Morality is a system of ideas about good and bad conduct that helps people to make the right choices. It is commonly associated with human behavior and less consideration is given to the social conducts of other animals. Additionally, morality develops across a lifetime and it is mostly impacted by the experiences of people and their behavior especially when faced with moral issues at a different time of physical and cognitive development. Numerous psychologists argue that human behavior is dynamic and the precursors of human morality can be from the behaviors of other social animals. The construction of social morality mainly focuses on the emergence, transformation, and comprehension of morality from childhood through adulthood.
There are different stages of social morality construction that a person may pass through. The first level of moral construction known as pre-conventional morality level comprises of two stages. The first stage of moral construction allows people to make decisions to avoid being punished while the second stage makes people realize more than one point of view regarding a given situation. The people in the first level of moral development are mostly children and have not developed personal moral code. The adults around them and the consequences of breaking the rules influence their actions.
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The second level of morality construction is the conventional morality level. In this level, individuals start to internalize the values of significant adults around them and other people approval is important at this level. In the third stage, an individual makes decisions to be seen as a good person in society. In a fourth stage, an individual view rules from a societal standpoint and he or she makes decisions to follow the law to avoid legal consequences. The post-conventional morality level is the third stage of the social construction of morality. At this stage, individuals utilize self-chosen principles to make their own decisions. According to Coyle and MacWhannell (2012), between 10 and 15 percent of people reach this stage. At this stage, individuals understand that something may be good for the entire society.
It is important to consider this topic because it is a topic that shows the way individuals learn what is considered right or wrong, moral or immoral, good or bad. This is significant for the smooth functioning of the society. Moral construction prevents people from fulfilling their self-interests or unchecked urges but rather makes them to concentrate on what is good and right for others. There are various things that are worthy of learning in this research. I wish to establish how morality is a social construct, the importance of morality in society and how morality is developed in society. The research questions in this research include; how is morality is a social construct? Why is morality important in the social construction of the society? How morality is developed in the society?
The social construction of morality is basically rooted in the assumption that people never act out of any overriding motivation but rather react to the plurality of changing situations. Sometimes their self-interest determines their reaction even in matters that pertain to the family and the community where self-interest may not be the best possible option. Sometimes, they are moved by altruism consideration or community spirit at the expense of economic sacrifice. As Haidt and Bjorklund (2018) point out, the number of possible side to self can be infinite, particularly in economics if the focus is put on one side. Because modern people have become social and not just natural creatures, they tend to incorporate into self with a generalized sense of society by first contemplating the repercussions of their actions on others in nearly everything they carry out.
In most cases, they assume that other people will similarly incorporate the action effects of living together. From a sociological approach, moral obligation concentrates neither on people standing outside of the society nor in the society but instead focuses on the way people and society interact to make the moral order possible. Therefore, people can only be convinced that the civil society is a living reality if they recognize it is only through the situations that they encounter with others that make them establish moral rules that make interactions possible.
Another assumption of morality as a social construct lies behind the view of people making their own moral rules making themselves monitor each other. This assumption suggests that people are not social because they are moral and need to live together with others to periodically account with each other. From this assumption, it is evident that morality matters because people have reputations to safeguard, cooperate task, love and follow their careers. It is also a negotiated process through which people reflect on what they have done in the past to ascertain what they should do next.
From this research, there are various things that I have learned. Firstly, I have learned that morality as a social construct is a system of beliefs that enables a person to learn what is right and good compared to what is bad and wrong. The social construction of morality is the transformation in moral beliefs as an individual grows older and gains maturity. I have also learned that morality is related to moral behavior but it is not the same as knowledge of social conventions that are required for the smooth running of the society. It is a natural and cultural phenomenon that varies across individuals and cultures. From this lesson, it is clear that morality as a social construct forms a sense of rights and responsibilities to different kinds of people.
