User:Trsuzanne/sandbox

My contribution to the Moral development wiki page:

Social Exclusion:

The importance of morality arises when the evaluation process of social exclusion requires one to deal with not only the predisposed tendencies of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes and bias but also the internal judgments about justice equality and individual rights, which may prove to be a very complex task since it often evokes conflicts and dilemmas coming from the fact that the components of the first often challenge the components of the latter (Killen, Lee-Kim, McGlothlin, & Stangor, 2002).

Research has documented the presence of a transition occurring at the reasoning level behind the criteria of inclusion and exclusion from childhood to adolescence. The observations indicated that during adolescent years, a bigger emphasis is put onto preservation of group functioning whereas equal treatment tended to be the main justification for all matters during childhood years. (Horn, 2003).

Moral Emotions:

These moral emotions are said to be linked to moral development because they are evidence and reflective of an individual’s set of moral values, which must have undergone the process of internalization in the first place (Kochanska & Thompson, 1997).

The manifestation of these moral emotions can occur at two different timings: either before or after the execution of a moral or immoral act. A moral emotion that precedes an action is referred to as an anticipatory emotion, and a moral emotion that follows an action is referred to as a consequential emotion. (Tangney, Stuewig, and Mashek, 2007).

Moreover, there exists a bigger difference between guilt and shame that goes beyond the type of feelings that they may provoke within an individual. This difference lies in the fact that these two moral emotions do not weigh the same in terms of their impact on moral behaviors. Studies on the effects of guilt and shame on moral behaviors has shown that guilt has a larger ability to dissuade an individual from making immoral choices whereas shame did not seem to have any deterring effect on immoral behaviors. However, it should be noted that different types of behaviors in different types of population, under different circumstances might not generate the same outcome. (Tangney, Stuewig, Mashek, 2007).