Kohlberg

1
Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development

• Follows Piagets cognitive developmental theory
• As you progress through the cognitive stages, you
  progress through moral stages as well.
• Kohlberg gave 10-13 year-old boys a series of
  moral dilemmas (e.g., Heinz scenario) and asked
  them what they thought and why.
• He didnt care about the decision the boys
  madeonly the reasoning behind it.

2
Progression of morality

• Starts as completely external to the self youre
  good because others (parents, teachers, God, etc)
  tell you to be.
• The higher your moral level, the more
  internalized it becomes.
• At the highest level, morality is completely
  internalizedyoure good because you have your
  own internal code of ethics to uphold.

3
Three general levels of morality

• Level 1 Preconventional morality
• Substage 1
• Substage 2
• Level 2 Conventional morality
• Substage 3
• Substage 4
• Level 3 Post-conventional morality
• Substage 5
• Substage 6

4
Preconventional morality

• Found in children and some adults
• Morality is completely externalized
• First stage The goodness or badness of an act
  depends on its consequences (how much trouble
  will you get into?)
• Second stage called Naïve hedonism you
  conform to rules in order to gain rewards of
  satisfy personal objectives (e.g., some
  politicians)

5
Conventional morality

• Where most adults
• Morality is somewhat internalized, but its still
  externalized as well.
• Stage 3 good boy or good girl orientationmost
  women found hereMoral behavior is that which
  pleases or helps others. Person wants to be
  thought of as good.
• Stage 4 most men are herewhats moral equals
  what is legal. Must conform to rules of
  legitimate authority laws transcend social
  interest.

6
Post-conventional morality

• Very rare only 10 of adults are found here
• Morality is completely internalized
• Stage 5 What is moral is not necessarily equal
  to what is legal. Laws can be unjust, in which
  case the moral thing to do is break the law.
  Person is bound only by internal moral code.
• Stage 6 so abstract and transcendental that
  its been dropped from the theory because no one
  was at stage 6.

7
Sequence of progression

• Before age 9, most children are at level 1,
  preconventional morality.
• Stage 4 doesnt appear at all among 10-year-olds.
• Stage 4 is found in 62 of 36-year-olds.
• Stage 5 doesnt appear until at least age 20-22
  but never characterizes more than 10 of the
  population.
• Once you reach one stage, you supposedly never
  regress to an earlier stage.

8
Criticisms of his theory

• Women dont like it because it appears that they
  reason at a lower moral level than most men do.
• A persons moral reasoning may not reflect his
  moral actions (e.g., terrorism)
• There are cultural differences in moralitly that
  arent reflected in the theory
• Conservatives appear to reason at level 2,
  whereas liberals are overrepresented at level 5.