Do you know what moral development is? It focuses on the emergence, change and the understanding morality from infancy to adulthood and they learn to treat others right with respect. It’s essential to measure their belief which is the emotions, attitude and the behavior that contribute with the understanding. It has to do with both psychology and education. Moral development studies the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral development. Some of them are of conscience and values, socialization and cultural influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development.
Morality spans with disciplines and specializations within psychology. Moral developmental psychology focuses on questions of origins and change in morality that goes throughout their life. Many people think that moral development is a theory that Kohlberg had. Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory which with the work of Jean Piaget that he expanded to form his theory of the moral reasoning. He started working on his theory when he was a psychology graduate at the University of Chicago in 1958.
His theory had six stages of development that basis were for ethical behavior. He relied on the Heinz Dilemma which is a story of how individuals justify their actions when placed in similar moral dilemmas. His stages can be divided into 3 sections, the pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. It is rare to lose a higher stage and you can’t skip a stage. Every stage helps you and provides you with a necessary perspective and to be more comprehensive.
Once you were in one stage you can’t go back and it helps you to begin understanding more while going through the steps of moral development. The first level is pre-conventional; the first stage is obedi...
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... should follow rules and laws. That when you go through a stage you can’t go back and you begin to understand the morals in life. You first have obedience that leads you to having your individual interest of how you only want the best for yourself, then into wanting everyone think you’re a good girl or a good boy.
You learn how you need to follow the laws and the social contract. Universal principles are the things that help you in your life. They are important and that’s the last stage in moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory was important because it’s the stages that an individual goes through.
Works Cited
"A SUMMARY OF LAWRENCE KOHLBERG'S THEORY of Moral Development." A SUMMARY OF LAWRENCE KOHLBERG'S THEORY of Moral Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
"Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development." About.com Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Kohlberg’s theory was often criticized for being culturally biased towards individualistic cultures because the third and highest level of morality pertained most to middle-class Americans (168). Erikson’s theory of stage development revolved around accomplishing certain psychological goals to develop onto the next stage of life. Whichever goal was completed, would determine if a person could move on happily or have problems along the way (Myers 170).
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development shows the different stages of morality as people change as they get older (McLeod). He had three levels which broke down his stages
Lawrence Kohlberg disagreed with Freud’s idea that the conscience and morality suddenly begin at age5 or 6, Kohlberg suggests that the development of morality is a gradual process that begins in childhood and continues to develop into adulthood.
In Kohlbergs moral stages five & six people begin to understand morals and social good then moral reasoning. Basic human rights become important as well as principles.
Birsch, Douglas. Introduction to Ethical Theories A Procedural Approach. Long Grove: Waveland Pr, 2013. Print.
Level one is typically common in younger children. The two stages in level one are pre-conventional stages. Stage one is obedience and punishment driven; one will judge an action by the consequences given. Stage two is out of self interest. Level two is mostly common in teenagers.
For my self-assessment, I chose to discuss the Middle Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood life stages. The theories of human behavior that will be discussed are Erikson’s Psychosocial theory, Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, and Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. I chose these life stages because they are the stages where I have experienced many events that have shaped me into the person I am today. There are a number of factors that have played a role in my development over a period of time and I will discuss them throughout my paper.
Moral development is what is right or wrong according to society’s values. Justice is the core principle of moral development, yet, justice is not the only thing needed for moral development. Responsibility and care for each other are characteristics that build moral development (Swanson 2009).
Lawrence Kohlberg conducted research on the moral development of children. He wanted to understand how they develop a sense of right or wrong and how justice is served. Kohlberg used surveys in which he included moral dilemmas where he asked the subjects to evaluate a moral conflict. Through his studies, Kohlberg observed that moral growth and development precedes through stages such as those of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. He theorized that moral growth begins at the beginning of life and continues until the day one dies. He believed that people proceed through each stage of moral development consecutively without skipping or going back to a previous stage. The stages of thought processing, implying qualitatively different modes of thinking and of problem solving are included in the three levels of pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional development. (2)
The moral development of children can depend on many factors. Parenting and upbringing of the child, their environment, social environment, gender, and race are all aspects that can contribute to how a child develops their moral standards and expectations. Many psychologists have tried for several years to develop a theory of how morality is developed. One in particular is Lawrence Kohlberg (1958). His moral development theory is based on the cognitive development of children and it is thought that moral development proceeds and changes as cognitive development occurs (Arnett, 2012).
What is moral development? In a nutshell, it’s the progression of morality throughout one’s lifetime by means of different stages. There are six of these stages, developed by Lawrence Kohlberg, that help to explain our moral choices and cognitive skills relative to our approximate age. Furthermore, as Kohlberg suggests, everyone reaches stages one through four: Punishment and Obedience, Instrumental Purpose and Exchange, Interpersonal Expectations and Conformity, and Law and order, respectively. Stage1 is characterized by the threat of punishment and the promise of reward. Stage 2 actions are
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Many researchers have written about child development, but none are quite as well known as Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral development theory have been essential for researchers to gain a better understanding of child development. While these theories are unique in explaining different types of child development, they have many similarities and differences as well.
Part One:The criticisms of Kohlberg's moral development stages seem to center around three major points, his research methods, the "regression" of stage four, and finally his goals.The first criticism that I would like to address is that of his research methods. Kohlberg is often criticized for not only his subject selection, but also the methods by which he tries to extricate data from those subjects. His initial study consisted of school boys from a private institution in Chicago. The problem with this is fairly obvious, that this does not represent a significant portion of the population to allow for generalized conclusions. In other words, how can we test some boys from Chicago and ascertain that this is how all people develop worldwide?I believe that the answer to this criticism comes from the theory that it relates to.
There are many theories associated with developmental psychology, which studies the scientific process and cause of human development over the course of our lives. Developmental psychologists study a wide range of theoretical areas, such as biological, social, emotional, and cognitive processes (McLeod, S. A., 2012). Two theories of developmental psychology that I will be discussing will be the theory of moral development by Lawrence Kohlberg, and Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.