Paper 2 - Kohlberg on Moral Development Flashcards
what is moral development
the progression of understanding what is right and wrong over the course of a person’s life stages.
what is the background of this study
kohlberg outlined how childrens’ thinking about moral decisions changed as they get older. he identified 3 key levels of development:
preconventional - aged 4 to 1. Good behaviour detemined by avoidance of punishment and getting rewards.
Conventional - child seeks to conform to the rules of family, social group or nation and to help maintain the rules.
Postconventional - acts accodinglly to universal principles that exist apart from the authority of the groups who hold them.
Within each level there are 2 stages, making 6 stages in total.
kohlberg developed this theory by asking people to comment on moral dilemmas. he created these dilemmas based on his 25 moral concepts such as motive for rule obedience or moral action and the value of human life.
Before kohlberg developed his approach there were 2 main theories of moral development: behaviourist (morals learned through conditioning) or Freudian (morals learned through identification with parents).
However research showed that there is no such thing as moral strength.
what was kohlbergs approach
to emphasise how thinking changes with age and he propes that the 6 stages forms a sequence that is followed in the same order for all people, no stages are skipped.
what are the aims of this study
to develop a theory of moral development that focuses on how children develop morality or moral reasoning.
what is the design of this study
longitudinal study where the same boys were interviewed over a period of 12 years.
quasi experiment
data was collected using a semi structured interview.
what is the iv
age
what is the dv
stage of development
what is the sample of this study
75 american boys from chicago who were 10-16 years old at the start and 22-28 years old at the end.
the boys were selected from higher and lower socioeconomic families and represented a spread of religious backgrounds.
Data was also collected from boys in other countries great britian, canada, mexico and turkey and boys from 2 villages one malaysia and the other Taiwanese.
what are the materials of this study
moral thinking was assessed using moral dilemmas developed by kohlberg they were related to his 25 concepts he had identified such as the value of a human life.
each pps listened to a dilemma and was asked a series of open and closed questions.
what is the procedure of the american longitudinal study
pps were first assessed when they were either 10 or 13 or 26 ears old. thereafter each boy was retested every three or four years up to the age of 24.
each pps level of moral development was assessed by giving them moral dilemmas (which assessed kohlbergs 25 moral concepts such as the value of life) such as the Heinz dilemma.
pps were then asked a series of opened questions to explain the reasons for their choice like “why was this right or wrong”.
The questions were adjusted depending on thei previous answers.
the interview took about 45 minutes and included 9 dilemmas.
what was the procedure of the cross-cultural sample
kohlberg tested boys in 2 villages in malaysia and taiwann. he was helped to interpret their responses by a chinese researcher.
the boys were asked about a story involving the theft of food
kohlerg also tested boys in two isolated villages one in mexico, one in turkey.
what are the reults for the american longitudinal study
kohlberg analysed their responses from 2 of the boys in his study.
Tommy aged 10 mixed up the value of a life with a property the person owned - stage 1 reasoning.
Richard aged 16 saw life as important for all humans but still dependent on someone elses’ authority (god) - stage 4 reasoning
richard aged 24 argued for absolute values of justice - stage 6 reasoning
Both boys showed a steady progression of moral reasoning though Tommy’s was slower despite being a bright boy - having an IQ of 120
what are the results for the cross cultured sample
at age 10 stage 1 reasoning is most common in all countries
at age 16 in the USA the order was reversed with stage 5 being mosy common followed by 4 , 3 ,2 , 1 and then 6.
The results from mexico and taiwann are similarly arranged from higher to lowest stages. but development was slower with stage 3 most common at age 16
stage 6 was rarely found in any culture.
middle class children were found to be more advanced than lower class children.
what are conclusions of this study
the data shows that moral reasoning develops with age in a fixed and invarient sequence.
the sequence of stages was similar in all countries showing that the stage sequence is not purely american. the difference may be the rate of development
middle class and working class children move through the same sequence but middle class children move faster and further
evaluate the method
longitudinal design means that participant variablea are controlled over the whole study. However, it may cause attrition causing sampling bias.
Semi structured interviews allow for specific questions, however they may include leading questions.
quasi experiment means we can study a naturally occuring iv, but there is less control over allocation of pps to each condition.
