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.
Level One: Pre-Conventional Morality
Stage One: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
Stage One is alike to the first phase of the ethical thinking. The
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They trust that individuals should obey the beliefs of the family and the society and act well at all times. Having good behavior typically means that a person should have respectable reasons and good personal feelings such as trust (Kohlberg, 1971).
Stage Four: Maintaining the Social Order
At this phase, a person should reason when interacting with the family members and close friends. One should make an effort of understanding the needs and wants of others and attempt to help. Respondents at this phase are more anxious with the whole society. They put more importance in observing laws and carrying out duties that ensure social order is upheld (Kohlberg & Kramer, 1969). For example, individuals should reason on the possible effects of breaking the law before doing so. For instance, it could probably lead to chaos rejecting the functioning of society.
Level Four: Post-conventional Morality
Stage Five: Social Contract and Individual Rights
At stage five, individuals aim at ensuring that the community keeps performing. Nevertheless, a society functioning smoothly is not essentially the best because a society needs to be well structured. Stage five focuses on the components of a healthy society and those at this stage think of the community in a theoretical way by considering the values and rights that the society ought to maintain (Kohlberg, 1971). Moreover, they trust that a healthy community is a social pact in which all individuals
Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Kohlberg began work on this topic while a psychology graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1958, and expanded upon the theory throughout his life.
The final level or Kohlberg 's development theory is Post-Conventional Morality. During stage five a human should understand social contract. A person at this stage is most looking for the good in the world. During this time, he or she will do what is best for society. During the very last stage of development, stage six, a fully developed person is focused on ethics and overall human principles. Kohlberg believed that an individuals could only progress one at a time. Although he believed that most moral development occurred social interaction, he did not agree with skipping stages. According to Kohlberg, the stages wee set in place and could not be skipped. In order for Kohlberg to determine which stage a person was in, he would test them with a set of moral dilemmas. Based off of their responses, he would then be able to fit them into a stage.
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.
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;
Ethics, or moral philosophy, as a field of intellectual inquiry developed in the west for well over two thousand years with minimal input from women. Women's voices have been virtually absent from western ethics until this century. The absence of female voices has meant that the moral concerns of men have preoccupied traditional western ethics, the moral perspectives of men have shaped its methods and concepts, and male biases against women have gone virtually unchallenged within it. Feminist ethics explores the fundamental effect of this imbalance on moral philosophy and seeks to rectify it. So the questions we face are: Do women have a distinct moral perspective? How if at all is gender
Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of Stages of Moral Development serves as a way to justify our behavior, usually following a moral or ethical dilemma. In Ring Lardner's Champion, characters show a wide range of behaviors. By comparing our actions with those of the characters in Champion, we are able to gauge which stage we belong in and if we can remain improve them.
My life closely mimics how Kohlberg described in his theory of moral development. From the first stage of his theory of moral development, I recall following orders to the letter. The punishment and threat thereof were terrifying. Detention, suspension, expulsion were strong deterrents. Raised by very strict parents, I listened and obeyed every command. School was the priority, and getting good grades was the most important thing to them. Therefore, it was the most important thing to me. But as I grew, I began to see conflict in what my parents saw was right and what the teachers said was right. This lead me to stage two of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development that different people will have different opinions on what is right. I had to
In the US and in most countries, communities are more than just houses, departments, grocery stores and shops. Communities are formed by its civilians to facilitate their way of life and to also be a team instead of just single individuals. These communities are formed by the people living in that area and the values they share. Kekes (1993) defines values as ‘humanly caused benefits that human beings provide to others…’. Kekes and kane also states that they espouse values such as empowerment and caring , not just because they lead towards good or better society but also because they have merit on their own (kane, 1994: Kekes, 1993) CP, p54.
Lawrence Kohlberg who was a psychologist the framework in establishing six different stages of moral development that occur at three different levels. Each level contains two separate stages. Level I and stage one is considered more associated with younger children prior to reaching adolescence with a focus is on self (Klein, 2016, p. 27). At stage II level one, an individual still to act out of self-interest but starts to realize that punishment is delved out based on the severity of the misconduct or infraction that is taking place (Klein, 2016, p. 28). The concern here
Following are some words that refer to good behavior: adaptable, brave, confident, cooperative, courageous, debonair, decisive, determined, generous, hilarious, honorable, kind, lively, pleasant, productive, protective, receptive, reflective, responsible, romantic, self-assured, sensitive, shrewd, unusual, witty, wonderful, zany, and zealous.
Kohlberg wanted to know how our moral reasoning changes as we get older, and he wanted to know how people decide the difference between right and wrong. To get the answer to his questions he read a story containing a moral dilemma to boys of different age groups. The story consisted of a man that could not afford to pay for a drug that his wife needed to treat her cancer, so he decides to break into the pharmacy to steal the drug. Kohlberg then asked the group of boys to decide whether they think the man was right or wrong, however we was no interested in if they thought the man was right or wrong, he wanted to know their thought process to deciding whether the man was right or wrong. Children in the pre conventional stage of development (youngest
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
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.
Feeling pressure from his authoritative father and from his friends Russell cheats and turns in an old test paper and is found out and is embarrassed in front of the entire class by Mr. Willow. Russell is at the conventional level of Kohlberg 's Theory of Moral Developmental. As an eighth-grader, he has only recently entered this level which begins for most at the age of ten. Russell is currently experiencing the good boy/good girl orientation stage. He is trying to live up to his father’s expectations to make good grades and be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. He is also
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)