Kohlberg - 1968

Question 1

What is Kohlberg’s aim?

Answer 1

to find evidence that supports his theory of moral development - that there are distinct levels and stages to moral development

Question 2

What is the method?

Answer 2

longitudinal study (+ self report)

Question 3

Why is this study longitudinal?

Answer 3

it follows the same group of boys for a long period of time (12 years)

Question 4

How often were the boys interviewed?

Answer 4

every 3 years

Question 5

Why is this study a self-report?

Answer 5

data was gathered through interviews

Question 6

How old were the boys that were studied at the start and end of the study?

Answer 6

start: 10-16
end: 22-28

Question 7

What is a strength of the method?

Answer 7

• not affected by individual differences
• valid reasoning and insight

Question 8

What is a weakness of the method?

Answer 8

• takes a long time to get results
• there are EVs that cannot be controlled e.g., traumatic life experience that may effect moral development

Question 9

What is the sample?

Answer 9

75 American boys (+ boys from other cultures: GB, Canda, Taiwan, Mexico, and Turkey)

Question 10

What are all the cultures tested?

Answer 10

• America
• Great Britain
• Taiwan
• Mexico
• Canada

Question 11

What is a strength of the sample?

Answer 11

lots of cultures tested

Question 12

What is a weakness of the sample?

Answer 12

• cultural bias - cultures studied still had a western tilt = still ethnocentric
• gender bias - no females = androcentric
• relatively small sample
• lacks population validity

Question 13

What is the procedure?

Answer 13

• participants presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories
• 25 moral concepts

Question 14

What are some examples of the moral concepts that were within the hypothetical moral dilemmas?

Answer 14

• motive given for rule obedience or moral action
• value of human life

Question 15

What is an example of the type of question asked (over time)?

Answer 15

age 10: “is it better to save the life of one important person or kill a lot of unimportant people?”
age 13,16,20 & 24: “should the doctor ‘mercy kill’ fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?”

Question 16

How did the moral dilemmas carry a cultural tilt?

Answer 16

Taiwanese boys aged 10-13 were asked about a story involving the theft of food and young boys in the other cultures were tested in a similar way

Question 17

What are the key findings?

Answer 17

1. boys demonstrated each stage of moral reasoning one at a time and always in the same order
2. progress through the stages increased with age
3. not all participants progressed to stage 6 - US boys (age 16) stage 6 was rarely used
4. middle class children were found to be more advanced in moral judgement than matched lower class children
5. no important differences between religions

Question 18

What type of data was collected?

Answer 18

qualitative

Question 19

Why is the data qualitative?

Answer 19

interviews

Question 20

What are the strengths of qualitative data?

Answer 20

provides reasoning for behaviour and opinions on morality

Question 21

What are the weaknesses of qualitative data?

Answer 21

• subjective interpretation
• analysis and comparisons are harder to establish

Question 22

What are the conclusions of this study?

Answer 22

• there is an invariant developmental sequence in an individuals moral development
• findings support Kohlberg - stages one at a time in the same order
• cultural universality of the stages BUT rate of progression is effected by culture

Question 23

What are the ethical issues within this study?

Answer 23

• lack of informed consent - children at the start of the study

Question 24

What are the issues with validity within this study?

Answer 24

• lack ecological validity - dilemmas were hypothetical and not applicable to IRL moral dilemmas
• lack population validity (sample)

Question 25

How is this study unreliable?

Answer 25

dilemmas are not cross-culturally standardised - differences in dilemmas e.g., only Tai boys were asked about theft of food

Question 26

Is this study reductionist or holistic and why?

Answer 26

reductionist - places all morality on hypothetical dilemmas - oversimplifies complex cognition

Question 27

Is this study deterministic or free will?

Answer 27

free will - can choose how they react to the moral dilemmas

Question 28

Is this study scientific?

Answer 28

No
- qualitative data
- subjective interpretations = lack causality

Question 29

Is this study nature or nurture?

Answer 29

Nurture - born as amoral therefore life experience forms morality