Gender and Moral Devt of Carol Gilligan free essay sample

Carol Gilligan compared the moral development of girls and boys in her theory of gender and moral development. She claimed that boys have a justice perspective meaning that they rely on formal rules to define right and wrong. Girls, on the other hand, have a care and responsibility perspective where personal relationships are considered when judging a situation. Gilligan also studied the effect of gender on self-esteem. She claimed that societys socialization of females is the reason why girls self-esteem diminishes as they grow older. Girls struggle to regain their personal strength when moving through adolescence as they have fewer female teachers and most authority figures are men. Every society has a system of learned attitudes about social practices, institutions, and behavior used to evaluate situations, experiences, and behavior as right or wrong, good or bad. Although, there are known standards of morality within the society in which we live, adults are driven and motivated differently on how they come to make their moral decisions every day. We will write a custom essay sample on Gender and Moral Devt of Carol Gilligan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Carol Gilligan, well known psychologist, professor, and author, was the first to claim there are gender differences within the moral development between males and females. She believes that women have different moral criteria and follow a different path in maturation and that our lives are shaped by the moral questions and decisions we make every day (Hekman, 1997). In general, Gilligan’s research noted gender differences in feelings towards caring, relationships, and connections with other people among males and females. More specifically Gilligan noted that women are more concerned with care, relationships, and connections with other people and men are more inclined to think in terms of rules and justice. Gilligan’s alternative theory of development of women proposes three stages of preconventional, conventional, and post conventional where the transitions between the stages are fueled by changes in the sense of self rather than in changes in cognitive capability like those of her colleagues (Medea, 2009). Her theory is divided into three stages of moral development beginning from selfish, to social or conventional morality, and finally to post conventional or principled morality. Women must learn to deal to their own interests and to the interests of others. She thinks that women hesitate to judge because they see the complexities of relationships. Pre Conventional -Person only cares for themselves in order to ensure survival -This is how everyone is as children In this transitional phase, the person s attitude is considered selfish, and the person sees the connection between themselves and others. Conventional -Responsibility -More care shown for other people. -Gilligan says this is shown in the role of Mother Wife -Situation sometimes carries on to ignoring needs of self. In this transitional phase, tensions between responsibility of caring for others and caring for self are faced. Post Conventional -Acceptance of the principle of care for self and others is shown. -Some people never reach this level. Gilligan produces her own stage theory of moral development for women like Kohlbergs, it has three major divisions: preconventional, conventional, and post conventional. But for Gilligan, the transitions between the stages are fueled by changes in the sense of self rather than in changes in cognitive capability. Kohlbergs approach is based on Piagets cognitive developmental model. Moral decisions are egocentric (based on me) and concrete. It is assumed then that reward and punishment are the typical bases of reasoning in this stage. The conventional stage is based on the individuals ability to decenter their moral universe and take the moral perspective of their parents and other important members of society into account. The postconventional stage is based on the adults ability to base morality on the logic of principled decision making based on standards that are thought to be universalizable and not dependent on culture. Kohlbergs system was based on extensive research he and his students did with interviews in which they asked children and adults to give the reasons they had for moral decisions (Kohlberg, 1973).