Kohlberg

Question 1

What are the three levels of Morality?

Answer 1

• Pre-Conventional
• Conventional
• Post-Conventional

Question 2

What are the six stages of moral development?

Answer 2

Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment

Stage 2: Self-interest

Stage 3: Interpersonal Accord and Conformity

Stage 4: Authority and Maintaining Social Order

Stage 5: Social Contract

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles

Question 3

What stages come under the Pre-Conventional level?

Answer 3

Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment

Stage 2: Self-interest

They both judge what is right and wrong by the direct consequences that they may experience themselves (not social norms)

This is common reasoning amongst young children.

Question 4

What stages come under the conventional level?

Answer 4

Stage 3: Interpersonal Accord and Conformity

Stage 4: Authority and Maintaining Social Order

Their morality is centred around what society regards as right (rarely questioning rules).

This is a common way of thinking during adolescence and adulthood.

Question 5

What stages come under the Post-Conventional level?

Answer 5

Stage 5: Social Contract

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles

Not everyone reaches this level and at this level you have a more varied use of morals - looking at building the morals based on yourself rather than others.

Question 6

What was Kohlberg’s research method?

Answer 6

Kohlberg’s research method was a longitudinal study (they followed the same group of boys from 10 years by presenting them with hypothetical moral dilemmas.

The aim was to show how, as young adolescents develop into a young manhood, they move through the distinct levels and stages of moral development proposed by Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Question 7

What was a strength of Kohlberg’s research?

Answer 7

Kohlberg’s also studied moral development in other cultures using hypothetical moral dilemmas.
This gives it a cross cultural element which is really important.

Question 8

What was Kohlberg’s sample?

Answer 8

• 75 American Boys aged 10-16 at the start of the study were followed at three year intervals through to the ages 22-28.

•Also studied boys from other cultures including GB, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey.
This means that the study is more valid as it isn’t ethnocentric so looks about both individualist and collectivist cultures.