Moral reasoning

• What does Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Reasoning refer to?

  The way a person Thinks about right and wrong and how this applies to moral behaviour

  
• 6 stages of moral reasoning

  Stage 1- Punishment & Obedience

  Stage 2- Reward & self interest

  Stage 3- Conformity

  Stage 4- Law & Order

  Stage 5- Human rights

  Stage 6- Universal Human Ethics
• What stages are in the Pre-conventional level of morality (level 1)

  Stage 1 & 2
• What stages are in the Conventional level of morality (level 2)

  Stage 3 & 4
• What stages are in the post-conventional level of morality (level 3)

  Stages 5 & 6
• Stage 1- Punishment and Obedience driven

  What is right or wrong is determined by what is punishable

  Moral action is essentially the avoidance of punishment
• Stage 2- self interest driven

  What is right or wrong is determined by what brings rewards and what people want
• Stage 3- interpersonal accord and conformity driven

  Being moral is being a good person in your own eyes and those of others

  What the majority think is right is right by definition
• Stage 4- Authority and social order obedience driven

  being good means ‘doing ones duty’ showing respect for authority and maintaining the social order

  Laws are unquestionably accepted and obeyed
• Stage 5- social contract driven

  Individuals are viewed as holding different opinions and values.

  Laws are regarded as social contracts

  Although laws should be respected, individual rights can sometimes supersede these laws of they become too destructive or restrictive
• Stage 6 - Universal ethical principles driven

  Moral action is determined by our inner conscience, and may or may not be in agreement with public opinion or socities laws.

  Moral reasoning is based on abstarct reasoning using universal ethical principles.
• What did Kohlberg find about violent youths?

  They had lower levels of moral development
• How do violent youths compare to non-violent youths in terms of moral development?

  Violent youths have significantly lower moral development
• What is the classification of offenders according to Kohlberg's findings?

  Offenders are likely classified at pre-conventional levels
• How do non-criminal individuals progress in moral development?

  They generally progress to conventional levels
• Research Support for levels of moral reasoning- Gudjonsson & Sigurdsson (2007)

  • Used their offending motivation questionnaire to assess 128 male juvenile offenders
  • They found that 38% did not consider the consequences of what they were doing and 36% were confident they would not be caught
  • This suggests they were at Kohlberg’s pre-conventional level, supporting the relationship between moral reasoning and offender behaviour.
• Research Support for levels of morality reasoning- Palmer & Hollin (1998)

  • Compared moral reasoning in 332 non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using the Socio Moral Reflection Measure Short Form (SRM-SF) …which contains 11 moral dilemma-related questions such as not taking things that belong to others and keeping a promise to a friend.
  • The offender group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offender group which is consistent with Kohlberg’s predictions
• Issues with research into levels of morality reasoning - Gilligan (1982)

  • suggested Kohlberg is sex biased- androcentric
  • Kohlberg only interviewed males
  • Gilligan argues that women focus on how an action affects other people and men consider fairness and justice = moral development in biological sexes may be different
• Research against Kohlberg’s theory- may not apply to all crimes

  Thornton and Reid (1982)

  • people who committed crimes for financial gain were more likely to show pre-conventional moral reasoning