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Study Guide in IC 1 - Personality Development

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 5

CHAPTER 5: MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

MODULE OVERVIEW

It should be noted that various theories and explanations have developed through the years out
of the pioneer works of the Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget who are mentioned in the
previous chapters/modules. With regards to morality and spirituality, there are also different theories that
came out to explain them, and concepts continuously evolve to explain them. This module makes a run-
through of the developmental theories from the domain of morality and spirituality. This is our takeoff point
in dealing with moral and spiritual development that the authors, Kohlberg and Beckwith, explained by
identifying particular stages.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Define values;
2. Understand the relevance of values in today’s modern society;
3. Describe each stage of moral development and identify as to what stage the learner is currently in.
4. Identify the stages of spiritual growth by Beckwith and enumerate personal ways on how to achieve
the ultimate stage.

LEARNING CONTENTS

Understanding The Values Of Today

Values are intimately related to the search of meaning in human life. It serves as a guide and
driving force of human behavior and his or her ethical decision-making. It has been said that the worth of
a man lies in his values. The values inherent in man show the kind of person that he is. Values reflect our
sense of right and wrong. The decisions we make every day are a reflection of our values.

Generally, people learn most of our values from our caregivers who took care of us while growing
up. Therefore, values are not innate. They are learnt and transmitted through observation and interaction,
which puts forward the responsibility of schools for values education. Children are predisposed to adopt
the values that they are raised with. People also tend to believe that those values are “right” because they
are the values of their particular culture. However, our previously held values may still change based on
our everyday life experiences.

Values can be categorized in many ways such as by their content (biological, aesthetic,
educational, economic, political, and social values), motivation (extrintic or intrinsic), property (subjective,
objective and relative) and extensiveness (societal, national and global values). In this module, the
categorizations of values on the basis of their extensiveness will be given much emphasis because of
their important role in the society.

A. Societal values are those necessary for the promotions of human society as a whole. Societal
values regulate and organize daily life. Such values as honesty, sedulity, helpfulness, and
modesty are some of these societal values. From a sociological perspective, ideally, real values
are only unique to one society. Hence, values are original to one group at a single moment in
time (Dogan, 2011).
B. National values are those necessary for a nation’s unity and existence. For example, for us
Filipinos, the sacredness of the flag and love for the country and the indivisibility of the country
are among national values. These values are essentially important to exist in the world as a
nation by and large (Dogan, 2011). National values function as keeping us together at home while
keeping us different from the rest of the world.
C. Global values, most commonly known as ‘universal values’ are those that are shared by all
societies. Just as traditional values differ from one society to other and change in time,

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globalization brings new dimensions to modern societies which do not differ from traditional ones
in essence. In other words, the way societies see virtue and morals, neighborhood relationships,
trust and patronage, fidelity and betrayal, secrecy and privacy, love and tolerance, respect and
fear either change deteriorate under the influences of globalization. Global values affect societal
values. Some of these includes knowledge, culture of competition, productivity, democracy,
human rights, free market economy, and the individual.

In our present time, there is a rise in discrimination, abuse of power, greed, etc. These might be a
result of conflicts that happens when people have different values. Clash of preferences or priorities, and
increasing gap between ways of thinking and behavior of an ideal society and actual world are considered
to be indicator and ignition of the above mentioned social problems. Therefore, understanding and
explaining extremely complex nature of the values at societal, national and global settings is the most
important condition to build a peaceful society and the world.

Kohlberg’s Stages Of Moral Development

How exactly each person develops their ideas about right and wrong is a subject being studied by
psychologists. This type of study is part of what is known as Moral Psychology. One of the most famous
of the psychologists who does such studies is Lawrence Kohlberg. He studied how one identifies what
is right and wrong. In short, he studied about an individual develop a sense of morality. He defined
‘morality ‘ as the ability to distinguish what is a right behavior and a wrong behavior, and to understand
the moral goodness or badness of something.

