Written by Drew Appleby, Lindsey Herting, Sejal Schullo
Purpose
Honesty and Integrity are valuable and necessary skills to flourish in various environments, including higher education, the workplace and personal and civic life. This lesson is designed to help students understand, evaluate and apply skills of integrity. Furthermore, students will connect psychological theories to these transferable skills in order to help them navigate situations where honesty and integrity are required in their future environments, such as college or work.
National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula
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Pillar: Development and Learning
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Standard Area: Life Span Development
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Content Standard 2: Physical, cognitive, and social development across the life span (prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, adulthood, and older adulthood)
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Learning Target 2.2: Identify key features of cognitive development from prenatal through older adulthood
Time Required
Approximately 50-90 minutes.
Materials
1. Access to (printed or electronic) articles discussing transferable skills, specifically, honesty/integrity. Appropriate materials will vary depending on student reading level. Examples include this resource on cheating and honestyopens in new window.
2. Digital or print copies of assignment with scenarios that reflect relevant moral dilemmas students may face in the present and future environments. (Samples are included below.)
3. Digital or print copies of the graphic referring to Kohlberg’s theoryopens in new window or other resource that may provide the same information.
Task
1. Bellringer:
Option 1: Have students write a trait, behavior or attitude that demonstrates integrity/honesty on a post-it note. Stick all notes on board and develop a working definition of integrity based on their responses.
Option 2: Ask students to identify a time when they were dishonest or someone was dishonest with them and potential reasons for the dishonesty. After providing students time to think and write about their responses, have them share this with a classmate and further discuss the consequences of being dishonest.
2. Discuss stages of Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory.
3. Provide students with modern day moral dilemmas (samples provided with assignment) including scenarios involving the workplace and higher education. In pairs, have them evaluate each dilemma through the lens of each stage of Kohlberg’s theory. The number of scenarios you provide will depend on time limitations and should include at least one each referencing higher education and workplace environments.
4. Have a teacher led discussion about applications of Kohlberg’s theories and the value of integrity in the workplace and educational areas. For example, use reflection questions from the article "Cheating & Honesty"opens in new window.
Assessment
Observation of student responses for application activity (student handout) and classroom discussion. Student responses on chart should reflect reasoning provided by Kohlberg’s theory. Teachers can use the following graphicopens in new window as a guide.
Extension Ideas
1. Instructors may find it useful to include this lesson during a unit on Development, connected to Kohlberg’s theory on moral decision making.
2. A role-playing activity could be done where students demonstrate ethical/unethical interactions between students and professors or employees and employers.
3. Students could research cultural differences in the perception of ethical issues in the workplace, in education, etc.
Resources
Coverston, H. S. (n.d.) Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Retrieved from https://www.bpi.edu/ourpages/auto/2016/11/14/36761759/Kohlbergs%20Stages%20of%20Moral%20Development.docx?rnd=1479157804508opens in new window
Prohaska, V. (2013, May). Encouraging students’ ethical behavior. Psychology Teacher Network, 23(1). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2013/05/ethical-behavior
Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s workplace. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453-465. https://doi.org/10.1177/1080569912460400opens in new window
Scivicque, C. (2017, January 16). Career Success A to Z: H is for Honesty [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.eatyourcareer.com/2017/01/career-success-z-h-honesty/opens in new window
Stich, C. (2017). The key to unlocking successfor the whole student: Five formative success skills defined. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://stanfield.com/opens in new window
Veritas, D. (2017, September 4). Kohlberg’s theory of moral development [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.acpeds.org/kohlbergs-theory-of-moral-developmentopens in new window
Weir, K. (2016). Moral minds. Monitor on Psychology, 47(8). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/09/moral-minds
Attachment
Student Handout: Student Handout: Kohlberg in your Futureopens in new window (PDF, 61KB)
This resource was developed by a Working Group on Skills that Promote Well-Being and Flourishing from the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education (July 2017).