Culture
in the broadest sense
shows
social environment
in which
a person
was born
and where
he or she lived. Culture
is a complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, science, law,
customs, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society (Elly, et al, 2005:27). Culture is closely related to human life, this is due to culture
involving all aspects of human life both materially
and non-materially, where culture is
always going develop of simple steps to a more complex
stage.
Every
culture in
the
region will
have
an important role
in improving
a person's
moral development.
The good culture, full
norms
will
help
the development of
one's moral, especially children’s
moral. unwittingly, culture
can influence
moral
behavior. If the culture
in
a place is good,
the better a
person's behavior. But if the
culture in a place is bad, so will be bad a person’s behavior.
Moral development focuses on the
emergence, change, and understanding of morality
from infancy
through adulthood. In the field of moral development, morality is defined as
principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to justice,
others’ welfare, and rights. In order to investigate how individuals understand
morality, it is essential to measure their beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and
behaviors that contribute to moral understanding. The field of moral
development studies the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral
development, the role of conscience and values, socialization and cultural
influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development. The interest in
morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology, and political
science) and
specializations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural). Moral developmental
psychology research focuses on questions of origins and change in morality
across the lifespan.
The
role of culture on moral development is an important topic which raises
fundamental questions about what is universal and what is culturally specific
regarding morality and moral development. Many research traditions have
examined this question, with social-cognitive and structural developmental
positions theorizing that morality has a universal requirement to it, drawing
from moral philosophy. The expectation is that if morality exists, it has to do
with those values that are generalizable across groups and cultures.
Alternatively, cultural relativistic positions have been put forth mostly by
socialization theories which focus on how cultures transmit values rather than
what values are applied across groups and individuals.
Daniel
Pekarsky, a professor in University of Wisconsin-Madison, defines culture as
the social environment where human beings live in. Every place on earth has
different culture and according to Pekarsky, this includes any specific
institutional arrangement, such as social, political, and economic status.
While culture resembles the root of certain practices of one particular place,
Pekarsky asserts that it plays a significant role in moral development of a
particular group of people living in one place.
Basically,
the moral development of a certain place also reflects the type of culture a
country has. For
example, in Riau, the moral of a person is very good, although not all of them.
Community
riau so cling
to the traditions and customs they have, manners of speech, have good
morals. This reflects that culture can shape possessed
moral character, can make better personal. An example of this new view of Riau
province in Indonesia that is quite a lot, maybe in other provinces, especially
in the villages, the culture that they have also had an important role, which
could form the moral character. So,
in Indonesia it can
be said that culture has a
role in an area that
could shape the development of one's
moral character, but it also depends on one's
personal and cultures in one
place.
Through
the culture or the embedded beliefs of a particular group of people or specific
population, psychologists are able to determine what kind of culture a certain
place has.
For
instance, the Indonesian culture did not spring up in just one snap, but came
from other countries
for example western culture. From the conservative
culture of the ancient times, people have acquired varying attitudes and
beliefs, by moving from one place to another. This is the reason how and why
the western culture has evolved into a more liberated one. During the ancient
times, when both women wear longs sleeves and long skirts to hide their body,
while men simply hunt for animals in the wilds for food, people have more
superstitions rather than scientific beliefs. They are more conservative and
most of them believe in one God, who saved the nations from sin. Those who do
not believe in God are referred to as pagans or atheist in the contemporary
period.
However,
as people migrated from one place to another, culture has also evolved. People
have come to assimilate and accommodate new cultures leading to a new form of
moral development. From the patriarchal culture of the ancient times, people
have acquired new skills knowledge, and dispositions, which made them morally
mature. Although superstitions have been important parts of every place’s
culture, people learned to perceive and explain certain phenomena in a
scientific way. They started to engage in experimentations and inventions to
improve life. By then, education had also become a part of the culture.
By
the time education has been considered as an important responsibility of a man,
everyone starts to gain knowledge. This also marked the start of a rapid moral
development, as people have become more exposed into varying cultures of one
country to another. People learned to travel by vehicles, interpret things through
the use of theories, and adapt to the changes that happen every day.
Because
of the different culture men has become accustomed through migration,
education, and adaption, every country in the world had experienced varying
state of moral development. Today, western culture has become more liberated.
The women of today have already adopted jobs, which only men are able to do in
the ancient times. Some important indications of moral development also include
the rise of many religions, foundation of groups and stereotypical
organizations, adherence to the varying laws from the smallest community to the
highest law of the land, formulation of new beliefs through researches and
studies, and the good communication between different races of one country to another.
So
if the culture in
a place is good,
someone has a good moral and will have a good
personality. But if the culture in a place is bad, an individual has a bad
moral and then has a
bad personality anyway. That's
because in a person is often
a state of stability, so someone must be able to determine where the good and bad
with a view of
culture is happening in their
environment and in accordance with
the rules applicable under the
conscience.
