Assessments of moral behavior typically involve conflicts between moral and other kinds of pressures, whereas assessments of moral judgment often involve dilemmas in which the conflict is between two moral duties. These two differences may account for much of the divergence between moral behavior and judgment.

Subjectivism seems to tell us that moral statements give information only about what we feel about moral issues. If the simplest form of subjectivism is true then when a person who genuinely approves of telling lies says “telling lies is good” that moral statement is unarguably true.

Moral cognitivists hold that when we make a moral judgment, such as ‘Lucy ought to pay back the money she borrowed’, we are stating a belief. Moral realists hold there really are moral properties and facts that exist in the world independently of our judgements of them.

According to moral realists, statements about what actions are morally required or permissible and statements about what dispositions or character traits are morally virtuous or vicious (and so on) are not mere expressions of subjective preferences but are objectively true or false according as they correspond with the …

Moral development is an important part of the socialization process. Moral development prevents people from acting on unchecked urges, instead considering what is right for society and good for others. Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987) was interested in how people learn to decide what is right and what is wrong.

1. You have to have an individual sense of what it means to you to be moral.
2. You have to learn to focus on more than the outer appearance of things.
3. Check to make sure your values are congruent with your behavior.
4. Don’t step over other people’s values.
5. You have to make sure you don’t self betray.
6. Expand your horizon.

Morality develops across a lifetime and is influenced by an individual’s experiences and their behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods’ physical and cognitive development.

Moral development is strongly influenced by interpersonal factors, such as family, peers, and culture. Intrapersonal factors also impact moral development, such as cognitive changes, emotions, and even neurodevelopment.

A child with pre-conventional morality has not yet adopted or internalized society’s conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but instead focuses largely on external consequences that certain actions may bring.

For example, a person who justified a decision on the basis of principled reasoning in one situation (postconventional morality stage 5 or 6) would frequently fall back on conventional reasoning (stage 3 or 4) with another story.

Empathy is widely and increasingly heralded as an essential ingredient of morality. It is said to be necessary for moral development, moral motivation, and even for comprehending the moral domain.

Can our feelings be our sole guide to morality? No they can’t. You do not have to agree with the moral beliefs of other people but you must take their moral beliefs into account when forming your own moral beliefs. Remember morality is about how we act towards other people and how we expect them to act towards us.

Some of the unfortunate results of accepting moral beliefs without questioning them are it undermines your personal freedom meaning if you just accept belief from someone else without thinking about them they are not truly your beliefs.

Emotions can play an important role in how we think and behave. The emotions we feel each day can compel us to take action and influence the decisions we make about our lives, both large and small. In order to truly understand emotions, it is important to understand the three critical components of an emotion.

A widely accepted theory of basic emotions and their expressions, developed Paul Ekman, suggests we have six basic emotions. They include sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust.

Recognizing your emotions is important because it is the first step toward dealing with them in healthy ways. Three steps you can take to help you recognize your emotions is to name the emotion you’re feeling, determine what triggered the emotion, and think back to past times that you felt the same way.