Kohlberg's Study Flashcards
What perspectives’ did Kohlberg take into account when creating his study?
- Psychodynamic (Freud)
- Behaviourist (Bandura)
- Cognitive (Jean Piaget)
How does the psychodynamic perspective explain morality in Kohlberg’s study?
In terms of a SUPEREGO
- Child’s internalisation of rules and prohibition initially imposed by parents but later adopted by child in form of self-discipline independent of parent approval/displeasure)
How does the behaviourist perspective explain morality in Kohlberg’s study?
In terms of observing and imitating models who have behaved in a moral way
- Observation of models who are punished for immoral behaviours causes children to experience vicarious ( experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.) punishment and therefore avoid this behaviour
What are the two cognitive concepts of moral development put forward by Jean Piaget?
Heteronomous (moral thinking)
Autonomous (moral reasoning)
What is HETERONOMOUS moral thinking?
Weighs the outcome of the action to determine how bad it is.
Only sees right and wrong
What is AUTONOMOUS moral reasoning?
Takes into account the intent of the person committing the action
Worse intentions = worse punishment
According to Piaget which of the two cognitive accounts for moral development is more complex?
Autonomous moral reasoning
What is a deductive approach?
When you carry out a study to TEST A CURRENT THEORY
What was Kohlberg’s aim?
To provide evidence for his STAGE THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
What sample did Kohlberg use?
75 American Boys
From middle to lower class families
At the beginning of the 12 years the participants were Aged 10-16 and gre to 22-28
Describe Kohlberg’s procedure?
- Over the course of 12 years the same group of boys were studied following their moral development from early adolescence to young manhood
- Every 3 years they were given a hypothetical moral dilemma (eg. Joe, Judy and Heinz)
- MOral dilemmas used to test reasons for obeying rules and moral development in terms or moral values ( value of life etc.)
- Their answers and reasons were recorded and linked to 25 moral concepts
- Kohlber carried out the styudy in 6 other countries including;
Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, Great Britain, Turkey and Canada
What is a longitudinal study?
A study which takes place over a long period of time
How is Kohlberg’s study longitudinal?
It took place over 12 years following the development of 75 boys from early adolescence to young manhood
What are the advantages of a longitudinal study?
- Good to control participant variables
- By track/monitoring changes overtime aids to identify patterns and connections so cause and effect can be identified more clearly
- Validity by gathering more data over long periods allows for more concise results
What are the disadvantages of a longitudinal study.p?
- Extraneous variables of upbringing impact behaviour
- Participant Attrition - people drop out by leaving study (so sample becomes unequal/bias)
- Time consuming and expensive
- Requires a large sample of cooperating subjects
What is cross-cultural research?
When data is collected in many different countries
Which countries did Kohlberg collect data from?
USA, Mexico, Malaysia, Canada, Taiwan, Turkey, Canada, UK
What are the advantages of a cross cultural study?
- Makes the research more generalisable
- Less ethnocentric as considering alternative cultural perspectives
- Helps establish nature/nurture behaviour
What are the disadvantages of a cross-cultural study?
- Materials may be bias towards certain cultures
- Expensive (travel cost)
- Time consuming (impractical - language barriers and translation)
What are the three levels of Kohlberg’s Theory of moral development?
Stages and Ages!
Level 1 - Pre conventional (younger than six)
Level 2 - Conventional (7-11)
Level 3 - Post Conventional (11+)
What is stage 1 of the pre-conventional level?
Obedience and Punishment Orientation
What does punishment and obedience orientation involve?
Operant Conditioning
- obeys rules to avoid punishment
- abide to cultural norms
- behave immorally if no authority structure
What is stage 2 of pre-conventional moral development ?
Self-Interest Orientation
What does self-interest orientation involve?
- Naïve hedonism (conforms rewards and receive favours)
- Behave in a self-centred way
What is stage 3 of the conventional level of moral development?
Self-Conformity Orientation (good boy/girl morality)
What does self-conformity orientation involve?
Social Learning Theory (begin to follow majority to look good - want to avoid disapproval)
- begin to consider the intention of the act
What is stage 4 of the conventional level for moral development?
Law and order orientation
What is involved in law and order orientation?
- Conform to avoid censure by authorities
- Seen as a duty to show respect and maintain social order
- Laws are set in stone
What is stage 5 of the post conventional level of moral development?
Social Contract Orientation
What does the social contract orientation involve?
- Does what is right based on law plus personal values (laws seen as changeable)
- To maintain communities but emphasis on individual rights
What is stage 6 of the post conventional level for moral development?
Universal ethics orientation
What is involved in the universal ethics orientation?
- Base judgement on universal human rights of justice, equality, reciprocity and respect for the individual
- Expense of others in the future
- Ability to put yourself in others shoes
- Individual principles of conscience
What is the Heinz dilemma about?
Is it morally wrong to steal a drug you can’t afford to save your wife
How is Kohlberg’s study ethical?
Participants provided informed consent
Participants had the right to withdraw
Participants weren’t deceived
Participants details (name and address) were kept confidential
Participants were protected from harm - due to hypothetical moral dilemmas
How can Kohlberg’s study be criticised for its ethics?
The participant may have experienced stress during the moral dilemmas (protection from harm not upheld)
How is Kohlberg’s study ethnocentric?
- Dilemmas maybe ethnocentric because they were designed for a western culture (based on American boys who would have understood the details in the dilemmas)
- Cross cultural participants were given full instructions/translations as to the context of the dilemmas (7 other countries)
How is the study internally reliable?
- It had a standardised procedure with same dilemmas, questions and 3 year interval making it easy to repeat
How is the study internally unreliable?
- Cognitive overload - difficult to remember details so responses based on incomplete detail
- Do they actually understand due to quality of education(low/middle class families)
How is Kohlberg’s study externally reliable?
Relatively large sample size (suggests a consistent effect for middle/lower class)
Can be críticas due to no girls in sample
SOCIAL CLASS BIAS - participant variables (education) May mean they don’t understand the dilemmas
How can the construct (internal) validity of Kohlberg’s study be criticised?
- Demand Characteristics (social desirability bias - conforming to the social norms)
- Not real situations and may act different in real situation
- Extraneous variables of upbringing and quality of education
How can Kohlberg’s study be criticised for its population validity?
- Sample bias (andocentric) based on a entirely male sample (only reflects male definition of morality - may be more based on law/order than females who may base morals on care/compassion)
- Purely American sample (western culture)
Study became cross -cultural so May be generalised to other cultures
How can Kohlberg’s study be criticised for a lack of external validity?
- in real situations don’t do the same as you may think in artificial moral dilemmas
In the comfort of a research environment with no consequences
