kohlberg (1968)- stages of moral development

Question 1

research method

Answer 1

This was a longitudinal study which followed the development of the same group of boys for 12 years by presenting them with hypothetical
moral dilemmas, all deliberately philosophical, some of them found in medieval works of casuistry. The aim was to show how, as young
adolescents develop into young manhood, they move through the distinct levels and stages of moral development proposed by Kohlberg in
his theory of moral development.
• Kohlberg also studied moral development in other cultures using hypothetical moral dilemmas. This study therefore has a cross-cultural
element.

Question 2

sample

Answer 2

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 3

outline- procedures

Answer 3

Using 75 American boys
• 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?”
Using different cultures
• Taiwanese boys, aged 10-13, were asked about a story involving theft of food: “A man’s wife is starving to death but the store owner won’t give
the man any food unless he can pay, which he can’t. Should he break in and steal some food? Why?”
• Young boys in Great Britain, Canada, Mexico and Turkey were tested in a similar way

Question 4

conclusions

Answer 4

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 significantly affected by widely ranging social, cultural or religious conditions. The only thing
that is affected is the rate at which individuals progress through the sequence