FEU Public Intellectual Lecture Series | Dr. Rachel Parr

Far Eastern University
14.4K views • January 18, 2024

Dr. Rachel Parr talks about Moral Development in Adolescence: A Neurological Perspective in this episode of FEU Public Intellectual Lecture Series.

0:00 [Music]
0:22 good day
0:23 welcome to the far eastern university
0:25 public intellectual lecture series
0:27 my name is rita i am from the political
0:30 science department
0:32 our topic for today is neuropsychology
0:34 and how it is used to explain moral
0:36 behavior
0:37 and we are privileged to have with us a
0:39 practicing psychologist of the mlac
0:42 institute for psychosocial services and
0:44 a professor of de la salle university
0:47 dr rachel and rosales parr good day
0:50 ma'am
0:51 thank you for accepting our invitation
0:53 to be part of this public intellectual
0:54 lecture series
0:56 thank you for inviting me um so ma'am
0:59 can you please give us an overview of
1:00 what neuropsychology is
1:02 and how it affects moral behavior well
1:05 uh
1:06 very very briefly neuropsychology is
1:09 like
1:09 understanding behavior by looking at
1:12 brain
1:13 processes so this particular
1:17 topic is
1:20 understanding how we become moral beings
1:23 moral creatures
1:26 through the lens of neuroscience
1:30 neurological science
1:32 so i'm not a neurologist but
1:35 in psychology part of our training is
1:38 that we
1:39 use scientific models to
1:41 [Music]
1:42 explain to describe explain and possibly
1:45 predict
1:46 uh the behavior of people all right so
1:48 that's very interesting so now we're
1:50 talking about
1:51 the brain right yeah okay so mom what's
1:53 the relationship with
1:54 between the brain and how individuals
1:58 make ethical decisions or generally
2:00 decision making
2:02 um okay that's a huge question
2:05 but um the research i actually did
2:09 a lecture on this so i have a powerpoint
2:12 presentation on this and here in this
2:15 presentation
2:16 we i will be looking at how
2:19 are we talking about how empathy
2:22 starts out how
2:28 individuals why do individuals engage in
2:31 risk taking behavior why is this so
2:34 salient or prominent in adolescence
2:36 as we all know um and then how
2:40 a conscience develops um these
2:43 big concepts lately we have
2:46 research has shown that
2:50 research in evolutionary biology
2:54 in cognitive neuroscience and in
2:58 developmental psychology have shown that
3:01 the moral development of a person you
3:03 know how a person knows
3:05 right from wrong has its biological
3:08 roots
3:08 and can be influenced by a person's
3:11 genetic makeup and brain processes right
3:14 that's very interesting so
3:15 can we talk about that ma'am about the
3:17 moral development of an
3:18 individual uh okay so
3:23 in in the branch of science we call
3:26 evolutionary biology so in this
3:30 lecture that i did this is in i hope i
3:32 can give you a copy of this now in the
3:34 third slide
3:36 we talked ab i will show how
3:39 evolutionary biology looks into
3:43 how people are the same
3:46 okay the universalities of behavior okay
3:49 we are individuals and we come from
3:51 different backgrounds but
3:53 there is something universal also about
3:56 the way human beings behave as a species
3:59 and there are even universalities
4:03 where we behave the same way as other
4:06 mammals
4:06 like other primates
4:10 so evolutionary biology looks at this
4:13 universalities
4:14 okay so part of that is the
4:15 universalities in our
4:18 moral behavior so
4:21 how are we the same as animals primates
4:25 and then also we look at cognitive
4:28 neuroscience so
4:30 here we look at
4:34 brain processes how
4:37 the brain processes affect how we
4:40 perceive how we understand what's
4:41 happening
4:42 how we how this translates into action
4:46 and behavior and then vice versa
4:49 cognitive neuroscience also looks at how
4:51 our experiences how our behavior
4:55 reshapes our brain and affects the
4:58 structure of our brain
5:00 and then developmental psychology well
5:02 this is the
5:03 systematic study of the changes
5:07 through the lifespan the changes a
5:10 person goes through
5:12 physical emotional social etc and
5:15 also moral
5:18 so in developmental psychology we use
5:21 scientific theories to try
5:23 and describe and explain these
5:26 changes throughout the lifespan from
5:28 birth to
5:29 rather from womb from conception to
5:32 death
5:33 okay
5:37 it's a long it's a rather big topic
