Deck 3: Conscience and Moral Development

Question 1

In the context of the development of conscience, people who lack a conscience or a moral sense are known as:

A) romantic sentimentalists.
B) misanthropes.
C) praxists.
D) sociopaths.

Answer 1

sociopaths.

Question 2

Which of the following premises is shared by various developmental theories?

A) Morality is intensely personal and relative to each individual's feelings.
B) Humans have an innate desire to grow and strive toward the good.
C) Morality must be taught because children are fundamentally amoral and lack a moral sense.
D) Conscience is culturally relative; hence moral education is important.

Answer 2

Humans have an innate desire to grow and strive toward the good.

Question 3

In the context of moral sentiments, the capacity for and inclination to imagine the feelings of others is known as _____.

A) intuition
B) moral satisfaction
C) sympathy
D) the helper's high

Answer 3

sympathy

Question 4

In the context of moral sentiments, moral indignation is defined as:

A) the anger an individual feels at the sight of others being harmed.
B) an individual's innate need to accept responsibility for his or her actions.
C) the anger an individual feels when he or she is personally injured.
D) an individual's motivation to pay attention to the needs of his or her loved ones.

Question 5

According to studies of psychopaths and brain-damaged people like Phineas P. Gage, which part of the brain plays a key role in moral reasoning?

A) the affective medulla
B) the frontal lobes
C) the cerebellum
D) the pituitary gland

Question 6

Which of the following factors would a cultural relativist argue to be the most important in the formation of our consciences?

A) good genes
B) intuition
C) conscious moral direction
D) environment

Question 7

In the context of moral reasoning, _____ involves the use of rhetoric, fallacies, and resistance rather than logical analysis.

A) compassion
B) rationalization
C) reciprocity
D) indignation

Question 8

Which of the following people would be most likely to excuse a woman's abusive behavior toward her children because of her past history of abuse as a child?

A) Confucius
B) Aristotle
C) Carol Gilligan
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 9

According to both Kohlberg's and Gilligan's preconventional stage of moral reasoning, which of the following questions would you be most likely to hear from someone who is confronted with a moral issue?

A) "What will others think?"
B) "Will you accept responsibility?"
C) "What's in it for me?"
D) "Is this going to harm anyone?"

Question 10

According to James Rest, a person who has integrated moral reasoning, moral sensitivity, and moral motivation into his or her personality has:

A) a strongly cynical worldview.
B) low individual relativism.
C) high moral character.
D) a rational outlook on life.

Question 11

According to psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, _____.

A) people are incapable of moral reasoning
B) people at the postconventional stage of moral development base their moral decisions on mature care ethics
C) people at the postconventional stage of moral development base their moral decisions on universal moral principles
D) people at the postconventional stage of moral development are dangerous

Question 12

"If you need help writing your essay, you should ask Mary Lou. She's a real saint. You can always count on Mary Lou to come through when you are in need. Even though she's in danger of flunking out this semester and her health is suffering, she does not let that stop her from putting other people's needs before her own. She'll always drop what she's doing to help anyone." At what stage of moral development would Carol Gilligan say Mary Lou is?

A) conventional
B) postconventional
C) preconventional
D) agape

Question 13

Which of the following questions would you be most likely to hear from people in the postconventional stage of moral reasoning when they are confronted with a moral issue in their lives?

A) "What will others think?"
B) "Will you accept responsibility for what happens?"
C) "Is someone going to be harmed by my action?"
D) "What's in it for me?"

Question 14

Which of the following is a criticism of Kohlberg's theory on the stages of moral development?

A) His research was ethnocentric and, not surprisingly, Americans turned out to be at a higher stage of moral development than people from any other culture.
B) His research placed too much emphasis on the cognitive aspect of moral development.
C) There is no evidence that people's style of moral reasoning changes as they age.
D) His research on the stages is misleading because his research was based only on studies with men.

Question 15

During a junior high health education class on genetics, a teacher asked one of the students to remove his shoes and show the webbing between his toes. Oblivious to the student's obvious embarrassment, she chided him until he finally took off his shoe. In the context of James Rest's components of moral behavior, this teacher was clearly deficient in:

A) moral sensitivity.
B) moral reasoning.
C) moral motivation.
D) moral relativism.

Question 16

You were up late last night helping a friend who is depressed. As a result, you did not have enough time to study for your ethics test today. You are a good student and plan to go to a medical school next year and, after that, work in an inner-city clinic. You need to pass ethics in order to graduate. When you look at the test, you realize you will not be able to pass. However, you notice that you can see the answers of the student sitting in front of you. She is one of the best students in the class. Should you copy her answers? What would Kant say?

A) Yes, you should copy her answers if you are pretty sure you will not get caught, because by graduating and becoming a physician you will benefit far more people than by failing the course.
B) No, you should not copy the test answers because it is against the school's rules.
C) No, you should not copy the test answers because it is dishonest.
D) Yes, although in general you have a duty not to cheat, in this situation it is morally acceptable since your lack of preparation for the test stems from your good will and desire to help a friend in need.

Question 17

According to Kant, members of the moral community or kingdom of ends include(s):

A) all sentient beings because they are capable of experiencing pain and pleasure.
B) humans, as well as household pets because they are valued by humans.
C) humans because they are rational.
D) only God because only God has a perfectly good will.

Question 18

Identify the person who said each of the following.

-"The superego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression... the stricter will be the domination of the superego later on-in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt." Which of the following theorists is most likely to have made this statement?

A) James Rest
B) Jean Piaget
C) Lawrence Kohlberg
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 19

Identify the person who said each of the following.

-"The failure to see the different reality of women's lives and to hear the differences in their voice stems in part from the assumption that there is a single mode of social experience and development." Which of the following theorists is most likely to have made this statement?

A) Lawrence Kohlberg
B) Carol Gilligan
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Ruth Benedict

Question 20

Identify the person who said each of the following.

-"The postconventional stage is characterized by a major thrust toward autonomous moral principles that have validity and application apart from the authority of the groups or people who hold them..." Which of the following theorists is most likely to have made this statement?

A) Mencius
B) A. J. Ayer
C) Carol Gilligan
D) Lawrence Kohlberg