Kohleberg Flashcards
What is morality?
How you believe you should treat people - sense of right and wrong.
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning is learning through consequences, where if behaviour is positively rewarded it will be repeated.
- Chaney, funhaler.
What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is where behaviour is learnt through association
- Pavlov’s dogs.
- Associate the bell with food so they start to salivate.
What is social learning theory?
Social learning theory is learning through association.
- Bandura, BOBO doll.
What is pre-conventional in the level of moral development?
Aged 4-10.
Good i.e.. moral behaviour is determined by avoidance of punishments and getting rewards.
What is conventional in the level of development?
Child seeks to conform to the rules of family, social group or nation and to help maintain the rules.
What is post-conventional in the level of development?
Acts according to universal principles that exit from the authority or groups that hold them.
What is the obedience principle and when is it?
Infancy.
No difference between doing the right and wrong thing and avoiding punishment.
What is the instrumental orientation and when is it?
Pre-school.
Interest shifts to rewards rather than punishment.
Effort is made to secure the greatest benefit of oneself.
What is the good boy/good girl principle and when is it?
School-age.
Effort is made to secure approval and maintain friendly relations with others.
What is the authority and social order principle and when is it?
School-age.
Orientation towards fixed rules. The purpose of morality is to maintain social order.
What is the social construct principle and when is it?
Teens.
Mutual benefit. Morally right and legally right are not the same thing.
What is the universal principle and when is it?
Adulthood.
Morality is based on principles that transcend mutual benefit.
What were the moral reasons?
Kohlberg’s approach was to emphasise how thinking changes with age.
He proposed that the six stages formed a sequence that is followed in the same order for all people.
What was the aim?
To show how as young adolescents developed into young adulthood, that they move through 6 levels of moral thinking. He also studied moral development in other cultures.
What method was the study?
A longitudinal cross cultural study.
Why was it this method?
He studied the development of the same group of American (Chicago) boys for 12 years.
He also studied five other cultures.
How was the data collected?
Semi-structured interviews.
Presenting children with moral dilemmas and asking them a series of questions on how the character should behave.
Some questions were altered based on the PP’s response.
What was the IV?
Age
What was the DV?
Stage of development
What were the key characteristics for the sample?
75 PPs
American (Chicago)
Male
10-16 start of study
22-28 end of study
Data was also collected from what other countries?
Great Britain
Canada
Taiwan
Mexico
Turkey
What were PPs asked to do?
Listen to the dilemma and then were asked a selection of closed questions.
When were the PPs assessed?
PPs were assessed at either 10,13 or 16 years old.
Thereafter, each boy was tested every 3/4 years until the age of 22-28.
How did Kohlberg assess moral reasoning?
Each PP level of moral development was assessed by giving them a moral dilemma such as the Heinz Dilemma. Children were a series of open questions asking to explain the reasoning behind their decision.
How were the questions adjusted?
Based on previous responses.
What would each stage of moral reasoning argue about the Heinz situation?
- Punishment orientation - not steal - don’t want to be punished.
- Instrumental orientation - steal - they save the wife which makes him happy.
- Good girl / Good boy orientation - steal ( maintain relationship with the wife) - not steal (if he steals he is a bad person).
- Authority orientation - not steal - the rules are to not steal, the boss was the highest authority.
- Social contract orientation - steal - it moral to save the wife, mutual benefit.
- Universal ethical principles - steal (the value of life is greater than theft) - not steal (respect of the company)
Where did he test in rural villages?
Malaysia and Taiwan
What dilemma was changed in the rural villages?
Taiwanese boys aged 10-13, changed the dilemma to a starving wife and stealing food.
