Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Striving for Community
- 3 Discontents Revisited
- 4 Social Judgments and Social Contexts
- 5 The Development of Moral and Social Judgments
- 6 Social Thought and Social Action
- 7 Social Harmony and Social Conflict
- 8 Justice, Heterogeneity, and Cultural Practices
- 9 Social Hierarchy, Subordination, and Human Capabilities
- 10 Perspectives on Cultural Practices: More Than One
- 11 Subversion in Everyday Life
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
12 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Striving for Community
- 3 Discontents Revisited
- 4 Social Judgments and Social Contexts
- 5 The Development of Moral and Social Judgments
- 6 Social Thought and Social Action
- 7 Social Harmony and Social Conflict
- 8 Justice, Heterogeneity, and Cultural Practices
- 9 Social Hierarchy, Subordination, and Human Capabilities
- 10 Perspectives on Cultural Practices: More Than One
- 11 Subversion in Everyday Life
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
He was not off the mark when, in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., chided the psychologists he was addressing at their annual convention for framing psychological health and well-being as adjustment to social conditions and social arrangements. More than thirty years later, King's admonition still applies to many approaches to social and moral development. It applies to those who provide one type or another explanation of morality as compliance or conformity through the incorporation of standards, norms, or values of their society or culture. It applies to those who posit that the acquisition of morality involves the formation of traits of character that reflect a set of core societal values. It applies to those who presume that shared elements define culture and that the young come to acquire, as their own, the common perspectives through accommodations to standards or to general orientations of individualism or collectivism. In a paradoxical way, it also applies to those who regard radical individualism in the late twentieth century America as maladaptive for society. Whereas radical individualism is seen as producing societal crisis and decay, it is thought that individuals incorporate the dominant orientation of their society and, thereby, adjust to existing arrangements.
The paradox in the idea that individuals' adaptation to the societal orientation brings with it societal maladaptation indicates that there is a recognition that maladjustment can be positive.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Culture of MoralitySocial Development, Context, and Conflict, pp. 283 - 300Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002