77. Complexifying Notions of the Good (w/ Cheryl Armon)

Cheryl Armon joins me to talk about her work in the field of developmental psychology. After discussing how she developed a passion for moral philosophy, entered the field, and met Lawrence Kohlberg, as well as the important theoretical distinctions between "hard" stages and "soft" stage models which they published about, we dive into the data Armon has amassed over her career on how people's conceptions of "The Good" complexify across the lifespan. 0:00 Introduction3:07 Cheryl's Path to Developmental Studies11:30 Studying Complexification of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful17:15 Meeting Kohlberg22:16 The "Right" vs. the "Good"28:07 Asking People about the Good30:57 Hard Stage Models vs. Other Kinds38:24 Are There Domain-General Stages?Stages of the Good43:16 Stage 1. Egoistic Hedonism47:36 Stage 2. Instrumental Hedonism50:11 Stage 3. Altruistic Mutuality59:17 Stage 4. Individuality 1:10:07 Stage 5. Autonomy/Interdependence1:17:42 The Complexification of Value1:19:47 Doing the Work Right1:23:50 Taking Adult Developmental Reasoning Seriously1:30:37 ConclusionSOURCESCheryl Armon, "Ideals of the Good Life: A Longitudinal/Cross-Sectional Study of Evaluative Reasoning in Children and Adults." PhD Dissertation, Harvard University, 1984.Cheryl Armon, "Ideals of the Good Life and Moral Judgment: Ethical Reasoning across the Lifespan," in Beyond Formal Operations, ed. Michael L. Commons, Francis A. Richards, and Cheryl Armon (New York: Praeger, 1984), 357–380.Cheryl Armon and Theo Linda Dawson, "The Good Life: A Longitudinal Study of Adult Reasoning," in Handbook of Adult Development, ed. Jack Demick and Carrie Andreoletti (New York: Kluwer Academic, 2003), 271–300. Get full access to Brendan Graham Dempsey at brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/subscribe