Is Moral Psychology Instinctual?

From "Raising a Moral Child" to "The Meaning of Culture" to "What's Morally Acceptable? It Depends on Where in the World You Live" to "Moral Minds," I came to the fairly certain conclusion about a larger theme in the readings: moral psychology as instinct. (Lesser so with "Doing Ethics in Media," so I've subtracted it from my reflections here.) 

So IS moral psychology instinctual? At first glance, the answer seems like a no-brainer. No. We're born as a blank slate. It's up to those around us (shout-out to mom and dad) to teach us the difference between right and wrong. As a parent of young children, I can tell you: it's a constant, heavy struggle teaching small humans to make the best, right (right? what is right?) choices in life. It starts small and it grows, daily. But wait. I've also observed them, when they were too young to have fully felt my influence, struggle with something they obviously realized was a bad choice--from taking another child's toy to throwing food and waiting for my response.  So there: score points for moral instinct!

For these reasons, I connected the most with "Raising a Moral Child." But still: can you "raise" morality? I wonder if it's possible to use two somewhat confusing methods, shame and guilt, to get a positive result, to correct behavior. Don't get me wrong: I understand and buy into what the author stated:

"If we want our children to care about others, we need to teach them to feel guilt rather than shame when they misbehave." 

But the article left me very much in touch with the negativity that's involved in "becoming moral."

I also personally connected with "The Meaning of Culture" because I've struggled with the many definitions and uses of the word "culture." It's a word I personally think has been dumbed down...a lot. As a professional who deals with words/word use every day, I'm aware of the power and complexity of language, and things that take on double (or more) meanings. For me, the word "culture" is a perfect example of how we have to be more careful, thoughtful and deliberate in our communication. What I think about culture is likely entirely different from what me neighbor thinks. I found myself fist-pumping and saying an internal "YES" to the author of this article more than once, but especially here:

"It's our sense of the word "culture" that has grown darker, sharper, more skeptical...our culture is fractured, and so our sense of the word "culture" is, too." 

I couldn't agree more.

The final article I'll comment on is "What's Morally Acceptable? It Depends on Where in the World You Live." I struggled to find the connection between this survey and the rest of the articles, except for the obvious theme of morality. That is until I started reading the comments attached to the poll. BINGO. They were more interesting and thought-provoking than the results themselves. The comments were are starting point to the meat of the issue here (in my opinion): the struggle with morality and its connection to religion...and belief. (You'll never win if you're fighting for belief. I feel incredibly convicted about this statement. But that's an argument to be made somewhere else, I think...)

I walk away from these readings feeling more enlightened and surprisingly more comfortable with myself and my feelings about morality--because it's not a topic that has one simple answer. It's a constantly evolving, growing thing that must be watered every day. I'm still not sure about the answer to my question: is moral psychology instinct, but after these readings, I lean more toward the answer being "yes." But still "no." I imagine it's quite a lot of "both."