The Forms and Functions of Real‐life Moral Decision‐making

Abstract People rarely make the types of moral judgement evoked by Kohlberg's test when they make moral decisions in their everyday lives. The anticipated consequences of real‐life moral decisions, to self and to others, may influence moral choices and the structure of moral reasoning. To understand real‐life moral judgement we must attend to its functions, which, although they occasionally involve resolving hypothetical moral dilemmas like those on Kohlberg's test, more often involve promoting good social relations, upholding favourable self‐concepts and justifying self‐interested behaviour. We argue that a functional model of moral judgement and moral behaviour derived from evolutionary theory may supply a better account of real‐life morality than the Kohlbergian model.

[1]  B. R. Schlenker.  Impression Management: The Self-Concept, Social Identity, and Interpersonal Relations , 1980 .

[2]  D. Krebs,et al.  From the scene to the crime: the effect of alcohol and social context on moral judgment. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  J. Boatright,et al.  From Theory to Practice: Faculty Training in Business Ethics. , 1991 .

[4]  D. Krebs,et al.  Gender and Dilemma Differences in Real-Life Moral Judgment. , 1996 .

[5]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Social cognition, 2nd ed. , 1991 .

[6]  J. Carpendale,et al.  The structural consistency of moral judgments about AIDS. , 1993, The Journal of Genetic Psychology.

[7]  Carol Barner-Barry,et al.  The Biology of Moral Systems Richard D. Alexander New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1987 , 1988, Politics and the Life Sciences.

[8]  M. Snyder.  When belief creates reality , 1984 .

[9]  William Damon,et al.  The social world of the child , 1977 .

[10]  Anne Colby,et al.  The Measurement Of Moral Judgment , 1987 .

[11]  William Damon,et al.  Social construction in Piaget's theory. , 1992 .

[12]  J. Carpendale.  Selfish incentive, moral choice and moral justification , 1990 .

[13]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The Evolution of Cooperation , 1984 .

[14]  D. Krebs,et al.  Sources of variation in moral judgment: Toward a model of real-life morality , 1997 .

[15]  Anne Colby,et al.  Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment , 1992 .

[16]  Coping, defending, and the relations between moral judgment and moral behavior in prostitutes and other female juvenile delinquents. , 1993 .

[17]  J. Carpendale,et al.  Situational variation in moral judgment: In a stage or on a stage? , 1992, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[18]  M. Zanna,et al.  Attitudes and Attitude Change , 1993 .

[19]  J. Carpendale,et al.  Gender and Perspective Differences in Moral Judgement and Moral Orientation , 1994 .

[20]  W. Swann.  Identity negotiation: where two roads meet. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  Anne Campbell,et al.  Altruism and Aggression , 1993 .

[22]  J. Carpendale,et al.  Variations in Level of Moral Judgment as a Function of Type of Dilemma and Moral Choice , 1995 .

[23]  J. Carpendale,et al.  Structural flexibility of moral judgment. , 1991 .

[24]  R. D. Alexander.  The biology of moral systems , 1989 .