Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

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

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, the author of three stages, was an American psychologist who is well known for his theory on the stages of moral development. According to Kohlberg, there are three levels of moral development:Preconventional (moral reasoning is based on external rewards and punishments), Conventional (laws and rules are upheld simply because they are laws and rules), and Postconventional (reasoning is based on personal moral standards)” (powerpoint).

The second level of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral development is the Conventional Level. The Conventional level consists of stages 3 and 4. Stage 3 is based on interpersonal expectations. Those who are at this stage try to be a “good” boy or a “good” girl and live up to others’--such as close friends and family’s-- expectations. Stage 4 is based on Law-and-Order. They are not only focused on what their family and friends say; they are now focused on society. These stages are usually reached by early teens. They don’t blindly follow rules;

Kohlberg’s second level from his theory is conventional moral reasoning. This is primarily people following social norms and customs (Kohlberg’s Theory). The laws and rule are sustained simply because they are laws and rules that must be followed (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”). The second level is generally found in society hence the name of this level being “conventional”. Stages three and four are included in the conventional level. Stage three focuses heavily on peer approval (Lawrence Kohlberg). Individuals are merely trying to please others so they will follow rules or do what others want them to do in order to gain their approval (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”). Many will follow

21. One of the most hotly debated criticisms of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning theory is that the theory is based on a longitudinal study of only

Kohlberg created three levels of moral thinking, Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional to understand progression of a person's morality as it becomes more internal and mature. Each of these three levels are then divided into two stages, which totals 6 stages altogether. Heteronomous morality, Individualism, Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Social Systems Morality, Social Contract or Utility and Individual Rights, and Universal Ethical Principles are the stages that were used to characterise the three levels. Kohlberg made each stage to explain a person's reason for their moral decisions and how the came be that way.

Lawrence Kohlberg believe that most Americans were at stage 3 and stage 4 of his moral developement model. I agree with Kohlberg's take on stage 3 but I totally disagree with his take on stage 4. In my opinion, most Americans are at stage 1 and stage 3. In todays day and age people are more concerned with how others preceive them and people want to be socially accepted by others. In addition to people wanting social acceptance from others, they do things morally to avoid the backlash of negative consequences from authority or being punished by authorities.

ethics it is. Two perspectives, Ethics of justice (Kohlberg’s theory) and Ethics of care (Gilligan’s theory) will be discussed and contrasted. The central concepts of the development of morality and ethics play an important role in figuring out how morality is developed from early childhood. On the one hand Kohlberg claimed that justice and rights were the central concepts for moral reasoning. He believed that this type of ethics focuses on universal laws and principles where ethical or moral decisions are executed in an objective way that assures fair and equal treatment of others. As such the understanding of moral reasoning becomes overly abstract and systematic. The use of justice as a central moral concept would mean that when used in

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 manner in which we are able to distinguish right from wrong as we get older and mature is referred to as moral development. Moral reasoning or rational judgment making is also a dependent factor of one’s moral development. According to Lawrence Kohlberg, “People move beyond their current stage when they encounter a crisis that their current mode of thinking is unable to satisfactorily resolve” (Boss 92). There are certain characteristics that a morally developed person will have and that a non-developed person will be lacking, which is how they are differentiable from one another. Based on many variables, there is a high possibility for moral development to occur. I will explain my position by discussing all aspects of Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Moral Development, the different types of defense mechanisms that could prevent a person from moving on, which levels other theories might hold using the stage theory, and the purpose of studying ethics.

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)