He further explained the concept or morality developing a theory which he based upon his
research with people from very young ages through the adult years. His theory of moral development was
dependent on the works of Jean Piaget, John Dewey and James Mark Baldwin. These men had
emphasized that human beings develop philosophically and psychologically in a progressive manner.
Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on these earlier works by using the idea of moral dilemmas—stories that
present conflicting ideas about two moral values—to teach 10 to 16 year-old boys about morality and
values. The best known moral dilemma created by Kohlberg is the “Heinz” dilemma, which discusses
the idea of obeying the law versus saving a life. Kohlberg emphasized that it is the way an individual
reasons about a dilemma that determines positive moral development.

After presenting people with various moral dilemmas, Kohlberg reviewed people’s responses and
placed them in different stages of moral reasoning. He was able to demonstrate through studies that
people progressed in their moral reasoning through a series of stages. He believed that there were six
identifiable stages which could be more generally classified into three levels. Kohlberg's classification was
outlined in the table below.

LEVEL STAGES ORIENTATION

1. Preconventional Level Stage 1: - Deciding or acting based on
“Punishment/Obedience what action is punished. One
- one acts based on pleasure Orientation” obeys to avoid punishment.
or pain. An ‘authority figure’
(eg. parent) who gives Stage 2: Mutual Benefit - Deciding or acting based on
punishment or reward is “Reward Orientation” what is rewarded.
recognized.
2. Conventional Level Stage 3: Social Approval - Deciding or acting based on
“Good Boy - Bood Girl what will gain the approval of
- generally found in society, Orientation” others.
hence the name Stage 4: Law and Order - Deciding or acting based on
"conventional". One “Authority Orientation” rules that should be followed.
understands that there are
rules to follow, to be accepted
and to maintain order.

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3. Postconventional Level Stage 5: Social Contract - Deciding or acting based on

Orientation” what will be good for the
- One understands that it is largest number of people.
not necessarily that given
rules are always accepted Stage 6: Universal Ethical - Deciding or acting based on
and followed because one Principles respect for universal
develops his or her own principles, demands of
personal code of ethics. individual conscience, justice
and equality.

Kohlberg believed that the last level of his theory is not reached by the majority of adults. He also
believed that individuals could only progress through these stages one stage at a time. That is, they could
not "jump" stages. They could not, for example, move from an orientation of selfishness to the law and
order stage without passing through the good boy/girl stage. Thus, according to Kohlberg, it was
important to present them with moral dilemmas for discussion which would help them to see the
reasonableness of a "higher stage" morality and encourage their development in that direction.

Beckwith’s Stages of Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth, positive growth, doesn’t happen from one day to the next, it takes conscious,
gradual, and consistent effort. Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith developed “Stages of Spiritual Growth”, a
concept he has been teaching since 1984, which explains how we move through stages of consciousness
through our spiritual journey. These are 4 stages that we incrementally move through in our spiritual
practice.
No matter your spiritual path or what spirituality means to you, or whether or not you are seeking
to experience a spiritual awakening, understanding where you are and making progress to evolve to the
next stage will help you become a more positive person and a happier man. As with each of the four
stages, in order to move from one stage to the next, Beckwith tells us we must be willing to let go of
something en route to claiming a new aspect of who we really are.

TO ME BY ME
Life is happening to me. Letting Go of Blame Life is happening by me.
Feel as victim. If I just work hard enough.
Belief: I have no control Belief: I have in control

Letting Go of Control

AS ME THROUGH ME
Life is happening as me. Life is happening through me.
There is no separation “I know I am here for a reason. I
Letting Go of Separation
between me and others, have unique gifts, all I have to do is
between me and God. to trust.
Belief: I am at one, at Belief: I can trust God and the
peace with the world. process of my journey

Stage 1: “TO ME” (Victim Consciousness)

It is the first level of awareness where our primary perception is that life is happening ‘to us’. Like
a child who is new to this world and has not yet claimed full responsibility for his or her life, we feel like life

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is happening “To Me.”. In this stage we experience ourselves at the effect of the people and
circumstances of our life.
There are times in our lives when we feel like we are on the receiving end of challenges,
opportunities, relationships, job assignments, etc. and while we may have desires for a different
circumstance, at the time it really feels as though ‘life is happening to us’.
Feeling of powerless and defeat happen to us. We perceive life as painful and unfair, filled with
people and circumstances that prevent you from having the life experience you want. In this stage,
positive growth happens when we let go of blame. After reacting, resisting and blaming others (or life
itself) for our circumstance, eventually we come to a place where we are ready to claim more of a sense
of personal responsibility and become more of a generative force in our life. Through choice or necessity
we make a shift and begin to experience ourselves taking matters of our life into our own hands. We seek
a window of possibilities through becoming active agent in our own life.

