Outlining Two Theories of Development Essay

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

Lawrence Kohlberg was greatly influenced by Piaget, which laid the foundation for the basis of his theories of how moral and faith development is created. He hypothesized that there are six stage-like positions for the development of moral reasoning. Piaget’s focus consisted of a subject knowing and interacting with a well versed environment. Where Piaget was concerned how the person knows the world scientifically and mathematically, Kohlberg focused on how the person structured their experiences and judgments about the social world. Kohlberg also says that the sequence of the stages is universal and that the greater stages are truer than the earlier forms. According to Kohlberg, moral choice is an interpretation of a moral dilemma situation, the construction of the points of view of the various participants and affected parties, and the weighing of their respective claims, rights, duties and commitments to the good and that they are all cognitive acts. Kohlberg’s hypothesis is that morality is more predictable and expected from people in the later stages of Kohlberg’s theory. Kohlberg’s six stages are grouped in two’s, making three main levels, which are as follows: the Pre-Conventional stage, the Conventional stage, and the Post-Conventional stages. Each stage is sequential and requires one to go through each phase before moving on to the next phase.

Lawrence Kohlberg, an American author, generated a psychological theory that grasps the understanding of moral reasoning. He specializes in child development and the perception of their principles and the consequences they can face. This modification of Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development not only relates to logic and morality, but also connects to the idea of justice in society. The stages that Kohlberg developed vindicates the choices humans make and different mechanisms humans use to solve their problems. Many people involved in current events act at Stage 5 because individuals distress about the liberties and rights of humans and the societal views on unjust

This purpose of this is to describe Kohlberg’s theory of morality in detail; I will describe each level that pertains to this theory and how they have affected me personally. Lawrence Kohlberg theory of moral development is divided into three different levels; the first level is the preconventional level followed by the conventional level, and then the postconventonal level. Within each of these levels, each level contains two different stages, resulting in six stages in all. Kohlberg’s was influenced by Jean Piaget’s theory, his theory focused on cognitive development, but he was motivated Piaget ‘s theory that described how a child develops moral understanding. It encouraged Kohlberg to research deeper and develop his theory of moral development more in depth. For Kohlberg’s research, he decided to use the interviewing technique using moral dilemmas. Kohlberg used several different techniques for his research strategies, but he had one famous dilemma, known as the “Heinz dilemma”, also defined as, pits the value of obeying the law (not stealing) against the value of human life (saving a dying person)” (Berk, 2014 pg. 323).

Lawrence Kohlberg (1969) was responsible for one of the revolutions in this area. He carried on Jean Piaget’s earlier work by developing a six-stage model of the development of moral reasoning. Kohlberg believes that morals develop through a role- taking experience which improves moral reasoning that creates moral judgments or by evaluating a problem from several perspectives. Kohlberg focuses on moral reasoning and ignores the role of moral emotions. Recent research has begun to point out the importance of the origins of human morality in reference to a set of emotions.

Kohlberg’s research on moral development suggested that morality and moral reasoning progresses through a series of six stages in a fixed order, without skipping a stage. If this is true, the types of moral beliefs, motivations, choices, and actions of everyone will be characteristically different in relation to the stage of cognitive development or intellectual maturity

Kohlberg 's Theory of Moral Development states that, "moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental stages, each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor." Kohlberg 's principle concern was justice, or an Ethic of Rights, that would lead persons on a path to truth. Using his model, one can trace Catherine 's moral development from her adolescence through her later life. In the beginning of her life, Catherine had a pre-conventional notion of right and wrong that recognized the needs of others, such as her parents, but placed her own spiritual and emotional needs

Kohlberg’s Moral Development is based on the reasoning. Pre-conventional level is based on the physical consequences of an act. Reasoning and actions in pre-conventional governed by the standards of others like punishment for stage 1 or reward for stage 2, not internalized standards.

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)

Kohlberg on Moral Development A professor at Harvard University developed a theory of moral development which incorporated the thinking of a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget and an American philosopher named John Dewey (Barger, 2000). The professor went by the name Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg mainly used Piaget’s theory of moral development as the foundation to develop these ideas further (Piaget, 1932). He incorporated the method of telling a story that presents a dilemma that Piaget came up with, which would give people options for them to choose what they would feel is ‘right’ choice (Kohlberg, 1958). Kohlberg (1984) presented the dilemmas as moral dilemmas, and the way an individual reasoned the dilemma would determine the stage (with regards to moral development) in which he would classify them. Kohlberg used the reasons that the individuals gave as a way to see how moral reasoning changed as people grow

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

Lawrence Kohlberg spent a lot of years examining how an individual develops his or her own moral principles. For his doctoral research, Kohlberg studied differences in children's arguments about presented by him moral dilemmas. He hypothesized that moral difficulties stimulated their development through a fixed order of increasingly flexible kinds of moral reasoning. Moreover, Lawrence Kohlberg also managed to clarify the general cognitive-developmental views of changes at different age stages. Subsequently, Kohlberg became a significant leader in the field of moral education. Kohlberg was a psychologist who used the developmental approach of Jean Piaget in order to the research the main changes in moral reasoning. Kohlberg's theory establishes six stages of moral development, arranged in three levels. The purpose of this essay is to conceptualize and explain Kohlberg’s theory and research on moral stages.

Kohlberg believed and was able to demonstrate through studies that people progressed in their moral reasoning through a series of stages. In the first level of moral thinking, generally found in young children, obedience is compelled by the threat of punishment, by authoritative figures, for example a parent or teacher. In Kohlberg’s

To begin, it is necessary to outline Kohlberg's six stages of moral development that constitute the core of his theory. The first two stages are what Kohlberg calls the "pre-conventional" level of moral reasoning, because it is indicative of a moral reasoning that is more rudimentary and myopic than the kind of moral reasoning supposedly engaged in by the majority of individuals. Although the stages do not necessarily relate to actual lifetime development, children frequently engage in this level of moral reasoning. The

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