Milgram

Question 1

What was Kohlberg’s procedures ?

Answer 1

• 75 American boys (androcentric)
• aged between 10 and 16, when studied ended they were aged between 22 and 28
• There were additional samples from a number of other countries ( great Britain, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, and Turkey.) to a gain a cross-cultural comparison.

Question 2

What was Kohlberg’s methodology ?

Answer 2

• Longitudinal study which followed the development of 75 American boys for 12 years
• Kohlberg used interviews to assess the moral reasoning of the boys
• Kohlberg created 9 hypothetical dilemmas such as Heinz , participants were asked to discuss dilemmas e.g. “Should Heinz steal the drug,”

Question 3

What were Kohlberg’s findings ?

Answer 3

• Common themes were identified
• Kohlberg developed on these themes and created the stages of Moral development

Question 4

What were the Stages of moral development ?

Answer 4

• The pre-conventional level (this included stages such as The punishment and obedience and The instrumental purpose orientation
• The conventional level (this included Interpersonal cooperation and the the social order maintaining
• The post-conventional level
  (The social contract orientation and the universal ethical principles orientation)

Question 5

Evaluate Kohlberg’s Methodology ?

Answer 5

Kohlberg’s research to place over 12 years, within these years Kohlberg interviewed participants every 12 years. Kohlberg is a developmental psychologist therefore he is interested in observing progression. By using a longitudinal study Kohlberg was able to establish a cause and effect, it also reduced participants.
However, it is typical of a longitudinal study to have a high sample attrition although , Kohlberg did not give evidence of this

Question 6

Evaluate Kohlberg’s ethics ?

Answer 6

Kohlberg’s study included questions which include themes of death and disease In Heinz’s dilemmas , Kohlberg exposed children to themes of cancer which in some cases is a deadly disease. Exposing children to such concerning themes could have been overwhelming to them and distressing it exposes them to psychological harm. Furthermore , Kohlberg did not report on any follow up debrief to support struggling participants.
This is a limitation to his study because Kohlberg’s research could have caused psychological harm building off of this , Kohlberg did not offer support to prevent or aid possible negative psychological effects.

Question 7

Evaluate reliability ?

Answer 7

This is unreliable , as it is androcentric, the research is not generalisable to the rest of society , for example females. Furthermore, it is unreliable as it is hard to replicate , this is because it is a longitudinal study therefore it is time consuming to replicate.

Question 8

Evaluate validity ?

Answer 8

Kohlberg was criticised because he used hypothetical dilemmas that were not based on real life decisions. It was criticised because these senecios would have made little sense to children.