Moral Development In To Kill A Mockingbird

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.

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

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

In books, many characters go through moral development. The book To Kill A Mockingbird shows many examples of characters that go through this development and characters that help others develop. While there are many different characters in the book, the focus is on the development of Jem and Scout Finch with the help of Atticus and Calpurnia. The kids are introduced when they are young and over the span of the book, the adults teach and help them, making them have a different understanding of the world only two years later. With the guidance of Atticus and Cal, Jem and Scout go through a big moral change.

In the book to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young girl is being put through a variety of challenges that have set her up to learn about aspects of life. Scout, the young girl is being put through situations throughout the book, and is going through different moral developments that have been set up into three levels by Kohlberg, a psychologist. Kohlberg gathered this information by giving people of different ages, different questions that would identify their moral stage (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). For example, some of the questions would be; if you were trapped in a room full of innocent people and someone dying would be the only way to save everyone else in the room would you risk yourself? On that

To Kill a Mockingbird, a beautiful coming-of-age novel written by Harper Lee, follows the moral development of young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. At the beginning of the novel, Scout, her brother Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch, and their friend Charles Baker “Dill” Harris taunt their mysterious neighbor, Arthur “Boo” Radley. The story follows a Southern Gothic style, in which the monster is Boo Radley; the victims are Scout, Jem, and Dill; and the hero Atticus Finch. The children view Boo Radley as an insane madman who guiltlessly stabbed his father. However, their view of Radley begins to change once they receive gifts in the knothole of the Radley House tree.

Generally, children say and mimic what they hear or see, such as words or rumors they hear or actions of others. The child will often learn and or be taught what to and not to do. However it is only when a child puts themselves in someone elses place when they learn, again, what to or not to do. Essentially moral growth is the process where someone learns what to or not to do; this definition of moral growth is shown in the Novel to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In Harper Lee’s novel to Kill a Mockingbird, Scout grows morally as a character through her gain of empathy towards other people; She learns this through the events of, having Walter Cunningham for dinner, her conversation with uncle jack, and finally her observation on Ms. Gates discussion in class.

A moral: “To be concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour, and the goodness or badness of a character”. Harper Lee’s, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, evidently shows the importance of morals, and how Jem and Scout's development is affected and modified as the plot unfolds. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there are multiple debatable morals induced by Jem and Scout, and both their ways of being. Scout was able to progress throughout the plot, exceeding herself along the way. Jem as well had an increase of growth as the novel developed.

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 Theory of Moral Development reflects on the idea that people’s decisions are based on how they process the importance of a situation. According to his theory, there are three stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Each level is based on how a person’s reflects to making a moral decision. In each level there are two stages on how their level of sophistication affected their way of thinking.

The model illustrates that norm violations have two types of antecedents and two types of consequences. Individual-level antecedents of norm-violating behavior, as proposed by the authors, reside in the transgressor and the social antecedents reside in the social situation. We will come back to this model a little bit further.

Kohlberg’s morality theory defines various levels and stages where a person’s morality can be tested on a scale. Reviewing the Stanford prison experiment and the Abu Ghraib prison was interesting. The guards in the Stanford prison experiment reacted differently than each other and showed different levels of morality. In the Abu Ghraib prison, the guards were put in a real life situation where the morals were tested. It was fascinating to see how the two different scenarios had similar behaviors.

Stage 1: Punishment obedience orientation: the consequences determine the goodness or badness of an act. Obedience is to avoid punishment but “if it won’t be punished then it’s not wrong”; the severity of the punishment or the greatness of the harm done determines the level of

This theory has a different focus than typical theories; in this theory, conformity is emphasized, specifically, with the focus being on the reasoning behind why people conform and obey society’s rules, instead of why people deviate from norms. This theory operates under the basic assumption that delinquent behavior occurs because of a person’s bond or tie to society being weak or non-existent. There are four elements that make up this bond: attachment to others, commitment, involvement, and belief. Thus, the stronger the bond’s element, the less likely a person is going to engage in crime; likewise, the weaker the element of the bond is, the more likely a person is going to commit crime. Also, all four identified elements are said to be connected and interdependent, so a weakness in one element will more than likely lead to weaknesses in the other elements. In other words, these elements control a person’s level of conformity; crime control stems from one’s ties to conventional society. This theory also assumes that people are born naturally selfish; however, this is not a born tendency or trait. Rather, this means that the motivation for crime in society is evenly spread out since everyone has the same inclination for crime. Similarly, under this theory, the way people are controlled by society through these bonds is

It is also worth noting that demographically, the social environment or experiences of an individual play a succinct role in the psychosocial developmentof the person’s different stages of development. In reference to Erik Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development, it is critical for individuals to develop their ego identity, behavioral competence as they are critical in addressing specific societal virtues and psychosocial crises (Erikson, & Coles, 2000). Additionally, Kohlberg’s moral development theory asserts that an individual’s future is affected by different demographic factors. The theory primarily concerns three stages namely pre- conventional, conventional and post-conventional stagesthat are in turn helpful in the description of new and comprehensive individuals’ personalities (Kohlberg, & Hersh, 1977). The pre-convention stage especially in relation to criminal justice concerns the moral reasoning levels of the judges in relation to the morality of an action and factors influencing it as in the case of a felony trail (Kohlberg, & Hersh, 1977). The convention stage of moral development tackles the jury’sjudgment methods for the morality of actions of the criminals through