Additionally, I have learned that morality as a social construct plays a significant role in shaping the behavior of people. It prevents individuals from fulfilling their self-interest and instead considers what is right and good for the society and other people. It helps people to make choices or decisions based on manners, ethics, character and what they consider as proper behavior. These choices and decisions do not affect only one person but put the interest of others into consideration. Apart from helping people to make choices, morality supports human flourishing, improves moral reasoning and judgment in the society. It is, therefore, important for people to put into consideration the importance of morality as a social construct so that they can make decisions, choices, and judgments consciously.
There are various types of perspectives in psychology. They include biological approach, psychodynamic approach, humanistic approach, cognitive approach, and behavioral approach. The biological approach looks at how hormones, nervous system, and genetic makeup influence people’s society. The psychodynamic approach, on the other hand, examines how unconscious drives and experiences from childhood causes behavior changes and how conflict can arise when societal restrictions are placed on these urges. Additionally, the behavioral approach examines how external environmental stimuli affect people’s behavior and how individuals can be trained to behave in a certain way. The fourth perspective of psychology is the cognitive approach which relies on a person’s behavior to determine his or her emotions and expectations. Lastly, the humanistic approach is another perspective of psychology. In this approach, psychologists believe that a person is essentially good and should be motivated to realize his or her full potential. This paper will discuss the compare and contrast biological perspective and behavioral perspective of psychology.
As much as the biological approach and behavioral approach are both perspectives of psychology, there have various differences. The biological approach is connected with the nature side of contention. This perspective assumes that both human and animal behavior is driven by an individual biological or genetic composition. The approach assumes that the environment cannot transform a person's behavior and his or her decisions, actions and the way a person lives is traced back from the time a person was conceived and inherited his or her genes. On the other hand, the behavioral approach assumes that a person’s behavior is a product of his or her interaction with the environment. This approach assumes that babies are born as a blank state and from this time they are shaped and influenced by individuals and the surrounding environment. From a social construct point of view, it is, therefore, true that the biological approach is linked with the nature side of morality construction while a behavioral approach is connected with the surrounding environment.
During my research, I was confronted with information that made me reexamine the assumptions surrounding the morality as a social construct. To start with, I found contradictory comments in the findings and literature. The contradicting literature made it difficult to come up with conclusive research about how morality is a social construct. Additionally, there was a scarcity of information about some segment of the topic that made me change my assumptions. Another challenge that I experienced in this research is dealing with the collected information to make sense of the information. To avoid this confrontation, it is important to ground in the research, listen to the data collected as well as get back to the research methodology.
From this study, I have gained tremendous information that has changed my thinking, beliefs, behavior, and attitude towards morality as a social construct. Indeed, there is a need for humans to follow the social norm because it is an evolved part of human nature. From this study, I have learned that moral beliefs change the same way as living organisms in places where different societies have varied moral code. I have also come to realize that morality as a social construct improves people's behavior and therefore should be encouraged to practice morals in society. The shift in my thinking will improve my manners and behavior in my personal, academic and professional life. It will also change the way people act and behave with each other and avoid self-interests.
Conclusively, it is likely that morality is a social construct. There is no overreaching morality that governs this fact. It depends on what the majority of people say or what the social groups that we interact with daily considers moral. It is different depending on the culture. What may be acceptable in one culture may be immoral in the other culture and this confirms that there are no universally accepted principles for morality. In the society, morality helps people to make decisions, choices as well as judgment in a conscious way. Morality as a social construct prevents an individual from carrying out their unchecked and makes them focus on what is valuable and good and avoid bad ones. As a result of this research, there are numerous questions that have emerged. Some of the questions include how is morality as a social construct affecting people’s behavior? Has morality changed according to culture, time or surroundings? There is a need for future research to establish if morality changes according to culture, environment and time. Apart from that, future researchers ought to concentrate on the importance of morality as a social construct in various disciplines.
References
Coyle, J., & MacWhannell, D. (2012). The importance of ‘morality’in the social construction of suicide in Scottish newspapers. Sociology of Health & Illness, 24(6), 689-713.
Haidt, J., & Bjorklund, F. (2018). Social intuitionists answer six questions about morality.
