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Parental authority and promises, (Damon, 1977, 1980)
The picture cards on this page were designed by Dr. Drexler to help children focus on the dilemma during the interview process. They depict the characters and their relationships to one another in each story. In order to standarize the set of issues scored for each interview, the central issues for each dilemma were predefined to include authority, contract, and/or positive justice. Picture sets can be ordered directly from Dr. Drexler.
This is Peter (Michelle for girl subjects), and here is his mother. Mrs. Johnson wants Peter to clean up his own room every day, and she tells him that he can't go out and play until he cleans up his room and straightens out his toys. But one day, Peter's friend Michael comes over and tells Peter that all the kids are leaving right away for a picnic. Peter wants to go, but his room is a big mess. He tells his mother that he doesn't have time to straighten his room right now, but he'll do it later. She tells him no, that he'll have to stay in and miss the picnic.
What is the problem for Peter? (Make sure the child understands the problem. What should Peter do? Why? Was that fair of Mrs. Johnson to tell Peter that? Why/Why not?
What if Peter sneaks out of the house anyway and goes on the picnic. Is that all right for Peter to do?
What if he gets away with it and doesn't get caught because his mother is taking a nap? What if he gets back and cleans his room before she wakes up? Is that still wrong for Peter to do, or is that OK now?
What should Peter's mother do to him if she catches him? Is that fair to him? Why can/can't she punish him? What makes that fair?
Why does Peter's mother have the right to tell him what to do? What is it about the mother (that is, what qualities does she have) that makes it right for Peter to do what she says?
One day Peter cleans us his room real well, but his mother woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day and was real cranky. She says, "I don't care if I did tell you that you could go out and play, you're staying home and that's that."
Is that fair? Does she have the right to tell Peter that? Does it matter that she's breaking her promise to Peter? what should Peter do?
Is it OK now if he sneaks out anyway to play with his friends? What if he knows he won’t get caught?
Does a kid have to do whatever his mother tells him to do? No matter what? What if she tells him to steal a pretty necklace for her from a store? Does she have the right to do that? What should the kid do? What's the difference (if any) here?
Is it worse for a kid to break a promise to his mother or for a mother to break a promise to her kid? Why?
Joe is a fourteen year old boy who wanted to go to camp very much. His father promised him he could go if he saved the money for himself. So Joe worked hard at his paper route and saved up the $100 it cost to go to camp and a little more besides. But just before camp was going to start, his father changed his mind. Some of his friends decided to go on a special fishing trip, and Joe’s father was short of the money it would cost. So he told Joe to give him the money he had saved from the paper route. Joe didn’t want to give up going to camp, so he thinks he might not give his father the money.
Should Joe give the money to his father, or should he tell his father he can’t have the money? Why or why not? What if Joe said it was his money and he wanted to go to camp with it?
Do you think his father has the right to make Joe give him the money? Why or why not?
Is it important that Joe earned the money himself? Does that make a difference in whether he should give it to his father? Why or why not?
The father promised Joe he could go to camp if he earned the money. Does that make any difference in whether Joe should give his father the money? Why or why not?
Which is worse, a father breaking a promise to his son or a son breaking a promise to his father? Why?
In general, why should people keep promises?
Do fathers have the right to tell you what to do? Why? What is it about them that makes it right to do what they say?
Judy is a fourteen year old girl who wanted to go to camp very much. Her father promised her she could go if she saved the money for herself. So Judy worked hard at her paper route and saved up the $100 it cost to go to camp and a little more besides. But just before camp was going to start, her father changed his mind. Some of his friends decided to go on a special fishing trip, and Judy’s father was short of the money it would cost. So he told Judy to give him the money she had saved from the paper route. Judy didn’t want to give up going to camp, so she thinks she might not give her father the money.
Should Judy give the money to her father, or should she tell her father he can’t have the money? Why or why not? What if Judy said it was her money and she wanted to go to camp with it?
Do you think her father has the right to make Judy give him the money? Why or why not?
Is it important that Judy earned the money herself? Does that make a difference in whether she should give it to her father? Why or why not?
