The Psychology of ‘Ought’

As educators, we would like to believe that we can influence the ethical growth of our students. If we are to do this, it seems worthwhile to first understand what ethical decision-making is and how it happens. For millennia, ethical decision-making has fallen within the domain of philosophy. However, recent evidence suggests that the average person does not consider ethical dilemmas in the abstract. Instead, ethical decision-making appears to be a complex dance between an individual’s rational calculus of the ethical dilemma and their emotional response to the context of the dilemma. I will present an argument that in the trenches of daily life, psychology has a better grasp on the workings of ethical decision-making, while philosophy helps to provide direction. I will also present a number of historical and current psychological theories about ethical decision-making, from behaviorist to postmodern feminist. Throughout this discussion I will build on a psychological framework for ethical decisionmaking and moral development, and present implications for engineering education. Index Terms – Ethics, philosophy, psychology. One of the most fundamental and universal aspects of being human, is seeking knowledge of what it means to be human – specifically a ‘good’ human. In this paper, I hope to engage in a discussion of the historical debate between the philosophical and psychological perspectives of human morality and moral growth. In doing so, I will borrow heavily from the work of Darcia Narvaez [1,2,3], a leading moral development theorist. It is my intent to provide the reader with a brief synopsis of contemporary work in moral development, and through this new research, to challenge the current paradigm in engineering education and propose a new way of thinking about engineering ethics education. IN THE BEGINNING: EARLY PHILOSOPHY AND CHARACTER