Kohlberg

• Background

  • Morality is often referred to as having principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to justice, others' welfare and rights.
• Background

  • When we are born, we are considered 'amoral'.
  • As babies we lack an system of personal values and judgements about what is right and wrong.
  • It is thought that these 'morals' develop over time.
• Background

  Freud believed that personality comprises of three parts: the id, ego and superego.

  • Id: everything present at birth/ inherited/ the instincts
  • Ego: part of the personality which balances out the needs of the id and superego
  • Superego: This must have developed in order for an individual to be considered as a moral being.
• Background

  • Piaget focused on the individual's morality from a social cognitive and social-emotive perspective.
  • Kohlberg provided a systematic, three-level, six-stage sequence of development which reflected changes in moral judgement throughout the lifespan.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • The first level is pre conventional morality.
  • It is up to age 10.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 1, Pre conventional morality, stage 1- Punishment and obedience
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 1, Pre conventional morality, stage 1- Punishment and obedience
  • Rules are followed and children do what is right because of fear of punishment.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 1, Pre conventional morality, stage 2- Instrumental/ hedonistic orientation
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 1, Pre conventional morality, stage 2- Instrumental/ hedonistic orientation
  • Doing what is right for personal gain, perhaps a reward.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • The second level is conventional morality.
  • This happens during early teens.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 2, Conventional morality, stage 3- Conformity
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 2, Conventional morality, stage 3- Conformity
  • Doing what is right according to the majority to be a good girl/boy
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 2, Conventional morality, stage 4- Law and order
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 2, Conventional morality, stage 4- Law and order
  • Doing what is right because it is your duty and helps society. Laws must be obeyed for the common good. No one is above the law.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • The third level is post conventional morality.
  • This occurs during adulthood.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 3, Post conventional morality, stage 5- Social contract vs individual rights
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 3, Post conventional morality, stage 5- Social contract vs individual rights
  • Doing what is morally right even if it is against the law because the law is too restrictive- not blindly obeying.
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 3, Post conventional morality, stage 6- Universal ethical principles orientation
• Kolhberg's stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Level 3, Post conventional morality, stage 6- Universal ethical principles orientation
  • Doing what is right because of our inner conscience which has absorbed the principles of justice, equality and the value of human life.
• Aim

  • To investigate development in moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood, and the extent to which these changes hold true in a range of cultural contexts.
• Sample

  • 75 American boys
  • They were aged 10 - 16 at the start of the study. They were then followed at three year intervals through to the ages of 22 - 28.
• Sample

  • Moral development was also studied in boys of other cultures including Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey.
• Research Method

  • This was a longitudinal study.
  • It studied the development of the same group of boys for 12 years.
• Research Method

  • The boys were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas taken from medieval literature.
  • All of these were deliberately philosophical.
  • They covered 25 different moral themes.
• Research Method

  • Responses to the hypothetical moral dilemmas were stage coded based on the 'structure' of the boys' explanations.
• Research Method

  • The purpose of the moral scenarios was to show as young adolescents develop, they move through the distinct levels and stages of moral development.
• Research Method

  • Kohlberg also studied moral development in other cultures using hypothetical moral dilemmas which were relevant to individual cultures.
  • This study therefore has a cross-cultural element.
• Procedure

  • The American boys were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories.
  • These covered 25 moral themes, such as 'the value of human life'.
  • The boys were asked to solve and suggest what the character in the dilemma should do.
• Key findings

  • Results showed that about 50% of most participant's thinking was at one single stage-regardless of the moral dilemma involved.
• Key findings

  • Participants showed progress through the stages with increased age- so morality changed the older they got.
• Key findings

  • Participants progressed through the stages one at a time and always in the same order. This suggests moral development is fixed.
• Key findings

  • Not all participants progressed through all stages and reached stage 6.
• Key findings

  • A child at and earlier stage of development tends to move forward when confronted with the views of a child one stage further along and they seem to prefer this next stage.
  • This is an example of external influences affecting the development of a behaviour.
• Key findings

  There are two main moral aspects/ themes from the 25 which are used for data analysis:

  • Motive given for rule obedience or moral action
  • The value of human life
• Motive given for rule obedience or moral action

  A) Obey rules

  B) avoid punishment

  C) avoid

  D) Conform

  E) avoid

  F) self-condemnation

  G) value

  H) themselves

  
• The value of human life

  A) Human life

  B) Physical objects

  C) social status

  
• The value of human life

  A) sacredness

  B) Human life

  C) legal

  
• Cross cultural research

  • Taiwanese boys in the 10- 13 age group were presented with a moral dilemma involving the theft of food.
  • Young boys in Mexico and Turkey were tested in a similar way.
  • There was no longitudinal follow up (only looked at snapshot behaviour).
• Cross cultural findings

  • Taiwanese boys aged 10- 13 tended to give classic stage 2 responses based of instrumental gain.
  • For example, they would suggest stealing food is acceptable to feed the wife, as otherwise she would die and he would have to pay for her funeral.
  • In Atayal (an aboriginal village in Taiwan), the same decision was based off of the idea that is the wife died, there would be no one to cook for the man rather than the cost of the funeral.
  • This shows that the decision was based on instrumental gain, however instrumental gain is culture dependent.
• Cross cultural findings

  • Mexico and Taiwan showed the same results as the US except that development was a little slower.