Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:44:20.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Political Socialization and Moral Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Richard W. Wilson
Affiliation:
Rutgers University.
Get access

Abstract

Critics of research in political socialization have asserted that the field has been more descriptive than theoretical, overly concerned with socialization to party identification, and too implicit with regard to underlying cultural patterns. At the same time, the study of moral development, largely addressed by psychologists but increasingly of interest to other social scientists and philosophers, has become a focal point of academic inquiry. After a brief discussion of concepts, a model of moral development is presented that integrates existing approaches within a more inclusive theoretical structure. An interrelationship is suggested between the nature of political and social institutions and the form and degree of individual moral development, and some findings show how moral development as an aspect of political socialization can aid in understanding the political behavior of both leaders and followers. Finally, it is suggested that moral development may be an appropriate bridge, within political science, between philosophers and behavioralists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Greenstein, Fred I., Children and Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Brim, Orville G. Jr, and Wheeler, Stanton, Socialization After Childhood: Two Essays (New York: Wiley, 1966).Google Scholar

2 Easton, David, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: Wiley, 1965)Google Scholar; Easton, David and Dennis, Jack, Children in the Political System: Origins of Political Legitimacy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969).Google Scholar

3 Hess, Robert D. and Torney, Judith V., The Development of Political Attitudes in Children (Chicago: Aldine, 1967).Google Scholar

4 Torney, Judith V., “The Definition of Citizen Capacities and Related Psychological Research,” unpub. (1978), 3Google Scholar; prepared with the assistance of Toro, Ana M. as a response to “Working Definition for Citizen Education,” (Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, 1977).Google Scholar

5 See the enumeration in Sears, David O., “Political Socialization,” in Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W., eds., Handbook of Political Science, II, Micropolitical Theory (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975), 111–12.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 117–22; also Torney (fn. 4), 8.

7 Ibid., 2.

8 Sears (fn. 5), 138.

9 Ibid., 113.

10 Ibid., 124.

11 Searing, David D., Schwartz, Joel J., and Lind, Alden E., “The Structuring Principle: Political Socialization and Belief Systems,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 67 (June 1973), 415–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Ibid., 430.

13 Sears, David O., Political Attitudes Through the Life Cycle (San Francisco: W. H. FreemanGoogle Scholar, forthcoming). Page references omitted with permission of the author.

14 Ibid. See also Sears (fn. 5), 130–32, 137.

15 Ibid., 134.

16 Merelman, Richard M., “The Development of Political Ideology: A Framework for the Analysis of Political Socialization,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 63 (September 1969), 750–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Other useful sources not otherwise cited in this article include Bronfenbrenner, Urie, Two Worlds of Childhood (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1970)Google Scholar; Broudy, Harry S., Moral/Citizenship Education: Potentials and Limitations, Occasional Paper No. 3 (Philadelphia, Research for Better Schools, Winter 1977)Google Scholar; Erikson, Erik H., Childhood and Society (New York: Norton, 1950)Google Scholar; Friedman, Daniel, “Political Socialization and Models of Moral Development,” in Renshon, Stanley A., ed., Handbook of Political Socialization (New York: Free Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Haan, Norma, Brewster Smith, M., and Block, Jeanne, “Moral Reasoning of Young Adults: Political-Social Behavior, Family Background and Personality Correlates,” journal of Personality and Social Psychology, X (November 1968), 183201CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kenniston, Kenneth, “Student Activism, Moral Development and Morality,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, XL (July 1970), 577–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Connor, Robert E., “Political Activism and Moral Reasoning: Political and Apolitical Students in Great Britain and France,” British Journal of Political Science, IV, part 1 (January 1974), 5378CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wilson, Richard W., The Moral State (New York: Free Press, 1974).Google Scholar

17 Torney (fn. 4). 16. 57–58.

18 Listings are subcategories of political science noted in the Biographical Directory of the American Political Science Association, 1973: Greenstein, and Polsby, , Handbooks of Political Science (fn. 5), III, xiii–xiv.Google Scholar

19 Hobbes, , Leviathan (Cleveland and New York: Meridian Books, 1963), 123Google Scholar (introduction by John Plamenatz).

