He was a very intelligent man, and taught many people about his theory. Although he has done many other things in his life besides working on his theory.
Lawrence Kohlberg was born on October 25th, 1927. He grew up in Bronxville, New York. Kohlberg was a volunteer sailor in World War ll. As a teenager Kohlberg attended Andover Academy in Massachusetts. Andover Academy was a private high school, and most of the students that attended this school were very intelligent and came from a wealthy family. After he graduated, Kohlberg took a job as an engineer in a carrier ship. While working on the ship, Kohlberg and others helped smuggle Jews from Europe into Palestine. Later after the war (1948) Kohlberg applied to the University of Chicago.
When Lawrence Kohlberg applied to the University of Chicago, he scored so high on the admissions test, he tested out of many courses, thus he only had to take a few. Kohlberg got his bachelor’s degree in a year. Lawrence Kohlberg then became very interested in cognitive development. He started to study cognitive development and moral development. He looked at Piaget’s research on moral development, and built his theory using Piaget’s studies as its foundation. In 1959, Kohlberg started working with the staff at Yale University as an assistant professor. He became the director of a child psychology training program.
Later, Kohlberg took a job at Harvard University. At Harvard he taught social and educational psychology. Kohlberg then started traveling around the world; studying moral development of citizens in different countries. While studying in Belize, Kohlberg contracted a tropical disease. This disease caused him an intense amount of pain and depression. He...
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...thank and honor him for all he has done.
Works Cited
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Rest, J., Narvaez, D., Bebeau, M., & Thoma, S. (1999). Postconventional moral thinking: A neo-Kohlbergian approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
For this experiment we asked Norma Tapia to interview her to find out where exactly she lies in Kohlberg and Piagets moral stages. She is a seventeen year old high school senior who
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).
Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his Theory of Moral Development. The method that Kohlberg used was that of “moral dilemmas”. Kohlberg studied Piaget but developed his own theory. He would give individuals of different ages these dilemmas and survey their answers to see what the reasoning behind their answers were. An example of a dilemma is the “Heinz Dilemma”. In this dilemma there is a man whose wife is very sick and needs a certain type of medication. There is only one man who sells this drug in the area and he is charging more than the man can pay for. The husband of the wife decided to steal the drug in order to save his wife. At the end of this scenario, it asks if the husband should’ve stolen the medicine. This provides an example of how he went about creating these moral dilemmas. They are situations in which there are multiple answers and reasoning that could be provided. There was no “right” answer in the moral dilemma questions (as the answer to each question was solely based off of the individual’s opinion and moral reasoning). The reasoning that the individuals presented help develop levels of reasoning. These levels are also known as stages. In Kohlberg’s stages, sub stages are also included. The stages are: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional. Each stages had two sub stages that helped determine what level of moral reasoning a person was at. In the preconvnetional stage the two sub stages are: Reward and punishment orientation and Naive reciprocity orientation. The preconventional stage begins at about age five and decreases with age. The sub stages in the conventional stage are: Good boy/girl Orientation and Authority and social order maintenance orientation. This stage increases ...
moral development. In these stages, Kohlberg concentrates on the reasons why people act the way they do; not the way they think about their actions or what action they take, but the reasoning behind their actions.
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.
... (2009) The science of development. In R.V. Kail & A. Barnfield (Eds.), Children and their development (pp. 8 – 22). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Erik Erikson have all determined stages of development which explain how people act and think at different points in their lives. Piaget’s theory determines that there are four stages of cognitive development, consisting of the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. Each of these has an approximate age range and set of characteristics that explain a person’s general cognitive ability at any given age. According to Kohlberg, preconventional morality, conventional morality, and postconventional morality are the three changes in moral reasoning that a person will experience throughout their lifetime. Erikson’s theory focuses on psychosocial
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.
Kohlberg’s theory of the stages of moral development has gained some popularity despite being controversial. The claim that the levels form a “ladder,” the bottom being the immature child with a pre-conventional level and the top being a post conventional ethical individual. The sequence is unvarying and the subject must begin at the bottom with aspirations to reach the top, possibly doing so. (7) Research confirms that individuals from different cultures actually progress according to Kohlbergs theory, at least to the conventional level. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development continue to provide a foundation for psychology studies of moral reasoning. (6)
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 psychologist have tried for several years to develop a theory to 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). Kohlberg’s moral development theory consist of 3 different levels each containing 2 stages altogether making 6 stages of moral development, as Kohlberg conducted
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.
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.
Kohlberg's moral development schema is highly dependent upon the idea that there are fundamental truths that cannot be dismissed. These ideas are "in the ether", wound into the very fabric that constructs human nature. Granted, his descriptions of the various stages also seem very dependent upon the surroundings and social institutions that an individual would be subjected to. Yet these institutions would be have to be built upon people, all of whom would share these ideological truths. It seems fairly obvious that all people have undeniable needs, survival and some group membership. Kohlberg's stages are merely methods by which one could fulfill these needs.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.