Moral Life Of Babies Research

The Moral Life Of Babies, from the New York Times is an article describing multiple studies on babies done to measure infant cognition. These studies were done in hopes of determining if babies had and used any senses of morality. It was shown that humans do have some sort of sense of morality at the very start of life. It is thought that some sense of good and evil are bred into the babies. The studies showed that babies have an understanding of mental life, they know right from wrong, how people should behave and how they should react to certain situations. Since it was not known if babies reacted certain ways to deliberately be moral, moral-baby experiments were done. Moral-baby experiments used two kinds of actions to study babies; the action of helping or hindering. The studies were originally done to study babies social interactions, but also showed latent moral content. The studies consisted of geometrical objects that demonstrated acts of helping or hindering other shapes get up and down a hill. The babies were later asked to pick between the geometrical objects. Most of the babies preferred the helping objects over the hindering objects. This showed that babies prefer good guys over bad guys and know right from wrong. Another similar study was done using animal puppets, having them help each other open a box, or deliberately close the box on each other. This study also showed that babies have a general understanding of good and bad behavior. This research showed that babies have moral instincts and emotional reactions. It is believed that babies are born with moral foundations, biologically engineered inside us as infants, only to acquire more information to shape our views and beliefs from our culture. Three-month olds s...

... middle of paper ...

...xplanations on baby morality. While some argue it is Gods good telling you to act moral in an altruistic manner, others argue humans do it to look attractive to others. I would not have thought of these reasons behind a baby displaying acts of moral if I had only read the primary source.

Evaluating and understanding research findings is a very important skill for professionals to acquire. It is necessary to thoroughly collect data, findings, and results of the experiments to produce accurate detailed accounts of the studies.

Having a previous understanding of research methods aids in the reading and understanding of scientific studies and findings. Having previously taken research method classes allows students to apply research methods, statistical analysis, experimental designs, reliability, validity, and have a better understanding of how these methods operate.