Stage 2: By Me (Manifestation Consciousness)

After learning to take responsibility for our circumstances and experiences, we begin to tap into
our inner resources and potential. In the process, discover that we have the power to create what we
desire. This is a powerful stage of the growth process for it is here that we realize that we co-create our
reality with the Universe through the power of focused thought and action. Challenges and difficulties only
help us dig deeper into our infinite resources and we discover that we are far more capable than we
realized. We become the architects of our happiness and personal achievements.

Stage 3 – Through Me (Channelling Consciousness)

In this stage, we let go of control and we surrender to the greater Universal consciousness and
allow the manifestation to flow through us. This stage is signified by a shift from personal significance to
feeling a sense of humility about being a part of something greater than ourselves. We become
increasingly aware of the infinite consciousness– of something much powerful than all that we have
experienced so far. We simply become an instrument through which the greater consciousness
expresses itself. You have the consciousness of, “I surrender, I am an instrument, I am a vehicle through
which Spirit speaks and acts.”

Stage 4 – As Me (Being Conscious)

In this stage, we let go separation between us and the world. There is a profound sense of unity
or oneness with all there is. We no longer blame others or circumstances. We no longer desire to create
and manifest. And we cease thinking that that there is some greater power outside us guiding us and
manifesting through us. We are one with everything and everything is one with us. You realize that you
are the presence of God. You experience Spirit as you.

We each have experiences of these stages of development at different times in different areas of
our life. Whether or not we arrive at a permanent state of ‘As Me’ in every aspect of our existence, it is
powerful to consider what shifts we can make within ourselves to support our steps along the path.

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

Name: ___________________________ Course/Year/Section: _____________ Date: _____________

Journal Writing.
With the help of your caregivers when you were growing up, recall significant developments you
experienced. Identify some relevant experiences that you think have shaped your moral development.

“MY CHILDHOOD MEMORY”

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

SHARE YOUR STORY WITH US!

Write your answers to the questions on the space provided below.

1. Where do you see yourself now according to the spiritual growth process of Beckwith? At what stage of
development would you currently place yourself to? Why?

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2. What do you need to let go of or work on to move forward to the next?

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SUMMARY

 Values are guides and driving forces of human behavior and his or her ethical decision-
making.Values can be categorized as societal, national and global.

 Lawrence Kohlberg defined (3) levels and (6) stages of moral development: preconventional level,
conventional level, and postconventional level; stage1)punishment/obedience orientation, stage 2)
reward orientation, stage 3) good boy - bood girl orientation, stage 4) authority orientation, stage 5)
social contract orientation and stage 6) universal ethical principles.

 During preconventional level, a child’s sense of morality is controlled by rules of authority figures,
and they judge an action based on its consequences. During the conventional level, an individual’s
sense of morality is tied to personal and societal relationships. Rules are believed to be necessary in
ensuring positive relationships and societal order. During the postconventional level, a person’s
sense of morality is defined in terms of more abstract principles and values. People now believe that
some laws are unjust and should be changed or eliminated.

 Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith developed (4) stages of spiritual growth: To Me, By Me, Through Me
And As Me.

 Spiritual growth, doesn’t happen from one day to the next, it takes conscious, gradual, and consistent

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effort. And in order to move from one stage to the next, there is always something we must be willing
to let go of.

REFERENCES

Aydın, M. (2011). Values, functions and morals. Eğitime Bakış, 19, 39-45. Google Scholar

Pecorino, P (2002) Medical Ethics: An Online Textbook. Queensborough Community College,. The
City University of New York. Retrieved from:
https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/medical_ethics_text/Table_of_Contents.htm

Puka, W. (1995). Moral Development: A Compendium. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute U. S. A:

Garland Press.

Repollo, R.C. (2015) Personhood Development. Tandoc Printing Press

Rowley, E. (2020). The Stages of Spiritual Growth. Paso Robles Press

Retrieved from: https://cccsl.org/the-stages-of-spiritual-growth/

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