5:41 actually uh i'd like to go back to
5:44 the topic on evolutionary biology
5:49 uh because here a group of scientists
5:53 led
5:53 by a social psychologist rather
5:58 led by jonathan height okay he came
6:01 up with a theory
6:05 talking about the moral foundations
6:08 okay of moral behavior so apparently
6:11 as i said most of people are different
6:13 individuals are different
6:15 we have different cultural backgrounds
6:17 but um
6:20 if you look at the moral behavior you
6:22 can actually categorize
6:25 the different value systems that people
6:27 have into five major categories
6:30 based on his studies one is you know we
6:34 we behave our moral behavior can be put
6:37 together in terms of how we care
6:39 for one another how we cherish each
6:42 other
6:43 um and the other end of that spectrum is
6:45 harm no harm is the opposite of caring
6:48 and then the other principle is about
6:52 fairness and cheating so how we
6:55 value fairness how we value
6:58 justice okay um so
7:01 here you will see the traits of
7:05 um how social conscience
7:09 um evolves and then we
7:13 also behave morally in terms of
7:16 loyalty so apparent uh it would
7:19 seem that people value
7:23 belonging to a certain group okay so
7:26 whether this is belonging to school
7:30 belonging to a uaap team or
7:33 belong to a family or a barcada
7:37 so it's very important for human beings
7:40 to have this sense of belonging to a
7:42 particular unit
7:43 and this sense of belonging leads to
7:48 being loyal being matapat in tagalog
7:53 so the opposite of that is betrayal
7:56 and then the fourth principle is about
8:00 how we how we give
8:03 importance to authority okay so respect
8:07 um how how do we respect one another
8:10 how do we respect people
8:13 who have a legal sense of authority so
8:16 our
8:16 professors our government officials etc
8:21 and then the fifth principle is about
8:24 uh sanctity and degradation so how we
8:28 behave morally in terms of how we value
8:31 the purity in our bodies
8:35 the people we relate to so
8:38 here you will have the issues on
8:42 okay like same-sex marriages for
8:43 instance so how do we see
8:45 this how do we decide on these issues
8:48 so do we are we open how open are we
8:52 to these uh to this to same-sex marriage
8:54 for instance for two people
8:56 uh belonging to the same sex and having
8:58 a relationship
8:59 um or do we find this disgusting okay so
9:02 that continuum
9:04 okay so that's the fifth um
9:07 so there and then um
9:09 [Music]
9:10 in a biological sense also when uh
9:14 we looked at the research
9:17 it was in the 1990s uh that we
9:21 that this group of scientists led by
9:24 um giacomo
9:29 rizzolatti rather sorry um
9:32 they discovered the presence of a set of
9:35 neurons
9:37 that seem to mirror um
9:41 behavior so the the experiment they were
9:44 doing was with monkeys
9:46 okay and what they found out
9:50 um was that a certain
9:54 when you when i'm when a monkey behaves
9:56 in a certain way like for example
9:57 picking up a banana so i have a slide on
10:00 this i think it's in
10:01 it's the fifth slide when a monkey picks
10:04 up a banana
10:06 so a certain set of neurons fire up
10:10 light up and then
10:15 when the monkey observes the same
10:16 behavior in another
10:18 monkey the same set of neurons will
10:21 light up
10:23 oh so this is for young people to say
10:25 what is right and what is wrong
10:27 especially when
10:28 you have uh people supposedly modeling
10:31 moral ascendancy
10:33 and yet they don't seem to model what
10:34 they're supposed to model so
10:36 can you please elaborate on that on the
10:37 development of one's conscience
10:40 um one way of
10:43 studying conscience okay is by looking
10:46 at this concept we call
10:48 um mutually or mutually responsive
10:51 orientation okay
10:53 in a presentation in the same
10:56 presentation that i
10:57 did okay where is this slide 58
11:01 okay there's a scan
11:04 here an mri scan of a this is actually a
11:08 mother
11:08 um kissing her baby okay but this could
11:11 be a father doesn't have to be a mother
11:14 so in this scan they were able to see
11:16 that when
11:18 a parent and a child begin to interact
11:21 when they first
11:22 interact there is that exchange of
11:25 positive
11:26 reactions mutual exchange no
11:30 just sound of the voice being happy to
11:33 be with the child
11:34 the touch of the parent kissing the
11:37 child
