Kohlberg study (developmental psychology)

• What was the aim of the study?

  • to investigate the development of morality throughout adolescence and early adulthood
  • assess the extent to which changes hold across cultures
• What type of experiment was it?

  • longitudinal (carries on throughout a lifetime)
  • self-report
  • cross-sectional/cross-cultural groups
• What were the cross-sectional groups?


  • Mexico
  • Taiwan
  • Malaysia
  • UK
  • Canada
  • Turkey
• Participants in longitudinal study?


  • 5 American boys from Chicago
  • between 10 and 16 at the start
  • between 22 and 18 at the end
  • androcentric (just boys)
• How is the study androcentric?


  • just boys used
• Cross-sectional study participants?

  • boys varying ages from: Mexico, Taiwan, Malaysia, UK, Canada and Turkey
• Longitudinal procedure?

  • every 3 years, over the span of 12 years, the boys were interviewed and presented hypothetical moral dilemmas (Heinz dilemma)
• What was the Heinz dilemma?

  • wife was dying and only a drug could save her
  • husband couldn’t afford the drug (was charged 10 times more)
  • husband broke into the lab to get the drug
  • should he have done this?
• Results for the longitudinal procedure?


  • qualitative data
  • from 9 years old to adolescence they were conventional - morals become internalised
  • adulthood = post-conventional - based on law, equality and human rights
• What was the cross-sectional procedure?


  • mercy killing dilemma
• Level 1 of mercy killing dilemma?


  • the boy thinks that it would be best for the woman to die but husband wouldn't want it to happen
• Level 2 of mercy killing dilemma?


  • relates God to the scenario, realises its murder and showed respect for God
• Level 3 of mercy killing dilemma?


  • sees the value of human life and human rights, its the woman’s own choice
• Results for cross sectional?


  • stage 5 is more common in USA compared to Mexico or TaKwan
  • the rate of children’s morality development differs between social classes (quicker for middle class children in urban areas and small villages)
• Reasons behind children‘s decisions?

  • At stage 2 = Taiwanese boy would steal food because otherwise his family may die, and how would he afford a funeral?
  • Where as, Malaysian boy would steal food because if the wife/mother died, who would cook for the family ?
• Conclusions?

  • no difference between religions
  • invariant development sequence in individuals moral development
  • an individual may stop at any given stage or age
  • middle-class children move through the sequence faster and further
  • the 6-stage theory of moral development is not significantly affected by widely ranging social, cultural or religious conditions
  • the only thing affected is the rate at which individuals progress through the sequence
• Data collection?

  • qualitative data
• Ethics?

  • followed BPS guidelines
• Validity?


  • lacks ecological validity (hypothetical dilemmas aren’t relative to their lives)
  • the way you say you act may not actually be how you act
• Reliability?


  • large sample means that the ‘one-off’ results aren’t sen (reliable)
  • standardised procedures increase reliability
• Sample?


  • androcentric sample (only boys)
  • cannot generalise findings to females
• Ethnocentrism?


  • study is not ethnocentric, because he studied multiple ethnic groups
• Usefulness?


  • seen as developmental as one aspect of developmental is the idea that we change overtime, passing through a prescribed set of stages in a non-changing order
• Nature vs nurture?

  • nature: Kohlberg’s theory of moral development suggests that within each individual, there is an innate predetermined sequence of stages, which whatever the situation the child is bought up in, will remain unchanged.
  • however, the explanation doesn’t consider the influence that culture may have on the child’s moral reasoning.
• Psychologo as a science?


  • no = lack of control over extraneous variables and his theory lacks validity and objectivity
  • yes = falsifiable - the theory was proved right
• Determinism vs freewill?

  • determinism: considered deterministic, because the sages of moral development are invariant.
  • there appears to be little freewill or choice on how you progress through the stages.