KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL

DEVELOPMENT

BY, Anita Villalpando and Karen Bless

Lawrence Kohlberg

1927-1987

From a Noble Family

Served as an engineer on an old freighter.

1948- University of Chicago

1958- Doctorate

Died in 1987 of suspected suicide.

in

Kohlberg (continued)

Expressed interest in Piaget studies of moral judgement.

Developed his own theory of stages of development based on Piaget’s cognitive stages of development.

Came out with 6 different stages of Moral Development

Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral

Development Level IPre-

Conventional Morality

Level IIConventional

Morality

Level IIIPost-

Conventional Morality

Stage 1: Obedience & Punishment

Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships

Stage 5: Social Contract & Individual

RightsStage 2:

Individualism & Exchange

Stage 4: Social Order

Stage 6: Universal Principles

Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment

OrientationAges 4-10

Power and Authority

Reasoning is motivated by a need to avoid punishment

Example: Children believe stealing is bad, because you will get punished (Crain, 160).

Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange

Ages 4-10

Relative Views

Children’s moral reasoning is motivated by a need to satisfy their own desires.

Example: “Since everything is relative, each person is free to pursue his or her individual interests” (Crain, 160)

Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships

Ages 10-13

Children believe people should live up to expectations of family and community behaving in “good ways”.

Good behavior involves having good motives and having interpersonal feelings such as concern for others.

Example: You are motivated by a need to avoid rejection or disapproval from others.

Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order

Ages 10-13

Motivated by a need to not be criticized by an authority figure.

Emphasis is based on obeying laws and maintaining social order and respecting authority.

Stage 1 and Stage 4 are both concerned with the law, but for different reasons.

Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual

RightsAdolescence to Adulthood

“What makes for a good society?”

Rights and Values that a society ought to uphold are considered.

People are motivated by a need for respect for the community, social order and legally determined laws.

Example: Life is more important than property.

Stage 6: Universal Principles

Moral Judgments are motivated by their moral conscience.

Principles of justice are universal.

People in this stage come to moral decisions by taking on the perspective of other people involved.

Re-Cap! Stage 1: Obeying authority and avoiding punishment.

Stage 2: Everything is relative to one’s own interest.

Stage 3: Being a good person/having helpful motives.

Stage 4: Obeying laws to maintain order in society.

Stage 5: Basic Rights & Democratic Processes

Stage 6: Universal Justice

So this is what we did...

We interviewed 7 people using 2 of Kohlberg’s Moral Dilemmas: Heinz & Captain’s Dilemma.

Ages: 10-21

4 females & 3 males

We presented the dilemmas orally followed by a series of questions related to each dilemma.

Questions for the Research Study

Does the amount of time an individual is given to consider his or her response to a moral dilemma have an impact on his or her answer?

Does the age or gender have an impact on the individual’s answer to a moral dilemma?

Does the religious background of an individual play a role in his or her answer to a moral dilemma, or will the answer be based on innate moral reasoning that is present depending on the cognitive stage the individual may be in?

Hypothesis An individual’s response to a moral dilemma will be impacted by the amount of time they are given to reflect on the problem.

Age will have an impact on their answers, but gender will not.

An individual’s answers to a moral dilemma will be impacted by their religious upbringing.

Heinz Dilemma In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 dollars for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and trued every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

The Captain’s Dilemma

In Korea, a company of Marines was way outnumbered and was retreating before the enemy. The company had crossed a bridge over a river, but the enemy were mostly still on the other side. If someone went back to the bridge and blew it up, with the head start the rest of the men in the company would have, they could probably then escape. But the man who stayed back to blow up the bridge would not be able to escape alive. The captain himself is the man who knows best how to lead the retreat. He asks for volunteers, but no one will volunteer. If he goes himself, the men will probably not get back safely as he is the only one who knows how to lead the retreat.

Results SUBJECT GENDER AGE RELIGIOUS

BACKGROUND STAGE WHY

1 Male 21 Catholic 6 Laws are not universal

2 Female 20 Catholic 5 mentioned human rights

3 Male 19 Catholic 5 hierarchy of rights

4 Female 15 Catholic 4/5law & order, but also right

to life

5 Female 14 Catholic 4/5authority,

common good & rights

6 Male 12 Catholic 4 law & authority

7 Female 10 Catholic 3 concern for others

SUBJECT 1: Stage 6

“No, I mean no, they shouldn’t do everything they can to obey the law…. The law doesn’t define morality, and morality doesn’t define the law. I don’t want to use absolute statements that you should always obey the law… for instance if there is an unjust law, you should definitely try not to obey it.”

SUBJECT 2: Stage 5“If everyone looked out for everyone else. Society would be safer, and everyone would be happy. It’s important to do the right thing. If you help them, someday they will help you”

“In this situation, it doesn’t make it morally wrong”- in the context of stealing to save a life.

SUBJECT 3: Stage 5“The law exists to regulate the actions of human beings… it cases where it is not moral, it should be attempted to be changed through peaceful means”

“The life of his wife as another human being is worth more than the right of a man to his property”

SUBJECT 4: Stage 4/5

“It is the law. It is to keep order. If everyone broke it, there would be disorder”

“It is not right to ask a man to give up his life”

SUBJECT 5: Stage 4/5

“Stealing would violate the rights of another”

“Violating his rights to life”

SUBJECT 6: Stage 4

Just talked about stealing being against the law.

Laws come from people and authority, and authority comes from God.

We shouldn’t do it, because it is against God’s commandment.

SUBJECT 7: Stage 3

“Yes, Heinz should steal the drug, because his wife is dying”

“The drug person is not very nice”

“He should obey the law, but tyring to save someone whose dying is more important”

Problems

Time Limits

Subjects were limited

Not enough diversity in religious background.

What We LearnedWRONG! The amount of time they were given to respond to the moral dilemma did not affect their responses.

RIGHT! The gender didn’t affect their responses, but the stages varied according to age.

Right & Wrong: Right, because they brought up aspects from their religion in their answers, and wrong, because their religion didn’t determine their moral stage.

BibliographyCrain, William. Theories of Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print. Picture of Kholberg is taken from our wonderful friend, google images, and the rest is well, clip art.