kohlberg

• 1. Preconventional


  1= PUMNISHMENT ORIENTATION:The consequence of an action determines its goodness or badness

  2=iNSTRUMENTAL ORIENTATION=Fairness is important as long as your own needs are satisfied 
• 2. Conventional

  3=GOOD BOY/GIRL ORIENTATION=Child behaves in order to please others

  4=AUTHORITY OREINTATION=Respect authority, fixed rules
• 3. Post-conventional

  5=SOCIAL CONSTRUCT ORIENTATION=Legal constraints are considered

  6=UNIVERSAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLES=Decision's based on conscience, respect for human life
• →Jean Piaget 


  believe that, at birth, we are amoral - we lack any system of personal values and judgements about what is right and wrong.
• Aim:

  To investigate development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood.

  Assess the extent to which these changes hold true in a range of cultural contexts.
• Research Method-Longitudinal

  Followed the same group of boys for 12 years by presenting them with hypothetical moral dilemmas.

  This was so they could show how development occurred from adolescents to manhood. They moved through the distinct levels and stages of moral development

  It could also be considered cross cultural as Kohlberg did this with multiple cultures ( but didn’t follow these up so the other cultures so these were not longitudinal)
• sample

  75 American boys

  10-16 at start, 3 year intervals, aged 22-28 at end

  also studied: UK, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Turkey
• Procedure

  Every three years each participant was interviewed where they were presented with a series of moral dilemmas.

  The dilemmas were designed to measure 25 moral themes. These included the reasons behind obeying rules and the value of human life.

  Each dilemma had options with different implications and the participants were asked what the character should do . same dilemmas were given to people in Great Britain, Taiwan and Mexico; at 10-13 years however, they were never followed up.
• USA boys procedure

  strories determined each participant's stage of moral reasoning for each of the 25 moral concepts

  •Semi-structured interviews: the focus was not on what they said but why they said it e.g. moral reasoning• took 45 min and covered 9 dilemmas

   •The aspects that were assessed included :

  Participants were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories to solve e.g.

  1)  motive given for rule obedience

  2) value of human life( these were given in question form to all the participants)
• findings


  Participants progressed through stages one at a time and always in the same order

  Not all P’s progressed through all 6 stages

  USA stage 5 was most commonly found

  Stage 6 was rarely found in any culture
• conclusions


  •Each stage of moral development comes once at a time and in the same order

  •An individual may stop at a stage at any age•Moral development fits with Kohlberg's stage pattern theory

  •The 6stage theory isn’t significantly affected by social, cultural and religious conditions- except the rate at which the p’s progress through the stages.