Kohlberg

• At birth all amoral- lack personal judgements and values about right and wrong
• Morality- the principles of how individuals treat each other
• Freud- not until the super ego develops can humans be considered moral - tension of needs between society and individual- moral development occurs when individual desires replaced
• Skinner- behaviourist theory- socialisation is main force behind moral development, power of external forces in shaping development.
• Piaget- cognitive theory- how individuals develop morality from social- cognitive + social emotional perspectives- to understand adult morality first look at children's views of welfare, justice + rights

  -young children focused on authority mandates which they evaluate as they grow
• Hartshorne + May- moral character- personality traits which correspond to honest, service + self control
• Similar to Piaget however viewed moral development as a more gradual process- 3 level, 6 stage sequence of development

  -development proceeds from selfish desire to avoid punishment to concern of group functioning
• Longitudinal study- group of boys for 12 years
• Presented boys with moral dilemmas to show movement through moral stages of development- studied moral development in other countries- cross cultural
• 75 American boys ages 10-16 thru to 22-2

  Boys from GB, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico + Turkey
• American ppts presented moral dilemmas in form of a short story- determine stage of moral reasoning for 25 concepts- assessed motive for rule obedience or moral action
• Value of human life tested by asking

  Age 10- is it better to save the life of one important person or many unimportant people

  Age 13-24- Should a doctor 'mercy kill' a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?
• Taiwanese boys 10-13- story involving food- a man's wife is starving to death but the store owner wont give the many any food unless he can pay for it which he cant, should he break in and steal some food? why?- GB Canada, Mexico, Turkey tested in a similar way
• Motive for rule obedience or moral action- Stage 1- Obey rules and avoid punishment

  2- Conform to obtain rewards

  3- Conform to avoid disapproval

  4- conform to avoid guilt from authority

  5- conform to maintain respect from senator judging community

  6- conform to avoid self condemnation
• Value of human life- stage

  1. value of human life confused with value of physical objects and based on social status
  2. Value seen as instrumental to satisfaction of possessor + others
  3. Value based on empathy + affection of family members + possessor
  4. Life is sacred in terms of moral or religious duties
  5. Relation in community + human right
  6. Human value of respect for individual
• 50% of ppts thinking was at a single stage
• Not all ppts passes through every stage and not all reaches stage 6 - ppts pass stages once at a time and in same order, once at a stage either stopped or moved forward
• Child at earlier stage of development moves forward when confronted with views from a child one stage further along + child prefers next stage
• Taiwanese boys give classsic stage 2 responses
• Mexico + Taiwan showed same results- Mexico slower- M/C aged 10- Taiwan + Mexico same order of stages
• US- by 16 rarely stage 6 used- at 13- rarely stage 3
• At 16 - stage 5 more common in US than Taiwan or Mexico
• No important differences in religion and thinking
• Concluded: invariant developmental sequence in an individuals moral development
• Concluded: each stage comes one at a time and in same order- may stop at any stage and age
• Concluded: Moral development fits Kohlberg's stage- pattern theory- universality of sequence of stages
• Concluded: m/c children move faster and further
• Concluded: Stages not significantly affected by social, cultural, religious conditions but does affect speed