PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS: COGNITIVE – KOHLBERG AO1 & AO3

Question 1

Levels of moral reasoning –

Answer 1

• Kohlberg objectified the process by identifying different levels based on answers to moral dilemmas
• eg. the Heinz dilemma. Suggested criminals had lower stages of moral reasoning.
• There are two explanations of offending: moral reasoning and cognitive distortion
• Kohlberg’s theory (KT) suggests criminals process information differently than non criminals. He suggests criminals have less developed reasoning skills (moral reasoning) and child-like reasoning.
• They do not progress from the preconventional level of moral reasoning as they seek to avoid punishment and gain rewards- and thus they commit crime.
• Whereas, non-criminals tend to reason at higher levels and sympathise with the rights of others, exhibiting honesty (post-conventional moral reasoning)

Question 2

One limitation of KT is that it contains culture bias.

Answer 2

• This is because post conventional ideas are based on individual thoughts and based on this people in CC will automatically fall into the preconventional morals of reasoning.
• This means Kohlberg’s post conventional levels are based on individual values which do not account for CC.
• Whereas, Gibbs proposed two levels of moral reasoning– mature and immature.
• Gibbs maintained that Kohlberg’s post-conventional stage should be abandoned since it contains western culture bias.
• This is a disadvantage as Kohlberg is imposing etic onto collectivist cultures.
• Furthermore, if findings are applied to women we could potentially be minimising differences between men and women as it only looks at male samples and assumes women are the same- beta bias

Question 3

One strength of KT is that there is opposing research when looking at both males and females

Answer 3

• For example, Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders 112 male
  non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using moral-dilemma related questions.
• The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offender groups.
• This suggests that findings are consistent with Kolhberg’s predictions. Also found consistent things between males and females.
• This is an advantage as it increases the validity of KT. This eliminates the doubt of beta bias.
• Therefore conclusions are representative of the wider population