11:38 these um forms of interaction they
11:41 they saw that these um
11:44 actions would light up certain parts of
11:46 the brain
11:48 and they were the same for the parent
11:50 and the child
11:52 and so scientists explained this
11:56 by saying that when this happens there
11:58 seems to be like what we call an
11:59 imprinting
12:01 okay so the the parent there's an
12:03 imprint
12:04 happening in the brain okay the parent
12:08 suddenly feels this i think if you talk
12:10 to some parents they will
12:12 probably explain it differently but
12:13 there is this sudden sense of this surge
12:16 of
12:17 oh my god this person is this baby is
12:19 the most important thing in my life now
12:21 i would die for this child
12:23 very extreme but that's how some parents
12:26 describe it
12:26 it's very primal it's very i'm now
12:29 responsible for this person i will die
12:31 for this person
12:32 something like that and then for the
12:34 child naman they explain it that the
12:36 child
12:37 imprints that okay the sound of your
12:40 voice is the same as that sound i was
12:42 hearing when i was in the womb
12:44 uh it must be the same i must it must be
12:46 you your smell
12:48 um the way you touch me putting that all
12:51 together
12:52 the child imprints on that the face of
12:55 that parent becomes imprinted that this
12:57 is the person who will take care of me
12:59 or i need to attach to this person
13:03 attachment studies show that children
13:05 need to attach
13:07 whether the parent is nurturing or not
13:10 they will attach because it is a
13:12 biological need to attach
13:14 because they need to be cared for so
13:17 there so when this locking in
13:20 of positive emotions
13:24 when this takes place this
13:27 atmosphere of what we call a mutually
13:30 responsive orientation is created okay
13:34 and in this
13:35 um okay if you look at it from a neural
13:38 perspective
13:39 they would say that during this time uh
13:42 this is slide 59 now in that
13:44 presentation as i jumped
13:46 um dopamine
13:50 is a neurotransmitter dopamine levels
13:52 increase
13:53 during this time so there is again a
13:55 neurological
13:56 manifestation when a mother or when a
13:59 parent
14:00 and a baby start this bond
14:04 we call it mute mutually responsive
14:06 orientation in psych but
14:07 that's it no that's that bonding that
14:10 moment that they lock in
14:12 each other and um
14:15 so this is when the attachment begins
14:19 when this mutually responsive
14:22 orientation
14:23 is allowed to develop through positive
14:26 interaction
14:27 positive exchanges between parent and
14:30 child
14:31 so socialization begins
14:36 children develop this sense of
14:39 wanting to cooperate with that parent
14:44 so this is where children learn how to
14:46 absorb
14:48 gradually the value systems the what is
14:52 important to the parent they begin to
14:53 absorb this
14:55 of course they don't oh they may not
14:57 show it red lina
14:58 anything my mom wants i'm gonna do it
15:00 it's not as black and white as that but
15:02 they
15:03 they absorb this sense of wanting
15:06 to cooperate this sense that is
15:10 it's not really just conscious it's
15:13 actually subconscious
15:15 you know you know how young people talk
15:17 about you know they're outside they're
15:18 with their friends and then
15:20 they usually want to do this thing but
15:22 they know their mom or their dad's going
15:23 to get upset
15:24 so that concentra the conscience okay
15:28 it starts as early as infancy that's
15:30 what i'm trying to
15:32 uh explain here um that sense starts
15:35 with that
15:36 bond that you form with your parents so
15:38 that's why it's very important
15:40 to have that positive relationship as
15:42 early as infancy
15:43 because that is when supposedly this
15:45 conscience begins to develop
15:48 all right well that's very interesting
15:50 because now it appears to me that
15:52 parents are responsible mainly for
15:54 developing the rational pathway
15:57 that you were mentioning earlier because
15:58 it is the parent that tells the child
16:01 this is what you should do this is the
16:02 acceptable thing to do
16:04 but it is actually the peer group who
16:06 can also influence the emotional
16:08 pathway and there's where the confusion
16:11 starts
16:11 yeah and it's not just telling the child
16:14 actually uh if we go further into this
16:17 it's
16:18 living it's giving a living in a way
