Kohlberg (1968)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To find evidence to support Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

Question 2

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development - Preconventional

Answer 2

Usually children aged 4-10

Stage 1. Punishment and obedience orientation (rules are kept to avoid punishment)

Stage 2. Instrumental-relativist orientation (‘right’ behaviour is that which ultimately brings rewards to oneself)

Question 3

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development - Conventional

Answer 3

Stage 3. Good boy-good girl orientation (‘good behaviour is what pleases others - conformity to goodness)

Stage 4. Law and order orientation (doing one’s duty, obeying laws is important)

Question 4

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development - Post-conventional

Answer 4

Stage 5. Social contract orientation (‘right’ is what is democratically agreed on)

Stage 6. Universal principles orientation (moral action is taken based upon self-chosen principles)

Question 5

Sample

Answer 5

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

Moral development was also studied in boys of other cultures including Great Britain, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey.

Question 6

Procedure

Answer 6

Participants were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories to solve.

The stories were to determine each participant’s stage of moral reasoning for each of 25 moral concepts/aspects.

Aspects assessed included:

• Motive Given for Rule Obedience or Moral Action
• The value of human life: tested by asking the participant:

Aged 10: “Is it better to save the life of one important person or a lot of unimportant people?”

Aged 13, 16, 20 and 24: “Should the doctor ‘mercy kill’ a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?”

Question 7

Findings

Answer 7

Each of Kohlberg’s six stages were shown as follows:

1. Obey rules to avoid punishment.
2. Conform to obtain rewards, have favours returned etc.
3. Conform to avoid disapproval, dislike by others.
4. Conform to avoid censure by legitimate authorities and resultant guilt.
5. Conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare. 6. Conform to avoid self-condemnation.

Question 8

Conclusions

Answer 8

There is an invariant developmental sequence in an individual’s moral development.

Each stage of moral development comes one at a time and always in the same order.

An individual may stop at any given stage and at any age.

Moral development fits with Kohlberg’s stage-pattern theory.

There is a cultural universality of sequence of stages.

Middle-class and working-class children move through the same sequence but middle-class children move faster and further.

This 6-Stage theory of moral development is not signi cantly a ected by widely ranging social, cultural or religious conditions. The only thing that is a ected is the rate at which individuals progress through the sequence.