Understanding of Norms: a developmental context

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Understanding of Norms a developmental context
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Function of norms

• coordinating actions, beliefs, feelings,
  expectations
• Norms represent social facts normative facts of
  what makes sense to do ( rational)
• Norms provide (justified) reasons for action

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Normative action

• a human disposition to act, believe and feel in
  ways that are guided by norms
• a disposition to experience certain feelings when
  norms are violated (correlated in self and other)
  

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Domains of norms

• Fundamental distinction between moral and social
  norms
• Moral norms (morally permissible/good or
  blameworthy/wrong actions in view of principles
  of fairness/justice and solidarity)
• Social/conventional norms (arbitrary norms e.g.
  eating-, dressing codes, traffic rules)
• prudential norms (goal oriented instrumental
  action)

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Domain mixture

• Social norms are arbitrary but
• they can be moralized (e.g. religious norms,
  Shweder)
• Morality can be the basis of some conventional
  norms (for ex. politeness)
• (some) legal norms (e.g. contractual norms) are
  rooted in moral norms

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Cognitive basis of norm following

• Capacity to accept norms as fundamental human
  (biological) adaptation
• norms imply coordinated expectations about
  behavior
• moral prescriptive what we (rightly) ought to
  expect from each other in specific situations
  (theory of mind, perspective coordination)

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Motivational basis of norm following

• Norms provide good/justified reasons for action
• Internal motivation
• internalisation of norm to have a motivational
  and emotional disposition to follow/not to
  violate the norm
• moral self and identity, self respect
• External motivation
• Obedience to authority, feelings of security and
  group belongingness, moral admiration

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Norm violation

• norms require more or less strict orientation of
  individual actors
• correspondingly, violation of norms is
  punished/sanctioned more or less strictly
• external sanctions sanction by law,
• public opinion
• internal sanctions conscience, shame/guilt

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Emotional dispositions in norm violation

• Disposition to certain feelings, evaluations and
  actions which are coordinated/correlated in self
  and other
• Emotions in violator
• external fear of punishment (physical social
  exclusion)
• internal fear of shame/guilt
• Emotions in victim/observer
• anger, moral indignation, outrage, blame,
  resentment, disappointment
• Reconciliation, compensation, apology,
  forgiveness

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• Development of understanding of norms involves
  cognitive processes

• Theory of mind, perspective differentiation and
  coordination
• understanding feelings, motives, expectations
• But rationally understanding a norms and
  obligations does not necessarily imply following
  them.

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Development of moral self/identity

• Development of moral sensitivity
• Cultivation of moral feelings
• Development of moral motivation

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Social experiences and development of a sense of
fairness or justice

• Developed (cultivated) under certain social and
  historical conditions
• Experiencing just institutions (family, school,
  societal institutions, see Rawls)
• If situations deviate from normative standards
  perceived as fair the sense of justice may be
  violated and situations evaluated as unfair.
  Contradictions emerge/conditions of change.