Overcoming Moral Self-Deception: A Pedagogical Approach

Hilary Buttrick; Peter Prescott; Deborah Skinner

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Overcoming Moral Self-Deception: A Pedagogical Approach

Hilary Buttrick, Peter Prescott, and Deborah Skinner

Butler University, USA

Volume 12: 2015, pp. 57-76: ABSTRACT

This article discusses a series of interrelated exercises that will help students realistically assess their level of moral development, and ready themselves for further moral growth, by encouraging them to connect two ethics topics for a richer, deeper understanding of each. After reviewing the literature addressing experiential learning in ethics, moral development, and neutralization theory, the authors analyze student responses from two exercises to show that, while students achieved the main learning objectives, they deceived themselves about their moral development. The authors conclude that the students’ tendency to view the exercises in isolation facilitated their misconceptions about their moral development. An experiential learning exercise is developed to connect the earlier exercises and to help the students confront the uncomfortable inconsistency between their beliefs in their own moral development and the reality revealed by their decisions. This series of three exercises should prepare students to scale the barriers that hinder personal moral growth.