Kohlberg 's Stages Of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg, a professor at Harvard, creates a theory of human moral development. Since his theory was an expansion of Jean Piaget moral development of children, he elucidates of his theory to have series of stages. Each stage were categorized into three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. During each level there are 2 stages which are consequent for moral development because they are action that manifest on who we are.

This moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules. In preconventional morality, moral decisions are based on whether an act has positive or negative consequences and/or whether the act is given a punishment or a reward. In early school age, behaving according to parent’s rules and beliefs becomes a part of a child’s self-concept. Moral behavior is constructed by experiences in different situations where children learn acceptable behaviors and unacceptable behaviors. (Newman & Newman,

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

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

Kohlberg’s Moral Stages help to explain how people act the way that they act. Level 1 is Preconventional/Premoral. This is where “the child is responsive to rules and evaluative labels, but views them in terms of pleasant or unpleasant consequences of actions, or in terms of the physical power of those who impose the rules.” Level two is conventional/role conformity where there is good boy/good girl orientation and authority and social order are determined. Level three is post conventional/self-accepted moral principles where norms of right and wrong are defined in terms of laws or institutionalized rules. Then there is where the morality of individual principles of conscience where if one acts against social rules they feel self-condemnation and guilt. These principles help to not only see how people are acting at the time but they also help to show how over time that may be the phone call or afterwards how a person will

There are three levels to Kohlberg's moral stages and in each level there are two stages. The three levels goes up to six stages, which the text says stages very few people even reach stages five and six. Level one discusses preconventional morality, which is morality prior to any conception of social convention or shared norms. The first stage in this level are punishment and obedience. Moral thinking is characterized by perceptions of right and wrong that are based on obedience to authority and shaped by the threat of punishment or the promise of reward. The second stage is instrumental purpose and exchange. That is moral thinking characterized by egoism or self-interest. I can address the first stage by simply giving out rewards to my officers that are doing a great job. Can also give days off or give free tickets to keep morale up. On the other side of the fence, if any of my officers are not doing what they are supposed to do then punishment will be given out. This can be desk duty, suspension, suspended pay, etc.

Kohlberg would then ask the children to answer a series of questions such should ‘Heinz steal the drug?’ Kohlberg found children younger children would respond with “no Heinz should’t steal the drug because stealing is wrong.” where as older children and adolescence would support Heinz’s decision to steal the drug. Based on the response from children Kohlberg created his theory on moral development, Kohlberg argued that ones moral development is completely linear and not everyone will progress to the final stage. Kohlberg claimed moral development can be split into 3 groups.

Moral development and forms of moral reasoning transpire in an individual throughout the life span as one gets older, and the morality changes and evolves over time (Williams and Arrigo, 2012, pp. 122). Kohlberg’s stages of moral development can be applied to the assessment of individuals who are criminals. Passini (2010) states the “Full

There are six stages of social and moral development that children will experience from early childhood to adolescence. The six stages are broken down into three levels. The first level is Preconventional morality, which contains stages one and two (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004). Stage one in this level is punishment-avoidance and obedience. In this stage, children make decisions based on what is best for them, regardless of

The theory on Moral Development is credited to none other than Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg was a twentieth century psychologist dedicated his studies to research in moral development and reasoning, especially on young people (Absolute Astronomy, pg. 38). His theory was highly influenced by well-known swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget’s, stages of cognitive development (Absolute Astronomy, pg. 38). Jean Piaget’s theory contained four stages of cognitive development (Hart). Kohlberg’s theory is actually six stages and could be considered an expansion of these Piaget’s four stages (Absolute Astronomy, pg. 38.) He placed people in these stages based on how they react to moral dilemmas (Absolute Astronomy, pg. 38). Kohlberg’s theory was less

Lawrence Kohlberg based his theory off of some Piaget story telling ideas with putting some moral dilemmas. With each case he presented the reader a choice that would involve authority misusing their power or a civilian being treated unfairly by society. McLeod establishes that, “By studying the answers from children of different ages to these questions Kohlberg…He identified three distinct levels of moral reasoning each with two sub stages” (2011). People can only pass through these level one at a time and in order. Each level will replace the moral reasoning of the previous level. Not everybody will achieve all levels. Kohlberg, “explains that individuals may move through the stages at varying speeds, and may be half in and half out of a particular stage” (International Centre Educators

Stage 3 is centered on making good decisions based on the need to keep good interpersonal relationships in order to avoid guilt or shame. The 4th stage is concerned with maintaining social order by respecting laws (“The Impact of Ethics in Healthcare,” 2016, p. 13-14). The last level, postconventional, is usually not reached by most people and consists of stages 5 and 6. Stage 5 is described as decision making based upon personal rights that are common to all members of a community. Stage 6, the last and highest, assumes all individuals follow guidance by universal ethical principles (Baxter & Boblin, 2007, p. 22). Kohlberg also believed that individuals move only forward through the stages and that a stage cannot be passed over. In addition, he believed that and individual’s age does not dictate the stage of moral development (Baxter & Boblin, 2007, p. 21). In contrast to Mill, Kohlberg’s theory is a little more defined, in that he believes as we mature as adults we consider society as a whole and make decisions based upon personal rights and that all persons are equal in society regardless of status. It is important to keep Kohlberg’s concept of the six stages in mind because we must understand that healthcare professionals may be at different stages of moral development.

For this week’s assignment in our complete section, students were asked to identify two immediate family members that vastly differ in age. We were asked to compare and contrast the moral developments of each. For this exercise, I have chosen to compare and contrast my thirteen year old autistic son, Matthew and my late grandfather, Merritt Cole who was 84 years old. Before delving into the subject matter, I feel compelled to provide background information on the stages of moral development according to esteemed psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of moral reasoning by creating the six stages of moral development. The six stages are divided into three categories: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Though the theory has several important criticisms, including its focus on individualistic cultures and the discrepancy between what people say they'd do in a situation vs their actual course of action, the theory provides an interesting breakdown of motivation and the way it factors into moral decision-making.

While the neo-Kohlbergian approach is the conceptual framework of moral development par excellence, it has some limitations. The idea that sums up this entire hypothesis is the theoretical framework of Kohlberg focusing on the structure of thought. Although the approach of Kohlberg need modifications, this is needs to address the moral growth and, in general, understand the development and personal maturity, since the reasoning is an essential part of the care of moral. So an individual can better choose an option among the possible, you must know the moral principles that govern moral judgment right around under