16:21 that you become a role model also
16:23 so you're not just telling the child but
16:25 it's the action also you also have to
16:27 show that you
16:28 you know it shows your sincerity you
16:31 lead by example also
16:32 ah okay so of course there is the verbal
16:34 exchange there is a communication
16:36 process that
16:37 happens but the child needs to grow up
16:40 in an environment where the child will
16:41 believe you
16:42 so you need to lead by example and this
16:44 is not just with parents this is also in
16:46 an educational setting yeah the figures
16:48 of authority exactly the teachers the
16:50 administrators
16:51 all right those of us who are supposed
16:53 to be molding them there
16:55 all right so mom um i'm just curious
16:58 because there are certain
16:59 there are certain issues now that we
17:01 take up in or that we encounter not
17:03 being
17:03 being teachers um and these are issues
17:06 of let's say
17:07 sexuality and you know the development
17:09 of values of our young people
17:12 so how do you weave through the the
17:15 neuropsychology part with these
17:17 challenges of
17:18 you know sexual behavior among our young
17:21 people even
17:22 addictive patterns of behavior and all
17:24 that so you were saying earlier that
17:27 experiences matter and when we talk
17:30 about the rational pathway
17:32 this young people as young as 15 already
17:35 know
17:35 what they're supposed to do but the
17:37 emotional pathway gets into the picture
17:41 and the emotional pathway is yet to to
17:43 develop
17:44 so i would like to see how you know how
17:47 this this
17:47 variables like sexual behavior and
17:50 addiction
17:51 even depression and suicide weave into
17:53 one big issue among our young people
17:56 today
17:57 um wow okay i would like to see how the
18:00 the
18:01 adolescent brain works for example how
18:03 does it look like
18:04 okay as compared to an adult or to a
18:06 young child
18:08 because in adolescence as mentioned
18:10 earlier
18:11 they're creating connections but at the
18:15 same time they're also getting rid of
18:17 connections that they don't use so
18:19 during adolescence
18:21 the the shape of your brain the
18:22 structure of your brain
18:24 really goes through a very dramatic
18:26 change right
18:27 they call it like a dramatic overhauling
18:30 okay
18:30 so what overhauls this what shapes this
18:34 is experience okay
18:37 and that's where we come in
18:41 um do we teach them values
18:44 of social justice do we teach them to be
18:47 open-minded do we teach them to be
18:49 accepting
18:51 of themselves and of other people these
18:54 experiences
18:54 we can do as parents and as teachers and
18:57 this is how we
18:58 help structure their brain in such a way
19:02 that they are socially aware that they
19:05 are mindful
19:06 that they they value social justice that
19:08 they are able to go beyond themselves
19:10 and help
19:11 other people this is how we teach them
19:14 how the important how it becomes natural
19:16 for them
19:18 to be selfless and not just to think of
19:22 self-preservation not just be about
19:24 self-preservation but also be
19:26 to to to start you know this altruistic
19:30 tendencies
19:31 how to become altruistic it's up to us
19:34 to give them that experiences
19:36 at home and in school okay mom thank you
19:39 for that so
19:40 mom i just have some very specific cases
19:42 here and i'm just curious about
19:44 how psychological processes affect uh
19:47 this kind of behavior or maybe should i
19:50 say misbehavior
19:52 so what happens to the human brain when
19:55 a person gets involved for example in
19:57 crimes or
19:59 let's say rape and other forms of sexual
20:01 violence like sexual harassment
20:03 and domestic violence okay
20:06 rape in itself is uh well again
20:10 it's you know there are many factors or
20:13 ways of trying to understand why
20:17 a person would rape another person and
20:19 um so you have gender issues there you
20:22 have the
20:23 the gender issue of you know men
20:26 feeling more powerful than women rape is
20:28 about power rape is not about sex
20:31 but then you have these pathological
20:33 cases where
20:34 you know you have children babies uh
20:37 being raped by an adult
20:40 whether it's their father or their
20:42 caregiver okay no no
20:44 as mentioned earlier those are very
20:46 extreme cases but
20:48 if as mentioned earlier we are born to
20:51 feel
20:52 uh to bond with other people we are born
