Journal #9: The Case of the Adolescent Mind

Task #1

Describe two types of biases critics have leveled at Kohlberg's theory:

1> Gender Bias: Carol Gilligan

The earler research applied to Kohlberg's model suggests that males attained higher levels of moral reasoning than women did. Carol Gilligan didn't believe that women were less capable than men, rather she argued that Kohlberg's model was gender-biased because his theory was based on an all-male sample. To prove this, Gilligan set out and listened to women's views and discovered that women and men applied different moral standards. According to what Gilligan had found, females adopted care orientation and applied a justice orientation. Gilligan argued that the genders represent two different way of thinking about moral behavior, where neither is standing above another.

2> Cultural Bias

Critics challenged Kohlberg's theory on the basis that it borrows heavily from moral theories form the Western culture without a clear explanation on how the theory can be applied to Non-Western cultures. A cross-cultural study, that was taken in 1992, comparing the moral reasoning among people in the United States and India found cultural differences in the priorities for justice and interpersonal values. It found that the American's had a greater justice orientation rather than an interpersonal orientation. They believed that what is just or fair governs what is right. The study also found that the Indians had a greater interpersonal orientation, such as upholding one's obligations to others and beng reponsive to other people's needs.

Do you believe these criticisms are well grounded?

1> Gender Bias: Carol Gilligan

I believe that Gilligan's criticism was well grounded because of the gender-biased research that Kohlberg tried to pass as sufficient. Also, the research that Gilligan had conducted and gathered makes a lot more sense than Kohlberg's does based off of my own personal experience. I have found that women and males are neither greater than the other but instead have different view points and morals, which is what Gilligan's research had found.

2>Cultural Bias

I also believe that the critics who challenged Kohlberg's theory based off of the cultural bias in Kohlberg's research is well grounded because Kohlberg only used Western culture for his studies. Culture is a big part of moral standings because no culture is the same and the cross-cultural study that was conducted proved this true.

Task #2

The term Imaginary Audience refers to a state in which an adolescent believes that everyone is enthusiastically listening or watching them. For example, a girl is walking down the hallway of her school and hears a group of kids talking and laughing near her, she automatically assumes that they are laughing about her.

Personal Fable is a common teen and older tween belief that arises from adolescent egocentrism. In particular, the personal fable can cause a tween or teen to believe that nothing bad could possibly happen to someone as exceptional as themself. In other words, since they're so special, they must be invulnerable.

Task #3

The article The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction taught me that the emotions and behaviors that I exhibit are valid and normal for an adolescent like myself. The article talked about a scientific study that watched people from childhood to adulthood. The study showed that there were changes in the volume of grey matter in the brain where the thought processes and memory is formed. The increase of grey matter makes it harder for the adolescent to remember things. To me, this makes complete sense because I have so much trouble remembering things that I have to keep a white board in my room filled with things I have to do. The article also mentions that during adolescence the parts of the brain that is involved in the emotional responses are "fully online". Being the adolescent that I am, I tend to get super emotional over trivial things like not having the right outfit or not having the right snacks after school. Also, I do tend to make haisty descions on a moments notice without really caring for the consequences afterward, until I have to come face to face with them. After reading this article I now have an answer to the question I always ask myself when I do something stupid: "Why did you do that"?