Another influence is prestige and status. For example, a person may be influenced by watching a model who is a celebrity in a commercial. Behaviors like aggression are strongly imitated (especially by children).
• Characteristics of the observers
  • Individuals who have a low self-esteem/confidence are more likely to imitate a model than others.
• Reward consequences associated with behaviors
  • Even if an observer imitates an influential model, if there are no meaningful rewards to the observer, the behavior is likely to be discontinued. In another example, if an observer sees that the model is either awarded or punished for the behavior, this can influence the observer’s behavior.

Source: Schultz, D.P., & Schultz, S.E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Video Resource