This cultural-developmental interview study examined moral reasoning in relation to religious culture (evangelical, mainline Protestants), age (children, adolescents, adults), and moral issue (public, private; N = 120). Compared to adolescents and adults, children used more Ethic of Autonomy and less Ethic of Community reasoning. With age, differences between religious cultures became pronounced. Mainline adults invoked an Ethic of Divinity for private issues. Evangelical adolescents and adults used this ethic frequently, but more for public than private issues. These and other findings indicate that evangelical and mainline Protestants diverge on what should be society's moral lingua franca, and cast new and nuanced light on America's "culture wars." Results furthermore highlight comodulation of development and culture that requires life course research on moral reasoning.
Around the world, adolescents increasingly grow up as members of local and global cultures. Little is known, however, about how precisely adolescents in rapidly globalizing societies blend local and global cultures. Interviews with 40 (16- to 19-year old) Thai adolescents, evenly divided between rural and urban communities, were analyzed alongside participant observation data for the interplay between local and global linguistic and dietary practices. Results revealed that urban adolescents inhabited differentiated selves, alternating between local and global practices based on interactional partner. The activation of each assisted them in navigating-and in some cases, reshaping-hierarchies encountered in everyday relationships. Findings contribute to the developmental science of globalization and point to the utility of interrogating cultural practices as sites of self-negotiation in rapidly changing cultural contexts.
Although the psychology of globalization is a burgeoning area of research, literature on the topic remains primarily theoretical to date. This study empirically examined the moral psychological impact of globalization in northern Thailand, a rapidly globalizing cultural context. Eighty participants (20 adolescents and 20 parents in both a rural and an urban community) took part in semi-structured interviews on perceptions of morality and globalization. This article shares three sets of mixed-methods analyses of participants' private moral experiences. Results indicated varying conceptions of morality and self across cultural and dyadic lines, and thus revealed a double-gap in moral personhood across contexts of globalization. Whereas the moral experiences, evaluations, and reasoning of rural adolescents and parents were characterized by similitude, those of urban adolescents and parents were characterized by divergence. Findings indicate an emergent intergenerational moral disconnect in the urban Thai setting. Situating interview data in light of ethnographic evidence gathered in community, school, and home contexts, this study suggests that globalization profoundly impacts moral reasoning and perceptions of oneself as a moral person.
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