People think about right and wrong and good and bad in terms of what they think is right and what is bad. Many people might argue that religion is a major influence; to the contrary, however, religion plays a relatively minor role and, in most cases, is no more influential than someone’s educational background or perceived authority figures. After all, a person can be an atheist and still maintain an ethical lifestyle.
In actuality, according to Dr. John Chaffee (2000), ethical opinions are based upon an individual’s belief in and acceptance of what is considered moral and, therefore, good by the people or groups with whom he or she has the most in common, like parents or friends.
Cultural Mores and Development of Ethical Principles
A culture’s mores are dictated by the greater society of which that culture is a part, although it’s a person’s community (mainly parents and peers) that reinforces these concepts. As a result, if someone’s community feels differently than the rest of society, he or she will tend to follow the community’s lead.
For example, if society says stealing is wrong, but a teenager’s peers argue, “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with stealing from the corner store. It’s a rite of passage,” that teenager is more than likely going to steal from the store and experience little, if any, guilt.
Determining Good Versus Bad
Society rewards good behavior and punishes bad behavior. What is considered good opposed to bad, though, is based upon a society’s established norms, which are agreed-upon rules that set the limits for acceptable and unacceptable behavior and reflect the major values of a society.
It’s important to note, however, that if people fail to receive praise from their community for what society deems “good” and instead receives praise for what society deems “bad,” it’s likely that this person will gravitate toward unacceptable behavior. For example, when a thieving teenager receives admiration and praise from his peers, he is more likely to continue stealing.
Developing an Internal Moral Compass
People’s internalized beliefs form a “moral compass” that provides them with direction in making decisions in ethical situations. When they heed this moral compass, people normally do the following:
- Voluntarily behave in a way consistent with what they understand to be appropriate conduct;
- Internalize moral concepts;
- Develop a personal ethic;
- Regard themselves as accountable for their conduct, attitude, and character; and
- Experience guilt if they fail to adhere to internalized beliefs.
Why Some People Lack a Moral Compass
As psychological research demonstrates, some individuals are born without a moral compass. So they can’t discern good from evil.
Interestingly, even though such individuals might grow up in loving homes, with nurturing and supportive parents, they yet lack compassion for other people (or any living creature) and actually derive pleasure from causing pain and suffering.
Then again, as Henry L. Tischler, a professor of sociology at Farmington State College in Massachusetts, explains, “Psychological explanations of deviance downplay biological factors and emphasize instead the role of parents and early childhood experiences, or behavioral conditioning, in producing deviant behavior.” (1996)
Additional research, in fact, has shown that a hormonal imbalance is sometimes to blame for deviant behavior, although there are other causal factors, for example, traumatic childhood experiences and/or lack of emotional development.
Childhood Development of Morality
Some parenting experts argue that parents today don’t discipline children effectively and the resultant lack of parental authority and control is contributing to an overall decline of civility and morality in children and, by extension, all of society.
Dr. John Rosemond, for example, maintains that the parenting revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s (the Dr. Spock generation) resulted in parental common sense being “drowned in a tsunami of psychobabble.” As Rosemond says, until this time, although loved by parents, children were not the center of the family unit, parents were, and unlike children today, children did not believe they were tiny planets around which the entire universe revolved.
What has changed? According to Rosemond, primarily it’s society’s view of physical punishment. Whereas previous generations believed in the axiom, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” parents today frown upon physical punishment and instead support disciplinary methods such as using time-outs, withholding privileges, and/or banishing a child to his or her room. Additionally, some parents believe in sitting down a childrenand attempting to reason with him; but as Rosemond points out, one cannot reason with “tyrannical kings, queens, demigods, and dictators” who are dressed in diapers and pull-ups. (Advocate, 2008)
Some psychologists believe that if parents do not provide effective discipline, they are teaching children that it’s perfectly acceptable to behave in undesirable ways; and if children do not learn there are unpleasant consequences to undesirable actions, they will never internalize a moral compass to help them differentiate between right versus wrong and good versus bad.
