Author Topic: Character Motivation (Read 4136 times)

YankeeSamurai · « **on:** December 08, 2011, 10:22:23 AM »

Character Motivation
or
Kohlberg's Six Stages of Moral Development

I learned this shit in school, it's pretty interesting. The purpose of this guide in the context of hl2rp is to provide some insight into what drives your characters to act the way they do. This can be a very useful tool for character development. Read on and figure out where your character lies and for which actions/beliefs.

Level I: Pre-conventional
Stage 1: Heteronomous morality
What is right? Avoiding breaking rules backed by punishment; obedience for its own sake; to avoid physical damage to persons and property.
Reasons for doing what is right: Avoidance of punishment and the superior power of authorities.
Social perspective of stage: Egocentric point of view. Doesn't consider the interests of others or recognize that they differ from the actor's; doesn't relate two points of view. Actions are considered physically rather than in terms of psychological interests of others. Confusion of authority's perspective with one's own.
HL2RP application: A citizen who obeys the no-running rule not because he truly believes in the reasoning behind it, but merely because he doesn't want to be punished for breaking it.

Stage 2: Individualism, instrumental purpose and exchange
What is right? Following rules only when it is to someone's immediate interest; acting to meet your own interests and needs and letting other do the same. Right is also what's fair- an equal exchange, a deal, an agreement.
Reasons for doing what is right: To serve one's own needs or interest in a world where one must recognize that other have their own interests and agendas.
Social perspective of stage: Concrete individualistic perspective. Aware that everybody has their own interests to pursue, thus causing conflict. Right is relative (in the concrete individualistic sense).
HL2RP application: A loyalist who reports law-breakers not because he believes they're doing wrong, but rather because he wants a reward for himself.

Level II: Conventional
Stage 3: Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity
What is right? Living up to what is expected by people close to oneself or what people generally expect of a person in the role of son, brother, friend, etc. "Being good" is important and means having good motives and showing concern for others. It also means keeping mutual emotional relationships, such as trust, loyalty, respect, and gratitude.
Reasons for doing what is right: The need to be a good person is one's own eye and the eyes of others. Caring for others. Belief in the "Golden Rule" (treat others the way you would wish to be treated). Desire to maintain rules and authority which support stereotypical good behavior.
Social perspective of stage: Perspective of the individual in relationships with other individuals. Aware of shared feelings, agreements, and expectations which take priority over individual interests. Relates points of view through the concrete "Golden Rule." Shows genuine empathy. Does not yet consider generalized system perspective.
HL2RP application: A citizen who has a Loyalist companion, and obeys the Combine because of the shared expectations of that friendship. Does not want to offend Loyalist friend, wishes to be a good person in his friend's eyes, etc.

Stage 4: Social system and conscience
What is right? Fulfilling the actual duties to which you have agreed. Laws are to be upheld except in extreme cases where they conflict with other fixed social duties. Right is also contributing to society, a group, or an institution.
Reasons for doing what is right: To keep the institution functioning as a whole, to avoid the breakdown in the system ("if everybody did it"), or the imperative of conscience to meet one's defined obligations (easily confused with stage 3 beliefs regarding rules and authority).
Social perspective of stage: Differentiation of societal points of view from interpersonal agreement or motives. Takes the point of view of the system which defines roles and rules, accepts system's definitions. Considers individual relations in terms of place in the system.
HL2RP application: An 04 who arrests law-breakers because he believes it is his duty to do so. Looks down on RCTs because they are lower-ranked than him and unable to perform their duties as well.

Level III: Post-conventional or "Principaled"
Stage 5: Social contract or utility and individual rights
What is right? Being aware that people hold a variety of values and opinions, realizing that most values and rules are relative to one's group. However, these relative rules should usually be upheld, however, in the interest of impartiality and because they are the social contract/obligation. Some nonrelative, absolute values and rights like life and liberty must be upheld in any society regardless of majority opinion.
Reasons for doing what is right: A sense of obligation to law because of one's social contract to make and abide by laws for the welfare of all, as well as for the protection of all people's rights. A feeling of freely entered contractual commitment to family, friendship, trust, and work obligation. Concern that laws and duties be based on the rational calculation of overall utility, "the greatest good for the greatest number." Utilitarianism, in a sense.
Social perspective of stage: Prior-to-society perspective. Perspective of a rational individual who is aware of values and rights prior to social attachments. Integrates perspectives by formal mechanisms of agreements, contract, objective impartiality, and due process. Considers moral and legal points of view; recognizes that they often conflict but sometimes finds it difficult to resolve them.
HL2RP application: A leader of the resistance who makes formal peace negotiations with an anti-citizen gang. Members will be friendly to one another, share food and water, not intrude into each other's operations, etc.

Stage 6: Universal Principles
What is right? Following self-chosen ethical principals. Particular laws or social agreements are usually valid solely because they rest on such principles. When laws violate such principles, one acts in accordance with the principle, not the law. Values are universal, absolute principals of justice: for example, the equality of human rights and respect for the dignity of human beings as individual and free persons.
Reasons for doing what is right: The belief as a rational being in the validity of universal moral principles, and a sense of personal commitment to them.
Social perspective of stage: Perspective of a moral point of view from which social arrangements derive. Perspective is that of any rational individual who recognizes the mature of morality or the fact that persons are ends in themselves and must be treated as such.
HL2RP application: A person who smuggles healthy food and water to the populace. He is captured and interrogated, but refuses to divulge the identities of the people he helped. His beliefs do not waiver, and eventually he is executed.