[Cognitive Explanations: Level Of Moral Understanding] Psychological Explanations Of Offending Behaviour

Question 1

What is level of moral reasoning?

Answer 1

The way in which individuals perceive actions as right or wrong.

Question 2

What is Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 2

Criminal offenders are more likely to be assessed at a pre-conventional level.

Question 3

Context of level of moral reasoning:

Answer 3

Babies have no concept of right & wrong. Morality becomes more sophisticated as we grow up, but this doesn’t happen overnight.

Question 4

What did Kohlberg (1958) say about level of moral understanding?

Answer 4

Kohlberg (1958) was unsatisfied with behaviourist & psychodynamic theories. He was influenced by the work of Piaget that saw development as a stage-by-stage process.

Question 5

What is Heinz’s Dilemma?

Answer 5

Heinz had a wife who was dying from cancer, and there was one drug that might save Heinz’s wife.
The pharmaceutical company was charging ten times the cost of the drug, and Heinz was not able to raise the money to pay for the drug, even after asking friends and family to help.
Heinz went to the local pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to allow him to pay later, but the pharmacist said no.

Heinz’ dilemma is: should I break into the pharmacy at night and steal the drug which will save my wife or should I follow the law which means that my wife will probably die?

Question 6

What are the 3 levels of moral understanding (least advanced to most advanced)?

Answer 6

-Pre-Conventional (children).
-Conventional (teenagers).
-Post-Conventional (adults).

Question 7

What are the 2 stages of pre-conventional level of moral understanding?

Answer 7

1. Acting to avoid punishment.
2. Acting to further one’s own self-interest.

Question 8

What are the 2 stages of conventional level of moral understanding?

Answer 8

1. Meeting the expectations of others.
2. Upholding laws to meet societal expectations.

Question 9

What are the 2 stages of post-conventional level of moral understanding?

Answer 9

1. Personal values used to achieve social consciousness.
2. Self-selection of universal moral principles.

Question 10

According to Kohlberg, what level of moral understanding do criminals lie under?

Answer 10

Pre-conventional level (punishment orientation and reward orientation).

Question 11

People at pre-conventional level think that breaking the law is justified if…

Answer 11

… the rewards outweigh the costs or if punishment can be avoided.

Question 12

People at conventional level think that breaking the law is justified if…

Answer 12

… it helps maintain relationships.

Question 13

People at post-conventional level think that breaking the law is justified EVEN IF…

Answer 13

… the law violates an individual’s rights.

Question 14

How did Kohlberg (1984) study level of moral reasoning?

Answer 14

Kohlberg studied 72 Chicago boys (10–16 years old), 58 of whom were followed up at 3-year intervals for 20 years.

Each boy was given a 2-hour interview based on 10 dilemmas (e.g. Heinz’s Dilemma).

Kohlberg was interested in the reasons given for the decision. He found that these reasons tended to change as the children got older.

Question 15

What were the findings of Kohlberg (1984)?

Answer 15

-Stages are universal (cross-cultural finding).
-Differences in how quickly children progress through the stages (e.g. middle class children in all cultures progressed quicker than lower class children).

Question 16

Evaluation points for level of moral reasoning:

Answer 16

-Palmer & Hollin (1998) gave moral dilemmas to a sample of male & female offenders & non-offenders (13-22 years old), and found that the non-offenders showed higher levels of moral reasoning than the offenders.
-Real life application: rehabilitative settings (e.g. as a basis for incorporating moral reasoning into effective interventions with offenders).
-Kohlberg (1984) used a male-only sample.