20:55 to feel compassion towards those who are
20:59 weaker than
20:59 us those who are more vulnerable than us
21:02 which is why
21:03 when you are when you see a child you
21:05 naturally feel different
21:06 you're more willing to help a child if a
21:09 child is hungry
21:10 crying even though you don't know the
21:13 child
21:14 you are more you're triggered by the the
21:16 the child
21:17 being a child you know that person being
21:19 a child now you want to help you want to
21:21 do something for that child so to do
21:24 the extreme opposite of harming a child
21:28 raping a child is really a clear sign
21:31 that
21:31 this person there's something
21:33 pathological
21:35 about this capacity for empathy
21:39 so perhaps um you know in psychology we
21:43 have this clinical condition we call
21:45 um sociopathology
21:48 psychopathology so these are people who
21:50 have no conscience
21:52 and they are not capable of bonding with
21:55 other people
21:56 so this could be brought about this
21:59 could be caused by
22:00 experiences in childhood they were
22:02 they're born with this pathology
22:04 you know it's not you cannot just
22:06 pinpoint one
22:07 source no but this is a condition so you
22:10 know if
22:11 an adult is capable of doing
22:14 that uh horrible act uh with a very
22:18 helpless infant child okay then
22:22 it i think it's safe to say that this
22:23 person has no conscience
22:26 so if we use a neural psych uh
22:29 perspective then we could say that
22:31 this was damaged during the time that it
22:33 was developing it was not
22:35 it was not able to develop normally it
22:38 was not
22:39 strengthened or perhaps it was damaged
22:42 by trauma
22:43 by abuse there are many cases of
22:46 abusive people who became abusive
22:49 because they were also abused
22:50 as children that's one way of looking at
22:54 it and understanding it all right
22:56 understanding it okay
22:57 how about uh cases where i think most
23:00 students can very well relate to
23:02 um like pieces of cheating you know
23:04 maybe not only cheating and exams but
23:06 also cheating in
23:07 relationship partners yeah how do you
23:10 explain the psychological processes
23:11 there
23:12 as we mentioned as i i mentioned earlier
23:14 in the
23:15 earlier part um we
23:19 one of the moral foundations we have is
23:22 the sense of um
23:23 fairness okay uh
23:27 being fair or cheating no so that's the
23:31 other end of it so we
23:34 if if your sense of fairness if your
23:36 sense of wanting to be fair
23:40 um is not
23:43 honed proper it's not encouraged it's
23:45 not reinforced
23:47 by experience then chances
23:50 are you will still have this but it will
23:52 be weak
23:54 so for some people it might be weaker
23:56 they're more prone to cheating
23:58 they're more they succumb to
24:01 temptation more than others because this
24:04 sense is weaker in them
24:06 so it could be upbringing
24:10 experience it it was not strengthened
24:13 so we are we're all wired to have this
24:15 to be like this
24:17 that's what the theory is saying but you
24:19 need
24:20 the outside world to strengthen it
24:24 so even though a person as a child as an
24:27 adolescent can construct this
24:29 sense of morality on his own or on her
24:32 own
24:33 now indeed you shouldn't cheat you
24:34 should be loyalty is a virtue you should
24:38 uh when in relationships it is important
24:40 to
24:41 to stay in this relationship you need to
24:43 be like this you need to be faithful etc
24:45 etc
24:46 you can construct this on your own but
24:47 how strong is that against temptation
24:50 depends on how it is addressed by the
24:53 environment
24:55 so can the brain catch up like for
24:57 example you had trauma when you were
24:59 young and then
25:00 you had all of these bad experiences and
25:02 then it affects the brain
25:03 so how does the brain catch up for you
25:05 to be morally upright yeah so
25:07 that was actually one part in this
25:09 lecture that um
25:12 a huge part of this lecture is also
25:14 about brain plasticity
25:16 okay so plasticity uh means
25:19 is this capacity of the brain to respond
25:22 to the demands of the environment okay
25:26 so
25:28 for example there are damaged parts of
25:29 your brain other parts
25:32 can be triggered to
25:35 make up for the damaged parts for
25:37 example
25:39 i'll go back to that point a person who
25:41 cannot use his hands
25:43 um some people learn how to write with