The father promised Judy she could go to camp if she earned the money. Does that make any difference in whether Judy should give her father the money? Why or why not?
Which is worse, a father breaking a promise to his daughter or a daughter breaking a promise to her father? Why ?
In general, why should people keep promises?
Do fathers have the right to tell you what to do? Why? What is it about them that makes it right to do what they say?
The picture cards on this page were designed by Dr. Peggy Drexler to help children focus on the dilemma during the interview process. They depict the characters and their relationships to one another in each story. In order to standarize the set of issues scored for each interview, the central issues for each dilemma were predefined to include authority, contract, and/or positive justice. Picture sets can be ordered directly from Dr. Drexler.
How do you think John got to be captain of the baseball team?
Does John, the captain, have the right to tell Billy what position to play?
The Heinz dilemma is from the Standard Issue Scoring manual (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987).
*Starred questions may be eliminated if time for interviewing is limited.
In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.
1. Should Heinz steal the drug?
Why or why not?
[Questions 2 and 3 are designed to elicit the subject’s moral type and should be considered optional.]
*2. Is it actually right or wrong for him to steal the drug?
Why is it right or wrong?
*3. Does Heinz have a duty or obligation to steal the drug?
4. [If subject originally favors stealing, ask:] If Heinz doesn’t love his wife, should he steal the drug for her?
Why or why not?
4. [If subject originally favors not stealing, ask:] Does it make a difference whether or not he loves his wife?
Why or why not?
5. Suppose the person dying is not his wife but a stranger. Should Heinz steal the drug for the stranger?
Why or why not?
*6. [If subject favors stealing the drug for a stranger, ask:] Suppose it’s a pet animal he loves. Should Heinz steal to save the pet animal?
Why or why not?
7. Is it important for people to do everything they can to save another’s life?
Why or why not?
*8. It is against the law for Heinz to steal. Does that make it morally wrong?
Why or why not?
9. In general, should people try to do everything they can to obey the law?
Why or why not?
9a. How does this apply to what Heinz should do?
[The following question is designed to elicit the subject’s moral type and should be considered optional.]
*10. In thinking back over the dilemma, what would you say is the most responsible thing for Heinz to do?
Why?
Heinz did break into the store. He stole the drug and gave it to his wife. In the newspapers the next day there was an account of the robbery. Mr. Brown, a police officer who knew Heinz, read the account. He remembered seeing Heinz running away from the store and realized that it was Heinz who stole the drug. Mr. Brown wonders whether he should report that Heinz was the robber.
*1. Should Officer Brown report Heinz for stealing?
Why or why not?
*2. Suppose Officer Brown were a close friend of Heinz; should he then report him?
Why or why not?
Heinz did break into the store. He stole the drug and gave it to his wife. Heinz was arrested and brought to court. A jury was selected. The jury’s job is to find whether a person is innocent or guilty of committing a crime. The jury finds Heinz guilty. It is up to the judge to determine the sentence.
3. Should the judge give Heinz some sentence, or should he suspend the sentence and let Heinz go free
Why is that best?
4. Thinking in terms of society, should people who break the law be punished?
Why or why not?
4a. How does this apply to how the judge should decide?
5. Heinz was doing what his conscience told him when he stole the drug. Should a lawbreaker be punished if he is acting out of conscience?
Why or why not?
[The following question is designed to elicit the subject’s moral type and should be considered optional.]
*6. Thinking back over the dilemma, what would you say is the most responsible thing for the judge to do?
Why?
[Questions 7-12 are designed to elicit the subject’s theory of ethics and should be considered optional. They should not be scored for moral stage.]
*7. What does the word conscience mean to you, anyhow? If you were Heinz, how would your conscience enter into the decision?
*8. Heinz has to make a moral decision. Should a moral decision be based on one’s feelings or on one‘s thinking and reasoning about right and wrong?
*9. Is Heinz’s problem a moral problem?
Why or why not?
*9a. In general, what makes something a moral problem or what does the word morality mean to you?
