Kohlberg's Three Levels Of Moral Thinking

The fourth and final element is belief (Simons, Simons, & Wallace, 2004, p. 21). Parents and teachers can play an important role in children’s lives by teaching them right from wrong, moral issues, and the basic rules and laws of society. How the child comes to understand, accept, and believe in these concepts will determine how he or she acts. If the child believes in these rules and laws and accepts them he or she is more likely to follow the law and less likely to partake in delinquent behavior, the opposite holds true if he or she does not believe in the rules or do not care or fear the

The author mentions that he doesn’t like how Kohlberg focuses too much on “why”. The author says that Kohlberg is narrow to focus on motivation rather the action itself. Another issue is how flexible or rigid each stage are presented. In the text a question is raised stating that can a person in stage 5 have a stage 1 morning. Basically the criticism here is that Kohlberg does not clarify weather his rules are bendable or not. The Author goes to on another criticism where he asks if justice is the most important ethical principle. He states that the sample size for someone to reach stage 6 is very small so why is justice the most important factor? Finally, his last criticism is how gender plays a different role in moral development. In Kohlberg’s research, most of which were young boys, he found the moral difference in young males. According the author Gilligan thought that Kohlberg’s research

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

3.     We must be able to compare our actions to some ideal or standard of morality.

The third instance that expresses how Brian can be categorized in this stage is when Allison (the “weird girl”) returns Brian’s fake license to him. I know that obtaining a fake license could categorize Brian in a different stage, but Brian’s reasoning behind the license was not so he could buy alcohol or cigarettes, but so he could vote. The fact that he wanted to use his license to vote shows that he understands and shapes his morals around the “laws and duties of society.” He believed that it was his “duty” to vote in political elections. Overall, Brian was in Kohlberg’s second level and fourth stage of moral development.

Kohlberg also broke down the development of faith into six stages. He also grouped them into three different levels. Level one is the preconventional level which includes stages one and two. Stage one is punishment and obedience. In this stage one is motivated by avoidance of punishment. Stage two is personal usefulness. One looks for at what is right according to if it satisfies one’s own needs and occasionally the needs of others. Level two is the conventional level which includes stages three and four.

According to Kohlberg, morality based on the avoidance of punishment and the attainment of concrete rewards represents a(n) ________ morality.

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

STAGE 6: Center on universal ethical principles- the person who has reached this stage bases moral judgment in the higher law of truth, justice, and morality.

Lawrence Kohlberg, a famous psychologist, developed a theory which entailed six stages of moral development. The aim of his theory is to allow individuals to be characterised into one of the stages, based upon their moral & ethical well-being. Life experiences usually allow further development, thus moving the individual to advance to higher stages. On the other hand, Abraham Maslow developed a different theory based on human 's most basic needs which is represented in a pyramid type figure containing five levels. The most basic of needs appear at the bottom of the pyramid and the needs concerned with mans highest potential at the top. Both of these theory 's can be used to analyse Andy Dufresne, the main character in the movie studied in

According to Kohlberg, I would most likely be in the Conventional Morality stage. An example of how I fit into the gains/avoids disapproval stage would be a lot of things I do currently. I do not talk in class, not because I do not want to, but because doing so would gain disapproval and that is something I would like to avoid. I avoid dishonor and guilt by not doing anything horrible, even if I actually want to. Examples from Preconventional Morality would be how I would strive to get As because I wanted to get a dollar or how I would lie only to avoid being punished for something bad.

Everyone should take these step of moral development into consideration when making any decision in life. All parents should install these stages into their children. Parents can do this by, first teaching them all the stages and levels. They must know all the stages in order to understand them. Next, the parent should break down the importance of each stage, and what each decision would mean. They can do this by giving the example of experience they have been in or heard of. Lastly, the parent should give the child a chance to live and learn with the use of what they were taught. This could help the parent see if the child truly understood the importance of these types of thinking, and help the child learn from their own experience. If every parent did this the world would be a more conscious

Level I: Preconventional morality: People act under external controls. They obey rules to avoid punishment or reap rewards, or act out of self-interest (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2004, p. 408).

After studying a population of males, Lawrence Kohlberg brought forward three stages of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional morality. The first stage, preconventional morality, is an egocentric stage characterized by whether the actions would benefit or harm the person making the decision. Individuals in this stage will often make decisions that either give them rewards or avoid punishments. Steven cheating on his test would receieve objections from those in the preconventional stage simply because he would get punished by the school for attempting it. The next stage, conventional morality, is based on conformity to the pre-made rules and norms. Those in this stage will make decisions that can follow the guidelines