Kohlberg

Question 1

Background to Kohlberg

Answer 1

PIAGET STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
= believed children’s thinking develop in stages
= thought children’s moral reasoning develops in stages

= Kohlberg liked piagets stages of cogntive development but disagreed with the view moral reasoning was complete by adolescence

= he developed his own stages of moral reasoning continued to young adulthood

Question 2

Aim of Kohlberg

Answer 2

to see how moral development changes throughout adolescence into early adulthood

Question 3

Sample of Kohlberg

Answer 3

75 American boys
- 10-16 at start
- 22-28 at end

Question 4

Why longitudinal design
Weakness of this

Answer 4

Boys were studied over a long period of time (12yrs) + data was collected at regular intervals to see how moral reasoning developed

Attriction of sample

Question 5

Weaknesses of Kohlbergs sample

Answer 5

Ethnocentric - only from one culture America to come up with stages of moral development

Androcentric - only used boys

Question 6

Purpose of moral dilemmas

Answer 6

To measure participant’s understanding of the value of human life + reasons for obeying rules
eg. ‘ is it better to save the life of one important person or alot of unimportant people’

Question 7

Procedure of Kohlberg

Answer 7

= participants followed from early adolescence for 12 yrs until early adulthood. every 3 yrs they were interviewed individually

= in each interview participant was presented with series of moral dilemmas about value of human life + reasons for obeying rules. The same moral dilemmas were presented to difference participants + same questions

= One of moral dilemas was Heinz dilemma = boys asked whether the husband in story should steal a drug in order to save wife’s life. Based on this answer, Kohlberg placed them in a stage of development. He did this when 50% of responses fell into that stage.

= six stages of moral development that fit into 3 levels : pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, post-conventional morality

Question 8

Cross cultural element of procedure

Answer 8

Involved testing 10-13 yr old boys in Taiwan, GB, Canda, Mexioco, Turkey about a story involving theft of food at one moment in time to compare moral development

cross-sectional design is different groups of people at different ages at one point in time.
+quicker
- participant variables eg. religion

Question 9

Findings of Kohlberg

Answer 9

Moral development occurs in same sequence regardless of where they group up

Each stage of moral development comes one at a time and always in the same order, but an individual can stop at any age at any stage

Middle-class and working-class children move through same sequence, but middle-class children move faster + further

Question 10

Generalisability of Kohlberg

Answer 10

Ethnocentric
- all American boys + judged other cultures in cross-cultural study based on moral stages in America, concluded stages can be applies universally

• viewed American culture as the norm and judged other cultures by his own cultural values
• different social classes used so makes sample more representative
• biased sample due to attriction

Question 11

Reliability of Kohlberg

Answer 11

Standardised procedure
= same moral dilemmas presented to different participants along with same questions

Involved Interviews
= different responses + change answers on different day
= reduces replicability

Question 12

Applications of Kohlberg

Answer 12

understanding moral reasoning develops can be used in school

whole-school discipline
- idea is staff _ students collaborate to put together rules based on ethical principles
- more willing to cooperate

Question 13

Validity of Kohlberg

Answer 13

Lacks validity
= hypothetical moral deilemmas so if faced in real-life situation response would be different (ecological)

= responses don’t always link to particular stage, he might have subjectively interpreted response to fit a stage of moral development

= social desirability bias as participants want to appear moral to impress researcher

= demand characteristics

Question 14

Evaluation of data used from inteviews

Answer 14

Qualitiative
+ more detailed data, boys given detailed answers to moral dilemmas, Kohlberg could understand moral reasoning better

• open to interpretation - subjective

Question 15

Kohlberg relate to key theme ‘moral developmet’

Answer 15

moral development = our beliefs about what is right + wrong changes overtime

= argued moral development occurs in stages + in same sequence.
=also though moral development was the same across cultures

Question 16

Kohlberg relate to developmental area

Answer 16

developmental area looks at how people’es thinking and behaviour develops over time

= looks at how moral reasoning develops over time.

=participants were followed from adolescence for 12 yrs until early adulthood

Question 17

Individual, Social, Cultural Diversity of Kohlberg

Answer 17

INDIVIDUAL - does in terms of moral development + how quickly they moved through stages + whether they reached later ones

SOCIAL - only studied males. but did find differences in social classes as middle-class children moved through stages quicker

CULTURAL - doesn’t as he did stages based on American boys only. applied to to other cultures found stage 5 was more in Americans than Mexican - collectivist cultures have different views

Question 18

Kohlberg + psychology as a science

Answer 18

standardised procedure
= all presented with same moral dilemmas + asked same questions

unscientific
= lack of control over extraneous variables + subjective interpretation of evidence to support his theory
= researcher bias

Question 19

Kohlberg + free will/determinism

Answer 19

Free will
=not everyone moves through stages at same pace or reach final stage
= people have choice on outcomes of behaviour
= people can change moral reasoning after discussions with people with higher moral development (freedom on right decision)

Determinism
= cultural factors act as determinates for pace we develop through moral reasoning
= middle-class moves faster through
= working class children are determined to develop slower + reach higher level eg. social contract orientation
= all move predetermined stages of moral development in same sequence - lack free will

Question 20

Kohlberg Nature/Nurture

Answer 20

Nature
= suggests we are born to move through predetermined series of stages of moral development in same sequence

Nurture
=culture _ class affected moral reasoning
= if children exposed to moral reasoning at higher level their moral reasoning would advance faster