Morality In Psychology

Morality has been a topic of interest pursued by philosophers, theologians, and scientists alike for millennia. Wars have been waged and judgments have been sustained based on disagreements of moral standards. Entire societies have been established on certain moral principles, and complete fields of scientific research have been guided by strict ethical codes. Some examples of this are various theocracies such as Vatican City, the Pueblos Indians, or even the “divine rule” of the Japanese Emperor prior to 1945 (Waskey, 2007). Still further it is evident that the concept of morality is appreciated and valued as early as ancient recorded history. Several examples of this are the writings of Confucius that “unified society by codifying a written …show more content…
Even the field of psychology is governed by a set of ethical codes in their research, whether it be imposed by the government mentioned in Hunt’s “The Story of Psychology”, the early ethical standards instituted by national commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral research, referred to as the Belmont Report which “identifies the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of…research involving human subjects…and attempts to summarize the basic ethical principles” (National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979). These ethical standards were found to be: “Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice” and are practiced through the applications of “Informed Consent, the Assessment of Risk and Benefits, and the Selections of Subjects” (National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, …show more content…
Nevertheless, perhaps it was part of his juvenile defiance, Krebs not so much as disagreed with Kohlberg’s theory as he modified it. Kohlberg’s theory addressed individuals and assessed their moral level and reasoning only within the parameters of a hypothetical situation (Hunt, 2007) (Anne Colby, 1983). It was, however; in 1990 that Krebs and a colleague published a study demonstrating that regardless of the moral level individuals were found to reason at when tested with the Kohlberg dilemmas, in actual situations individuals are more likely to reason at a lower moral level (Hunt, 2007) (Kathy Denton, 1990). This famous study consisted of a total of eighty participants that were divided into four groups consisting of ten men and ten women (Kathy Denton, 1990). Half of the subjects were recruited from local social drinking environments, while the other half were enlisted from the university as well as the community at large; the mean age of all participants was twenty-five and a half years of age (Kathy Denton,