Level of moral reasoning

• Level of moral reasoning

  refers to the way a person thinks about Right and wrong

  the higher the level, the more that behaviour is driven by what is right and less it is driven by just avoiding punishment and disapproval
• moral development

  Kohlberg said peoples decisions and judgments on issues of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral reasoning, the higher the stage, the more sophisticated the reasoning. Kohlberg based his theory on peoples responses to a series of moral dilemmas, such as the Hienz dilemma.

  Kohlberg, using his moral dilemmas found hat a group of violent youths were at a significantly lower level of moral development than non-violent youths 
• level 1- pre conventional

  stage1-punishment orientation, rules are obeyed to avoid punishment

  stage2- instrumental orientation, rules are obeyed for personal gain
• Level 2- conventional

  stage3- rules are obeyed for approval

  stage4- maintenance of the social order, rules obeyed to maintain social order
• Level 3- post conventional

  stage5- morality of contract and individual rights, rules challenged if they infringe rights

  stage6- morality of conscience, individuals have a personal set of ethical principles
• Link with criminality

  offenders are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level of Kohlberg’s model, whereas non-offenders have generally progressed to the conventional level and beyond. 

  The pre conventional level is associated with less mature, child like reasoning
• One strength is evidence for the link between level of moral reasoning and crime.

  compared moral reasoning in 332 non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using the Socio Moral Reflection Measure (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.

  This is consistent with Kohlberg's predictions.
• One limitation is that the level of moral reasoning may depend on the offence.

  found that people who committed crimes for financial gain (e.g. robbery) were more likely to show pre-conventional moral reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes (e.g. assault).

  Pre- conventional moral reasoning tends to be associated with crimes in which offenders believe they have a good chance of evading punishment.

  This suggests that Kohlberg's theory may not apply to all forms of crime.