25:45 their feet
25:46 so those neural connections are created
25:49 and that is the brain that's plasticity
25:51 that's the brain
25:52 responding by creating new connections
25:56 to respond to that need to that damaged
25:58 part
25:59 so the same thing of course there is
26:01 always hope
26:02 okay um a person who has been
26:06 traumatized or
26:07 abused or is incapable of being
26:10 fair or being just given the right
26:14 experience
26:15 yes it is possible that this person can
26:18 reconnect
26:19 with society in a healthy way in a
26:21 positive way
26:23 yes it is possible for an anti-social
26:25 person to become
26:27 pro-social given the right experiences
26:30 which is why
26:31 we have rehabilitation centers which is
26:34 why
26:35 you know we don't we're not supposed to
26:37 kill young people or people
26:40 just because they're taking drugs okay
26:42 that that
26:43 drug taking behavior is supposed to be a
26:45 manifestation
26:46 of something else there is something
26:48 that caused them to do that
26:50 so we should help them that's the idea
26:54 that's the
26:54 rationale behind it we don't kill them
26:57 because we
26:58 we believe there is always hope no
27:01 matter how dire or how dark the
27:02 situation is
27:04 now yes um i think in applied ethics now
27:07 you talk about
27:08 crime and what do you do but um
27:11 you you can't remove a person from
27:13 society if this person is a danger to
27:15 society
27:16 but you don't remove a person by killing
27:19 the person
27:20 supposedly but we rehabilitate the
27:22 person well that's what we should watch
27:25 restorative justice
27:27 not punitive i see so um for your final
27:30 word ma'am i think
27:31 this topic is actually very interesting
27:34 because
27:34 you know many of our young people are
27:36 actually struggling now with
27:38 ethical decisions and it's important
27:40 that they know that uh
27:41 the brain the plasticity of the brain
27:44 know that they can
27:45 learn new things and they can actually
27:47 adopt given the right experiences
27:49 so um what are your final words for our
27:52 students or listening to us
27:53 now i'd like to end it with a quote from
27:57 mahatma gandhi i think he's
28:00 quite well known okay according to him a
28:03 man
28:04 is the sum of his actions of what he has
28:07 done
28:08 and of what he can do nothing else
28:12 now if we believe that the brain is the
28:15 physiological
28:19 representation of who we are then i will
28:22 say that you
28:23 are your brain your brain is you my
28:25 brain is me i
28:26 am my brain okay so therefore if we
28:29 believe this
28:31 it is very important that we bear in
28:33 mind those of us who deal with children
28:35 those of us who are in the
28:37 molding of children in the business of
28:39 molding children
28:40 educating children then it is important
28:43 that we
28:44 remember that these connections begin
28:47 very early on in life so it is important
28:49 to provide the right connections
28:52 and in adolescence the people go through
28:56 the reshaping of the brain in a very
28:58 dramatical way
28:59 so it is important that in adolescents
29:02 uh in while they are in school it is
29:05 important that we create the right
29:07 experiences
29:08 so that the brain gets shaped in a way
29:11 that they are pro-social
29:13 they learn how to bond with other people
29:16 and in adulthood we can only hope that
29:19 all these
29:20 experiences become crystallized so the
29:22 the brain becomes crystallized
29:25 less flexible but crystallized with the
29:28 right
29:28 lessons in life so that's what we can
29:31 hope for
29:32 all right so uh thank you very much
29:34 ma'am for for your time and for this
29:36 explanation i think
29:37 our students will have a better
29:39 understanding of how their brain
29:41 functions and relate
29:42 this functioning with their own
29:44 experiences so thank you ma'am
29:46 you're very welcome for your expertise
29:49 not for sharing with us your expertise
29:51 so there you go another session i think
29:53 my two key
29:54 takeaways for this session is number one
29:57 we have to take care of our brain of our
29:59 mental health and number two
30:00 i think it is very important that we are
30:02 very responsible in choosing
30:04 the kinds of experiences that we engage
30:06 in so there you go
30:08 thank you very much for your
30:09 participation in this session
30:24 [Music]
30:32 you