*10. If Heinz is going to decide what to do by thinking about what’s really right, there must be some answer, some right solution. Is there really some correct solution to moral problems like Heinz’s, or when people disagree is everybody‘s opinion equally right?
Why?
*11. How do you know when you’ve come up with a good moral decision? Is there a way of thinking or a method by which one can reach a good or adequate decision?
*12. Most people believe that thinking and reasoning in science can lead to a correct answer. Is the same thing true in moral decisions, or are they different?
You notice that your supervisor's calendar indicates that he is meeting with one of your employees next week and that the employee scheduled the meeting. You pride yourself on being approachable and easily accessible to your employees. In addition, over the last several months, you have been blindsided on several occasions by your supervisor's tendency to deal directly with your employees on his favorite projects.
Your office has become extremely dependent on its sole contracting expert. If she left, you know that it would be nearly impossible to replace her, and your organization would be in serious trouble. You have insider information that senior management believes that she is not promote-able. You were in a meeting where this was discussed and it was made very clear that this information was "not to leave the room." The contracting person trusts you and comes to you for career advice.
You have been a division chief in one of the most technically savvy offices in the Agency for the last three years. Almost 80% of the employees have at least Master's degrees and many have doctoral degrees in engineering or computer science. This has been much easier than your last management position, because here you have such great respect for the ability and drive of your employees. When your office chief retired 3 months ago, the senior leadership team decided to replace her with an executive hired from the private sector. The individual that was finally selected after a lengthy interview process has only been on the job for 1 week and is already stirring things up. After his first walk-through of the spaces, essentially a large cubicle farm, he announced that he was going to redesign the space to "open things up" and encourage greater collaboration and exchange of ideas among the group. You have been presented with a drawing of how the space will be reconfigured and a very aggressive timeline for the work, both of which you share with your employees. This normally quiet, reserved group is visibly outraged. How can they be expected to do highly technical work without the quiet and privacy of their cubicles? What's wrong with using a conference room when collaboration is called for? They are looking to you to stand up for them.
You have just had a one-on-one with the technical superstar of your division to go over his P3 rating. As usual, his numbers are in the stratosphere reflecting his hard charging, take-no-prisoners approach to work. His high energy and intelligence have helped the division to become one of the most productive in the Agency. You were totally taken by surprise when he asked you to consider him for an upcoming management position, so you told him you'd think about it and get back to him. You are concerned about his interpersonal skills; he has never been a particularly good team player because he prefers to be out in front of the pack. In addition, the other employees are a little intimidated by him because he is so confident and capable and, you admit to yourself, on occasion a little arrogant and impatient. You are feeling overwhelmed by all the factors to consider in this decision: the obvious sincerity of this individual in wanting a new challenge, his track record of bringing in numerous home runs for your organization, the potential downside of some of his personality traits, your hunch that maybe he could become a superstar manager if he put his mind to it, etc.
Over the last 6 months in your new organization, you have come to see that several of the people you manage are extraordinarily productive, clearly your top performers, and several appear to be retired in place. At your last town meeting with your employees, one person observed that you didn't seem to treat everyone fairly, and several others chimed in with supportive comments. They brought up the example that if one of your "favorites" took a two-hour lunch, you wouldn't seem to notice; but if one of your "less favorites" took a one-hour lunch, you'd comment on it.
As the manager of a recently downsized production organization, you are becoming increasingly concerned about your employees burning out. Your workload seems to be constantly increasing, yet it has been made very clear to you that you aren't getting any more billets. One of your employees has just returned from 6 weeks of maternity leave and is in your office asking to work 4-day weeks because her highest priority has become spending more time with her baby. You agree to try it for 3 months since she is a new mother. Then she announces to you that because of the baby, she will have to leave promptly at 4:30 every afternoon to get to daycare, she won't be available for any late meetings, and she won't be able to go on any TDYs. She gets up and leaves your office, waving goodbye, leaving you feeling stunned. Most of the other employees in your organization are either single or married with no children. They have all had to put in even more hours than usual for the last 6 weeks and you're wondering how they'll react to all these new demands.