Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

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Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

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)

At the pre-conventional level, behavior is motivated by anticipation of pleasure or pain. The child is aware of cultural rules and labels of good or bad and right or wrong. (1) The subject interprets the labels in terms of the physical consequence, such as punishment or reward. (3) The child has an extreme self-interest. The first level of moral thinking is generally found at the elementary school level, before the age of 9. This level is divided into the following two stages. (2)

The first stage is the punishment and obedience orientation. This is observed in children ages 1-5. The subject is in avoidance of physical punishment and deference to power. The child behaves according to the socially acceptable norms, due to the fear of punishment by an authority figure. (4) The physical consequences of an action determine its goodness or badness. “What is right is to avoid breaking rules, to obey for obedience’s sake, and to avoid doing physical damage to people and property.” An example of stage one is evident in the soldiers of the holocaust who were asked to simply “carry out orders” under the threat of being punished. This illustrates that adults, as well as children may possibly be functioning at stage one. (2) An individual at this stage doesn’t consider the thoughts or feelings of others, nor are they able to relate two points of view. As in Piaget’s framework, ego-centrism and the inability to consider the pe...

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... He hypothesized that moral difficulties motivated development through a group of flexible kinds of moral reasoning. From his own ideas of moral reasoning he developed a series of stages describing moral development. In 1973, while in Central America, Kohlberg developed a rare and unknown tropical disease. This disease ruined his health and brought about severe depression. On January 18, 1987 Kohlberg was reported missing. His body was later discovered in a swamp area where it is believed that he took his own life. (6)

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)

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