Do you remember a time when you had to make a decision and each option was equally unpleasant? Or maybe you lied, something terrible happened and you were faced with the task of revealing the truth and being punished for lying. This type of mess is called a dilemma, a situation that defies an agreeable solution. Conflicts that challenge the values and beliefs of each person.
Moral dilemmas are often used to help people think through the reasoning behind their beliefs and actions. They are very common in psychology and philosophy lessons. In this Psychology-Online article, we will tell you What is a moral dilemma and how to solve it.
What is a moral dilemma
The meaning of moral dilemma represents a problematic situation in which we have to take a position between two alternative goods. Generally, we opt for the greatest good. Sometimes the decision is between good and evil.
When can we have a moral dilemma? In a situation in which we are forced to choose between two alternatives that entaileach, negative and undesirable consequences. In these cases, it is not at all easy to understand what is correct to do or what selection criteria to adopt. To understand it better, in this article, we tell you.
A moral dilemma, therefore, is a situation in which a person is torn between good and evil and which entails a conflict with the very core of their values and principles, since the choice can make them feel overwhelmed, guilty or questioning their values. Often a moral dilemma forces the individual to decide which option you can live with, but any outcome is extremely unpleasant, no matter what.
To make this concept clearer, in the following article, you will find information about the .
The moral dilemma in psychology
In addition to , who is considered the pioneer in the psychology of moral development, the most important psychologist in the field is Lowrence Kohlberg, whose research has completed and expanded that of Piaget. Therefore, if we talk about the moral dilemma in psychology, Kohlberg’s research is a reference. In this article, you will see what the .
Heinz’s dilemma
Kohlberg devised a series of stories to validate his theories. Are involve one or more people in a moral dilemma, among which is the Heinz dilemma. Let’s see what it’s about:
In Europe a woman was about to die of cancer and only one drug could save her, a form of radium recently discovered by a pharmacist in the same city. The medicine had cost a lot to prepare, but the pharmacist made him pay ten times its real production cost.
Heinz, the sick woman’s husband, asked everyone he knew to borrow money, but he only managed to raise half the price. He told the pharmacist that his wife was going to die, he asked him to sell it to him cheaper or allow him to pay later, but the pharmacist did not consent. Heinz became enraged, broke into the man’s pharmacy and stole the drug for his wife.
As a result of this situation, we can distinguish various examples of moral dilemmas. The questions that arise as a consequence of the dilemma from Heinz are the following:
- Was Heinz going to steal the medicine? Because?
- What’s worse? Let his wife die or steal?
- What value does life have for you?
- Does the husband have a good reason to steal if he does not love his wife?
- Is stealing for a foreigner and stealing for your wife the same thing?
- If Heinz is captured and tried, should the judge sentence him? Because? In this case, what is the responsibility of the judge before society?
Examples of moral dilemma
When can we have a moral dilemma? There are multiple situations that we could qualify as a moral dilemma. Some of them put social issues on the table that are interesting to discuss with children to see what their opinion is and how they resolve them. Next, we will see some examples of very diverse moral dilemmas:
- The classic “lifeboat dilemma“, where there are only 10 spaces in the lifeboat, but there are 11 passengers on the sinking ship. You have to decide who stays behind.
- A train with broken brakes It is accelerating towards a fork. On the left, there is a woman crossing with her two children, on the right, there is a man who does ordinary maintenance on the tracks. The engineer has to decide which way to point the moving train.
- A husband discovers he has a terminal illness and decides to ask his wife for help to put an end to the pain before it gets too serious.
- A friend discovers that her best friend’s boyfriend is cheating on her. She has to decide whether to tell her friend or keep it a secret.
- The death penalty.
- assisted suicide by a healthcare professional.
- Finish the war on drugs.
- abortion. In this article, we tell you.
- Government spying or prison reform.
- Legalization or decriminalization of drugs.
- Fossil fuels versus renewable energies.
How to resolve a moral dilemma
Traditionally, research on the way people make moral decisions is based on having a sample of people imagine hypothetical situations in which the possible decisions to be made involve harm to human beings. As an example of these moral dilemmas, used from the 80s to today, we can cite the “Trolley dilemma“. This describes the participants in the experiments with the following text:
“A runaway railroad car is headed toward five people who will be killed if it continues in its current direction. The only way to save them is to hit a switch that will divert the car to another track where it will kill one instead of five people. Is it appropriate for you to divert the wagon to save five people at the expense of one?” The responses that have been raised to this dilemma have been:
- An affirmative answer: It is said that his judgment is utilitarian, from the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill. According to this type of judgment, good moral actions are those that maximize the well-being of the greatest number of people involved in a situation.
- A negative answer: It is said that his judgment is deontological, of Kantian deontology. According to this type of judgment, the moral status of an action does not depend on its consequences, but on the characteristics of the action itself relative to the rights and duties of the people involved.
Thus, we see that there are different ways to resolve a moral dilemma, depending on the type of judgment of each person and the situation that arises.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
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- De Sensi Frontera, A. (2009). Sul giudizio morale. Rome: Sovera Edizioni.
- Grion, L. (2018). Dilemmi morali. Paradigmi etici al lavoro. Retrieved from: https://www.aprirenetwork.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Grion.pdf
- Ray, R., Littlehale, K. (2021). Dilemma. Retrieved from: https://www.storyboardthat.com/it/articles/e/dilemma