Kohlberg's Theory Of Moral Development

This paper evaluates how David Pelzer develops in his memoir, A Child Called “It”. Pelzer is evaluated using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model demonstrates how Pelzer’s environment impacted his development greatly. Pelzer is greatly influenced through others by how they treat him. Throughout this memoir, Pelzer is in the concrete operations stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The reader is also able to see Pelzer’s development from preconventional morality to conventional morality using Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning.

Kohlberg modified and expanded upon Piaget’s work to form a theory that explained the development of moral reasoning. He outlined the development in six stages, with three different levels; he proposed that moral development is a process that occurs

As stages in psychological development have been defined by Freud, stages in moral development have been outlined by early educators Jean Piaget and Kohlberg, who put forth differing views on the moral development of children. Piaget theorized that children process morals in stages, first one then the next, with a transition in between. The first stage (from ages 4 to about 7) is referred to as “heteronymous morality”, where children think of rules as constants, that is to say, rules are part of the world’s makeup with no input or possibility of change by people. As children progress from seven to ten years of age, they move from one stage to the next, maintaining some of the traits of the

Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development has served as basis of the investigation of many issues related to morality. Building on Piaget’s belief that the moral judgment of children derived from their cognitive development, Kohlberg attend to identify cognitive stages that underline the development of moral thinking.

In this case, Russell is in Mr. Willow’s eighth-grade biology class. After scoring a 72 percent on his first test, Russell’s dad threatens to take away his extracurricular activities. Worried that his dad will take away his social life, Russell decides that he is going to work extra hard on his genetics assignment so that he can improve his grade and get back on his dad’s good side. After hearing that Mr. Willow’s genetics assignment is extremely difficult, Russell is persuaded by his soccer teammate, Luis, to use his brother’s assignment that he turned in to Mr. Willow a few years back that had received a high grade. Thinking about pleasing his dad, keeping his social life, and not getting made fun of by his teammate, Russell turns in Luis’ brother’s assignment as his own. Mr. Willow notices that the paper is not Russell’s original work and embarrasses him in front of the entire class. Given Russell’s age and actions, Russell is in the conventional stage of Kohlberg’s Moral Development, more specifically the “Good boy/Good girl” stage because he is looking to meet other people’s expectations when he is making decisions. For example, Russell used Luis’s brother’s assignment because he wanted to get a good grade that would please his dad. Secondly, Russell knew that if Luis found out that he didn’t use his brother’s assignment, Luis would more than likely make fun of him.

It is upon this theory and study that Lawrence Kohlberg developed his own theory of morality; that contains three levels and six stages. Unlike Piaget who solely targeted children in his theory, Kohlberg discusses early adolescence as well as young adulthood. Kohlberg’s three overall levels and first three stages are basically the same as in Piaget’s theory. It is in his last three stages that his theory differs from Piaget’s. Kohlberg’s fourth stage of morality, which takes place during level two: conventional morality, addresses children ages ten to thirteen or beyond. Kohlberg refers to this fourth stage as “social concern and conscience” (376). During this stage, adolescents begin to obey rules and laws because they understand that it is necessary in order to maintain social order. Immediately it can be seen that nurture related factors are associated with this stage. Both rules and society are discussed here. As mentioned earlier, laws and rules are given to people; no one is born with them. Maintaining social order deals exclusively with society, and has not the slightest connection to genetics. Also considering the age range for this stage, it can be assumed that most children

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.

elaborated Piaget's theory by studying its development from childhood through to middle age. He maintained that it is essential to look at the reasoning behind approaches to moral issues, especially our understanding of justice which represents the most fundamental moral principle. Kohlberg presented subjects with moral dilemmas - conflicts between two or more moral principles - and the subjects had to choose between them. The dilemmas involved ten universal moral

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

Kohlberg (1963, 1981, 1984; Colby & Kohlberg, 1987) expanded Piaget’s work, developing a most influential cognitive developmental theory of moral development. Kohlberg proposed the progression through the invariant, universal sequence of three moral levels each composed of two distinct stages. According to Kohlberg, no stage can be skipped, neither will there be a regression to an earlier stage.

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 subsequent level in the theory of moral development is conventional morality. The stages included in this level: interpersonal and authority. Children that are typically in stage four are pre-teens that are starting to understand morality with a better comprehension of what it actually means. Children want the approval of others, so they can have the desire of being a generous person. Preteens react this way in the sense of getting something vigorous out of it, in this case being an exceptional person. An example of this stage is: “a child gives away her lunch to a street peasant because she thinks doing so means being nice” (Sincero). The following stage –authority, law, and order– involves respecting the law and following the obligations of a duty. Nevertheless, members of a community tend to maintain in this stage

Whenever Billy or his girlfriend ask Ashley to do her chores such as cleaning her room or cleaning the table, she wants to know what is in it for her? They usually give her sticker or let her play compute games for 15 minutes. She is happily doing that to earn the rewards. Ashley’s point of view that, she looks for her benefit or reward put her in Stage 2 of level 1(Pre-conventional) base on Kohlberg’s Theory which is a Moral development theory.

Lawrence Kohlberg was a theorist and a scholar of child growth. He focused on the ethical development of kids and how they mature the wisdom of right, justice, and wrong. Kohlberg noted that teenagers underwent certain phases during moral growth. Through his observations, he developed a theory that human beings develop from one phase to another through an invariant pattern, not missing any stage. His conclusions have been proven by critical cultural studies conducted throughout the world. These phases were at levels known as pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional morality.