Kohlberg 's Moral Development Theory

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

In analyzing my personal development, the two theories that best resonate with me are the cognitive theory of Baxter Magolda’s Model and the moral theory of Rest’s Approach. I plan to first begin explaining Baxter’s cognitive model and relate it to my personal development through personal examples. I will transition to talk about Rest’s moral development approach and how the approach applies to my personal development.

Moral Development is defined as “changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding standards of right and wrong” (Santrock, 2010). Moral development

Another example of this part of the model can be demonstrated through the educators and teachers of Dave’s elementary school when Dave’s mother comes to meet with the professionals of the school to talk about Dave’s wounds and bruises. Dave’s Mother explains to them that Dave had made up these stories with his imagination and was hurting himself because he was trying to gain his parents attention after Dave’s Mother gave birth to her most recent child, making Dave no longer the “baby” of the family. Instead of sending Dave’s Mother for further questioning, the education

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

In analyzing my development, the two theories that best resonate with me are the cognitive theory of Baxter Magolda’s Model and the moral theory of Rest’s Approach. I plan to first begin explaining Baxter’s cognitive model and relate it to my personal development through personal examples. I will transition to talk about Rest’s moral development approach and how the approach applies to my personal development.

What are the family, cultural and ethical considerations related to the case study? Families play a major role in teaching appropriate behaviour to a child like Gemma, with the support of teachers. In fact, a child’s family is the first teacher of the child. The child will learn her family values based on their culture, and region, and the child will also capture the behaviours of their family members whether it is a positive or negative behaviour.

Kohlberg’s theory depends on three levels of moral develop, which he says will determine moral behavior. (Cognitive PowerPoint) The first is pre-conventional, which states that individuals respond to already established social norms so as to receive rewards within society. The second theory is conventional level, which, after a point, the person has internalized the norms into his or her own behavior and as a result has developed consciousness of values that lean towards the authority. Lastly, the post-conventional level, which, as a result of internalizing these values, establishes principles that they use to judge their own actions, “emphasizing respect for the rights of all people” (Cognitive PowerPoint). The reason why students tend not to cheat is because they have more than often than not have accepted the social norms of society, e.g., they are in a very prestigious university. Since their accomplishment has been due to the rewards given by society. They have accepted this and internalized these values and their judgments are based on values of integrity and academic

The second level is Conventional reasoning where a person adopts their standards from others suchs a family, or the government. Stage three of Kohlberg’s morals people seek approval from others and want to maintain good relations. A scenario when this will occur might be when a teenager joins the football team in high school because his dad is a huge football fan, even though the boy may not like that sport. The teenger is seeking aproval of his dad and is conforming to his interests. People in stage four tend to stick to laws to find peace, order, and to work efficiently. For example a person in a community may believe that justice is important to keeping everyone safe and

The branch of psychology that this paper will be referencing is Clinical Psychology. Clinical Psychology is used for the diagnosis and treatment of mental or behavioral disorders. One important theory in psychology is Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, which describes six stages within three levels of moral development from childhood to adulthood. This theory also states that moral development continues until death, or that humans are always morally developing. The three levels are: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. Each level has two stages, respectively: obedience and punishment, individualism, instrumentalism, and exchange, “good boy/girl”, law and order, social contract, and principled conscience. To summarize, each level brings a new awareness of how our actions and words affect ourselves and others. Kohlberg has said the third level is not usually reached by adults. It is “an understanding of social mutuality and a genuine interest in the welfare of others.” The other theory that will be contextually important here is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It describes five different human needs in order to achieve stability, and these are ordered from basic to more complex needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. A disruption of any of these needs can lead to the development of a mental disorder such as

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were based on a moral philosopher by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg. His main interest was to observe children during growth to develop and conclude which stages they best fit into. After observing both adults and children, he concluded that, “Human beings progress consecutively from one stage to the next in an invariant sequence” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). All of the 6 stages he created, represent the morality in which a child or adult can be at; he created an age zone for each stage. There are a total of 6 stages but each main concept consists of 3 levels. Level 1 is the preconventional stage. This stage focuses on punishment/obedience and how the person decides to act due to the

Preconventional Morality and when Kohlberg uses this stage the person is not much aware of the various ethical standards that this child is not fully conscious of his or her actions(powerpoint). For example a 5-year-old run around when the mother of the child is cooking the mom will tell the kid not to run when she is cooking because he or she will get hurt; so the little 5 years old runs anyway and gets burned and starts crying so now that it happened to the kid, he eventually learned his or her lesson and whenever he or she is around their mother when she is cooking so the kid will remember what happened to them the

The second level of moral development is the conventional moral reasoning; “Beginning in middle school, up to middle age – most people end up here” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.”). At this level,

Goldman Sachs should have been punished for its behavior in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Goldman ended up settling with the federal government for $110 Billion, which I do not believe was sufficient based on the magnitude of problems created. This amount should have been much larger, and at minimum they should have forfeited the $14 Billion paid to them by AIG. (Inside Job, 2011) In addition, AIG should have had the right to sue Goldman Sachs for fraud. It was in the public’s best interest to keep Goldman up and running, however additional penalties could have been put on a repayment schedule to keep them solvent. Instead, you had Goldman giving out large bonuses.

The theory of moral development, advanced by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is one of the most well-known persuasive theories in the field of cognitive science and stems from the work of Jean Piaget, which hypothesizes on the direct correlation that exists between moral and cognitive development. Kohlberg speaks of the appearance and understanding of what is right and wrong from childhood to adulthood and explains by this transition through the identification of various levels of morality known as pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional. People will make decisions based on the understanding of the possible outcome and through reasoning of morals. (Target Concept)