20 Skinner, , Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Knopf, 1971), 109, 112–13.Google Scholar

21 Rokeach, Milton, The Nature of Human Values (New York: Free Press, 1973), 8Google Scholar; Gilligan, James, “Beyond Morality: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Shame, Guilt, and Love,” in Lickona, Thomas, ed., Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976), 152.Google Scholar

22 Wilson, Edward O., On Human Nature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), 167.Google ScholarPubMed

23 Kohlberg, , “Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive Developmental Approach,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 40.Google Scholar

24 Torney (fn. 4), 41.

25 Kohlberg, , “From Is to Ought: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral Development,” in Mischel, Theodore, ed., Cognitive Development and Epistemology (New York: Academic Press, 1971), 213.Google Scholar

26 Piaget, , The Moral Judgment of the Child (New York: Collier Books, 1962).Google Scholar

27 Lickona, Thomas, “Critical Issues in the Study of Moral Development and Behavior,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 9.Google Scholar

28 Rest, James R., “The Stage Concept in Moral Judgment Research,” unpub., 12.Google Scholar

29 See Saltzstein, Herbert D., “Social Influence and Moral Development: A Perspective on the Role of Parents and Peers,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 253–65Google Scholar; James Garbarino and Urie Bronfenbrenner, “The Socialization of Moral Judgment and Behavior in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” ibid., 70–83.

30 Rest, “New Approaches in the Assessment of Moral Judgment,” ibid., 210, 213.

31 Wilson, Richard W., “Some Comments on Stage Theories of Moral Development,” Journal of Moral Education, V (June 1976), 241–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Weinreich, H., “Kohlberg and Piaget: Aspects of Their Relationship in the Field of Moral Development,” Journal of Moral Education, IV (June 1975), 201–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 Lickona (fn. 27), 17.

34 Trainer, F. E., “A Critical Analysis of Kohlberg's Contribution to the Study of Moral Thought,” Journal for the Study of Social Behavior, VII (April 1977), 4163CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pittel, Stephen M. and Mendelsohn, Gerald A., “Measurement of Moral Values: A Review and Critique,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 66 (July 1966), 2335CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Scott, William A., Values and Organizations: A Study of Fraternities and Sororities (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965), 36.Google Scholar

35 Gilligan, Carol and Murphy, John M., “From Adolescence to Adulthood: The Moral Dilemmas of Reconciliation to Reality,” Moral Education Forum, IV (Winter 1979), 313.Google Scholar

36 Kohlberg (fn. 25), 213.

37 Hoffman, Martin L., “Empathy, Role Taking, Guilt and the Development of Altruistic Motives,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 124–43.Google Scholar

38 Derived from an earlier formulation in Wilson, Richard W., “A New Direction for the Study of Moral Behavior,” Journal of Moral Education, VII (January 1978), 127.Google Scholar

39 Peters, Richard, “The Place of Kohlberg's Theory in Moral Education,” Journal of Moral Education, VII (May 1978), 154.Google Scholar Merelman (fn. 16), 756–57, also makes this point.

40 Lickona (fn. 27), 26.

41 Saltzstein (fn. 29), 262; see also Mischel, Walter and Mischel, Harriet N., “A Cognitive Social-Learning Approach to Morality and Self-Regulation,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 90.Google Scholar

42 Torney (fn. 4), 29, 53.

43 Saltzstein (fn. 29), 254 from Hoffman, M. L. and Saltzstein, H. D., “Parent Discipline and the Child's Moral Development,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, V (January 1967), 4547CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Aronfreed, Justin, “Moral Development from the Standpoint of a General Psychological Theory,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 64.Google Scholar

44 Saltzstein (fn. 29), 255.

45 Hogan, Robert, “Moral Conduct and Moral Character: A Psychological Perspective,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 79 (April 1973), 223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

