Nurturing Morality

Abstract

The title of this book raises a controversial topic that many investigators would prefer to avoid or obfuscate than to explore in an open and direct manner. In putting together these chapters, we sought to bring balance to public representations of morality and embrace rather than avoid the challenges of stimulating moral functioning. The chapters are presented in four sections, emphasizing different levels of organization associated with nurturing morality. The first section, Definitions of Moral Functioning, raises questions of how individuals are likely to think and act when noticing moral dilemmas. The second set of chapters, Impediments to Moral Functioning, offers more detail on personal responsibility and constraints on moral functioning. A third set of chapters, Institutional Supports for Moral Functioning, concerns the means by which institutions can nurture young people's moral growth or encourage them to maintain high levels of moral functioning. The book ends with Considering the Common Good, offering direct advice on nurturing morality and an elaboration of our agenda. Taken together, these chapters offer a diverse array of perspectives on how moral functioning is defined as well as some impediments and supports for moral functioning. Despite the reductionistic trends that have begun to dominate the fields of moral development and character education, these authors make compelling cases for how matters of achievement motivation, wisdom, stereotyping, and the structure of institutional practices are central to nurturing morality. The promotion approach adopted here hinges on looking carefully at how individuals define morality, use the resulting mental structures to negotiate daily events, and act on their beliefs. Our hope is that by starting this conversation, others will be inspired to challenge the views presented here, offer other concerns and impediments that we have failed to consider, and imagine new mechanisms for supporting individuals who seek to be and do good. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)