Values and Morals ClarificationMark Dombeck, Ph.D. and Jolyn Wells-Moran, Ph.D. Updated: Jun 29th 2006The final thing you will benefit from becoming more aware of is your own values and how those values correspond to your community's moral sensibilities, and to your own actions. Your values are the principles you believe in and have invested in (which is why they are said to have "value" in the first place). Values are the goals towards which you aspire. They largely define the core of your identity. More importantly still, they are the source of your motivation to improve yourself. If you did not value self-improvement, for example, you would not be reading this document right now. It is important to develop a good understanding of your values, because of how influential your values are in determining and motivating your behavior. If you don't understand your values, you won't understand how to orient yourself in a direction that is likely to be satisfying. Your behavior, your actions will be more oriented towards putting out fires (satisfying your immediate needs), and less oriented towards developing your long term potential. You won't have a plan. You will instead, just be reactive. Because if you don't understand what they are you don't know what motivates you. Or what could motivate you - towards becoming a better person. People's values define what they want personally, but morals define what the society around those people want for them. Certain behaviors are considered to be desirable by a given society, while others are considered to be undesirable. For the most part, however, morals are not written in stone, or proclaimed by God above, but instead reflect local sensibilities. Different societies have different ideas about what is acceptable and not acceptable. There are only a relative few behaviors (usually including murder, and various forms of abuse, including incest and adult-child sexual contact of any sort) that are pretty much universally despised by stable societies. People are not born understanding their society's morals. Instead, these understandings develop and mature over time. Psychologist Lawrence Kolhberg's famous work has provided us with a developmental mapping of how moral understanding tends to progress through childhood and early adulthood. - According to Kohlberg, infants have little or no moral sense, because they are not born with an understanding of the nature of human relationships. As children reach elementary school age, they enter into the first major stage of moral understanding, known as the "pre-conventional" stage. Pre-conventional children are essentially selfish in orientation. They do not think about what behaviors will serve the greater good, but rather think in terms of what will most benefit themselves. They respond primarily to power, and think of morality as a matter of following rules so as to avoid punishment.
- As children grow into adulthood, they typically enter into the stage of "conventional" moral understanding. Some children will be developmentally delayed in this regard and become adults who have the moral understanding of children; we call them sociopaths, narcissists, and anti-social personalities. The majority of people that do make it to the conventional moral understanding start thinking in terms of duty; a duty to do what is necessary to promote the greater good. They orient towards behaviors that are most likely to gain other people's respect and admiration. Part of conventional morality is the duty to behave lawfully. Some people take this duty further and understand it as a duty to conform to what other influential people around them want.
- Most adults never actually achieve the final stage of morality, known as post-conventional morality, mostly because in order to get there, people have to throw off their sense of duty to what others around them want, and reinvest their moral sense in higher principles, such as (but not limited to) "honesty", "reciprocity", and "social welfare". Such people become willing to take unpopular stances and make unpopular decisions simply because those decisions represent the right thing to do. For example, a post-conventional CEO might decide to offer full medical coverage for all employees because it is the right thing to do (to use the company to raise up all participants), even though to do so would anger shareholders who might see this as a drain on profits. It is very difficult to achieve a post-conventional morality in what is largely a conventional world. The CEO in our example would probably not last long, unfortunately.
Various worldviews of morality - Kieu Cong Hien - Jun 3rd 2009
The general concepts and definitions of the above ideas are very good, it is actual based on its own society and community. On the other hand, morality may be depended or influential from the beliefs, cultural mores and traditional practice of society or community where they live. There are various definitions of morality, for me there are three major definitions of morality: (1) the morality of God, what Christians are compliance with Ten Commandments and Scriptures. However, this morality sometimes runs contrary to the law and regulation of the secular society or community where each person must obey the uniqued stipulation of that society. In short, this morality is absolutely opposited to the morality of Satan. (2) the morality of Satan, this morality is attractive people who want to be freedom in whatever they want to do in order to satisfy their own ambitions. This morality is welcomed by those who desire to live beyond the law of human or the morality of human in which each country has to issue and require its citizens to compliance with. (3) the morality of human is when people who are compliance with their current laws and regulations, if they run contrary and object the law they will at once punish. On the other hand, the morality of human is to make society order, its common goal is to value its community. This morality sometimes lies between the morality of God and the morality of Satan. Post-Conventional Stage - ayse - Apr 14th 2009
We need to educate the society for all adults to be in the post -conventional stage of Kohlberg's, so that humanity will serve for others not only for him or her-self. It is sad that we have conventional society.The conventional CEO's should get fired not post-conventional ones. Interesting article - Melissa - Apr 13th 2009
I found this article to be interesting. I agree that little things people do differ on the morality standard scale depending on where you live. I also found it interesting that babys are not born with any sense of morals and that it is learned growing up. values and morals - Betty - Apr 10th 2009
I never knew the difference between vakue and morals. I have always done what my parents have told me to do and what was expected of me. For instance, I got married straight from high school and had three boys, My husband could not keep a job at all. i ended up divorcing him and I went on with my life. I knew what I wanted and i kept it inside of me. Today I am achieving what I wanted to do over 20 years ago. I am attending school. I am strong in what I want and that is going to be it. very helpful! - Learnig in the University and diversity of the Web sites. - Jan 16th 2009
I found this site very helpful! It made me think of how some things are related and how our values determine our behavior. So true♥ - - Oct 28th 2008
Is it Possible to be in the Post- conventional stage at a young age? post-conventional? - post-conventional - Oct 1st 2008
A post-conventional CEO? don't make me laugh. - Danita Applewhite, Doctoral Candidate-Ca - Aug 15th 2008
I must encourage others, especially my students, to believe that post-conventional morality is still existent. There are many who strive to stand up for what is right and fair, or at least they support those who are willing to stand out in the crowd. I find that those who genuinely care for others regardless of their culture, ethnicty, and political or religious belief systems, are those who claarify values and morality for us in the world. It is difficult to see popular entertainers and political leaders as imperfect because they influence so many. However, I am honored to be in the company of others who are truly interested in feeding the hungry and teaching them how to sustain themselves. Good country this Canada - John Smith - Jul 12th 2008
A duty to do what is necessary to promote the greater good Philanthropy? Most people in a macro sense who have reached this stage have so much money that thay look for a way to give back to the community that they have overly charged for their services,have sucked the life blood out of the human race and are now looking for spiritual redemption. altruism, beneficence, benignancy, benignity, charitableness, charity, goodwill, grace, kindheartedness, kindliness, kindness Be true to thine own self. If you are a social welfare recipient and do not contribute to the community, I have no pity or sympathy for you. Mothers raising generations of welfare dependants and fathers having children(planting their seed) without social responsibility. The world is a cold place "GOOS" - - Mar 17th 2008
Yes...i agree...it is a "GOOS" article! Situationally Post-Conventional - - Feb 20th 2008
To be Post-Conventional does not mean that one needs to be totally this way all the time. Most people will have a moment or moments in their life when they are Post-Conventional based on the situation in which they behave according to this standard. nice one !!!!!!!!!!!! - lanre - Feb 14th 2008
nice one,is their anyone from post-convectional morality?.and how will one knows if he or she has move from one level of morality to another. thanks. - - Jan 15th 2008
VERY TRUTHFUL AND GOOS ARTICLE | 