46 Hoffman (fn. 37), 132–34.

47 Edward O. Wilson (fn. 22), 119, 155.

48 Torney (fn. 4), 5.

49 Jean Piaget, assisted by Weil, Anne-Marie, “The Development in Children of the Idea of the Homeland and of Relations with Other Countries,” International Social Science Bulletin, III (Autumn 1951), 562.Google Scholar

50 Merelman (fn. 16), 764.

51 Wilson (fn. 38), 126.

52 Kohlberg, Lawrence, “Development of Children's Orientations Toward a Moral Order,” in Sprinthall, Richard C. and Sprinthall, Norman A., eds., Educational Psychology (New York: Van Nostrand-Reinhold, 1969)Google Scholar, and Kohlberg, , “Stage and Sequence: The Cognitive Developmental Approach to Socialization,” in Goslin, David A., ed., Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969).Google Scholar

54 Aronfreed (fn. 43), 67.

55 Garbarino and Bronfenbrenner (fn. 29).

56 Torney (fn. 4), 40.

57 Aronfreed (fn. 43), 67.

58 Greenstein, Fred I., “Personality and Political Socialization: The Theories of Authoritarian and Democratic Character,” in Sigel, Roberta S., ed., Learning About Politics: A Reader on Political Socialization (New York: Random House, 1970), 260–76Google Scholar, reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 361 (1965), 81–95; Bay, Christian, “Human Development and Political Orientations: Notes Toward a Science of Political Education,” in Abcarian, Gilbert and Soule, John W., eds., Social Psychology and Political Behavior: Problems and Prospects (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1971), 154–57.Google Scholar

59 Lockwood, Alan L., “Moral Reasoning and Public Policy Debate,” in Lickona (fn. 21), 322Google Scholar, citing Kohlberg, Lawrence, “Education for Justice: A Modern Statement of the Platonic View,” in Sizer, N. F. and Sizer, T. R., eds., Moral Education: Five Lectures (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), 57–83.Google Scholar

60 June Tapp, L. and Kohlberg, Lawrence, “Developing Senses of Law and Legal Justice,” Journal of Social Issues, XXVII (No. 2, 1971), 86.Google Scholar (Entire issue entitled “Socialization, The Law, and Society.”)

61 Aronfreed (fn. 43), 69.

62 Lockwood (fn. 59), 321.

63 Fishkin, James, Kenniston, Kenneth, and MacKinnon, Catherine, “Moral Reasoning and Political Ideology,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, XXVII (July 1973). 117.Google Scholar

64 Candee, Daniel, “Ego-Developmental Aspects of New Left Ideology,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, XXX (November 1974), 629.Google Scholar

65 Lockwood (fn. 59), 319.

66 Candee, Daniel, “The Moral Psychology of Watergate and Its Aftermath,” in Wilson, Richard W. and Schochet, Gordon J., eds., Moral Development and Politics (New York: Praeger, 1980).Google Scholar

67 Rest, in Lickona (fn. 21), 217.

68 A preliminary development of these views was first set forth in Richard W. Wilson, “Ideology, Hierarchy and Moral Behavior,” paper presented at the Eighth Sino-American Conference on Mainland China held at the Institute of International Studies, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., May 17–20, 1979, and subsequently published in proceedings, the, The Enduring Chinese Dimension (Columbia: Institute of International Studies, University of South Carolina, 1979), 239–52.Google Scholar

69 Fried, , Right and Wrong (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), 29, 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

70 Ibid., 150.

71 Ibid., 157.

72 Ibid., 118–25, 131, 172.

73 Berlin, , Two Concepts of Liberty (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 11, 15, 16.Google Scholar

74 Ibid., 50, 51, 56.

75 Ibid., 50–51.

76 Ibid., 50, 56.

77 Derived from an earlier formulation presented in Wilson, Richard W., “A Moral Community of Strangers,” in Wilson and Schochet (fn. 66), 37.Google Scholar