Moral Reasoning

Moral development is how an individual differentiates from right and wrong actions. This can be influenced in many ways and by many people such as an individual’s own personal experience, looking at another’s perspective, through parents, peers, society, cultural values, or moral stories, to name a few. Lawrence Kohlberg developed six stages that reflect the growth through moral development. The levels and stages describe the ideas of right and wrong can change as one grows. However, Kohlberg mentioned that because of the differences in cognitive functioning, not every individual will progress through the changes within his stages and levels (Crain, 2011, pg. 168). Kohlberg’s main curiosity went beyond the answers of ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ He

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 Theory of Moral Development is a subject that derived from Jean Piaget's theory of moral reasoning and this theory was developed by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. This theory made us conscious that morality starts from the early childhood years and can possibly be affected by several factors such as society, but there are people in opposition to this theory. Kohlberg developed six stages of moral development and it is divided into three levels of development. The three levels of moral development are preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. As stated in Kohlberg's theory, “moral development proceeds in a linear process; it also proceeds steadily from one stage to the next in the order of moral development” (“Kohlberg's slide presentation”). Kohlberg uncovered four stages after Jean Piaget's because he had only discovered two. The stages that Kohlberg discovered after Jean flourish into adolescence and adulthood. He suggested that some people reach the postconventional level. (Oswalt).

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

The authors explore the idea that the use of social media is prevalent among student and new nurses. There are little understood social and ethical implications surrounding this use. In the absence of a concrete understanding of the professional nursing accountability, the work and educational faculties are left to provide needed guidance for these two groups. There is limited research illuminating student nurses understanding of the ANA’s Principles for Social Networking or their accountability for their social media posts and how they relate to the ANA Code of Ethics (Englund, Chappy, Jambunathan & Gohdes, 2012). The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh addressed an increase in the unprofessional

Building upon Piaget's moral development model, which suggests that children around the ages of 10 or 11 transition from a rule-based morality to one that is more relativistic, Kohlberg concluded in his 1958 doctoral dissertation that there were at least five stages of moral development (Crain, 1985). According to Kohlberg, the maturation from one stage to the next was not controlled by genetics, cultural norms, or socialization per se, but driven by activities that challenged personal moral assumptions. Therefore transitioning from one stage to the next, according Kohlberg, did not occur at specific ages, yet were invariant in sequence.

Lawrence Kohlberg (who was Director of Harvard 's Center of Moral Development), was a child development expert of his time, and considered himself a philosopher of morality. His work on stages of moral development proved indispensable (though not without its critiques), and continues to serve as a fundamental study on our motivation and reasoning, in relation to ethics and morality. Kohlberg 's studies are an adaption of earlier principles from a theory conceived by a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher (Jean Piaget). There are three main stages of moral developmental as described by Kohlberg, which I will discuss, and also critiques on Kohlberg 's work, which include the lack of evidence as it pertains to gender-related differences in moral development and moral reasoning styles. To begin the dissection of Kohlberg 's studies, one must begin with defining and understanding Kohlberg 's stages. They are classified as pre-convention, conventional, and post-conventional.

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development proposes the idea that the understanding of morality starts as an individual is in their early childhood years. Whether one morally develops negatively or positively is dependent on how the individual completes their tasks in their stage of moral development across the lifespan. The first level is preconventional morality; Individuals at this level view themselves in an egocentric way and judge the morality of their action by its direct

The preconventional level includes the stages of punishment versus obedience and rewards orientation. The conventional level includes the stages of good boy/nice girl and law and order orientations. The post conventional level includes the stages of social and universal ethical orientations (McLeod, 2011). Accordingly, the stages of moral development were found to be a decision-making process rather than a fixed behavior. To clarify, Piaget described a child’s behavior in terms of specific stages that are relevant to a child’s interaction with their environment. During the early stages of childhood development, the term ego describes a child’s view of oneself as well as his or her environment (Moral Development, 2015). By having an understanding of this stage, parents must be patient and flexible when disciplining a

B. While Piaget’s view was well-supported, I think Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development lacks evidence. The reasoning behind his views are anecdotal, and even ambiguous. I can agree with the first three stages of moral development, but I find the last three controversial. Kohlberg thought that very few people reached stage 5 or 6. From my experience, however, I think most people are in or near stage 5 of Kohlberg’s theory (though this could be because I grew up in a Western, liberal, and developed environment). This stage explains that while people understand that laws work for the greater good, it may conflict with the interest of an individual. I think most people understand that laws keep our society safe and orderly, but that they can also be broken when laws are questionable or for the sake of an individual. Is a

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development stems from the original theory by Jean Piaget, however; he developed the theory further throughout

Introduction “The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are a result of the moral atmosphere they breathe” Jean Paul Lawrence Kohlberg (the pioneer of the second major perspective on moral development) proposed that moral reasoning is developed when people pass through three levels which comprise of two stages each as they grow older. He investigated the nature of moral thought by interacting with children, presenting them with a story in which moral dilemmas were faced by the characters in the story. This is what led to the birth of his theory of moral development. This essay therefore seeks to practically apply Kohlberg’s thesis to the real world. In so doing, it will review and evaluate the theory

As we move through life we learn and develop our moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg morality and moral reasoning is the process of “six stages” and “levels” of development that start from an early age to adulthood (Williams & Arrigo, 2011, p. 122). In addition, Kohlberg believed that moral choices and behavior are established by cognitive thinking and reasoning like imagination (Williams & Arrigo, 2011, p.122). Consequently, Kohlberg produces those six stages which are grouped into three levels, first level is Preconventional Morality with stage one punishment and obedience, and stage two instrumental purpose and exchange (Martinez, Salcedo, Sailva, & Vanden-Berghen, 2018, p. 144). The second level is Conventional Morality, which contains

Throughout these six stages, there can be observed a progressive change in moral reasoning. In the early stages of a judgment a person tend to rely on some external force such as the expected reward whether punishment. At the latest higher stages of the moral judgment a personal, inner moral code is already formed and it is virtually impossible to influence on it by other people's or public expectations. Generally, Lawrence Kohlberg followed Piaget theory and came to the conclusion that the rules, regulations and laws are created by people on the basis of mutual agreement and that they can be changed if necessary. Consequently, an adult, going through all the stages of moral development, comes to the realization that in the world there is no absolute right or wrong and that moral action depends not only on its effects but on the person's initial intentions (Kohlberg,

Kohlberg believed that the aim of moral education was to stimulate students’ development of moral judgment. The desire to research the topic stemmed from Kohlberg’s criticism of traditional character education, which in his opinion focused solely on training of good “habits” of honesty, responsibility, etc., through example, reward, or punishment, instead of engaging students in a higher level of thinking and character assessment (Xiangdong, 2014). In order to give structure to his assessment of morality, Kohlberg defined six moral development stages, divided into three levels, based on empirical research. According to Shapiro, during the pre-conventional