Kohlberg - Developmental

• What are the assumptions of the developmental area?

  >People alter and change with age and experience

  
  

  >Development of behaviour can be affected by numerous and interacting factors eg social,

  cognitive or biological (brain maturation).
• Key theme of Kohlberg

  Moral development
• Skinners behaviourist theory


  - assumes morality like all behaviour is learned

  
  

  
  

  - can explain moral behaviours by reference particularly to SLT + operant conditioning
• Freuds psychoanalytic theory


  - suggesting morality develops with the super- ego

  
  

  > based on a balance between love + authority in parenting style
• Piaget


  - Children think + reason dif at dif stages of development

  
  

  argued that children's reasoning develops through childhood becoming complete by adolescence
• Moral dilemma


  - hypothetical issue or problem that the p has to produce an answer to

  
  

  
  

  
  

  - no right or wrong answer
• Aim of Kohlberg


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

  
  

  
  

  > To investigate the extent to which these changes are the same in a range of cultural contexts.
• Method of Kohlberg


  - Interview based on moral dilememas

  
  

  
  

  -longitudinl research ( same ps studied for 12 yrs)
• Strength of using interviews in Kohlbergy

  >A strength of using interviews is the ability to explore questions thoroughly

  
  

  >For example, children

  could explain in a lot of detail why they've given a particular response to the moral dilemma they were

  presented with.

  
  

  
  

  [C] This increases internal validity.
• Weakness of interview in Kohlberg

  > weakness of using interviews is social desirability of responses

  
  

  > Since they were face to face with

  the experimenter, especially young adults may have wanted to please him when they were giving answers to

  hypothetical scenarios on euthanasia related questions rather than disclosing their real beliefs

  
  

  
  

  This lowers

  internal validity
• Sample of Kohlberg


  - 75 American boys aged between 10 + 16

  
  

  -interviewd at 3-5yr intervals over period of 12yrs

  
  

  
  

  cross sections of dif age groups from Mexico, Taiwan , Canada , UK and Turkey
• Procedure of Kohlberg


  - longitudinal study over period of 12 years.

  
  

  -During this time to test moral reasoning he gave 75 young American males a series of hypothetical and

  philosophical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories

  
  

  Examples of the moral dilemmas included - for 10 year olds: "Is it better to save the life of one

  important person or a lot of unimportant people?" and at ages 13, 16, 20 and 24: "Should the doctor

  'mercy kill' a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?"

  
  

  Cross-cultural and cross-sectional element: Kohlberg compared the males from the USA to those from Canada,

  the UK, Mexico, Turkey and Taiwan.

  
  

  Each participant was seen as being in a particular stage when 50% of their responses to dilemmas fell neatly

  into that stage.
• What are the stages of the pre-conventional level

  1. Orientation towards punishment

  - obey rules to avoid punishment

  
  

  
  

  2. orientation towards self-interest

  - obey rules to obtain rewards
• What are the stages of the conventional level

  3. Good-boy-good-girl orientation

  - conform to avoid disapproval by others

  
  

  
  

  4. Orientation towards authority

  - conform to avoid censure by legitimate authority + resultant guilt
• What are the stages of the post-conventional level?

  5. Social contract orientation

  - conform to maintain respect of impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare

  
  

  
  

  6.Orinetation towards conscience + ethical principles

  
  

  Conform to avoid self- condemnation
• Cross-cultural findings Kohlberg


  1. Development in other cultures may be a little slower but still follows the same order (slower in Mexico and Taiwan)

  
  

  
  

  2. Social class seemed to have an impact on the speed of development, though the sequence of stages didn't change (middle class was the fastest)

  
  

  
  

  3. No difference between religions.
• Overall findings


  >No rigid age links

  
  

  > No huge cultural differences

  
  

  > Some differences due to class and upbringing

  
  

  
  

  > Invariant stages - all movement is forward in sequence and does not skip steps

  
  

  
  

  > individual may stop at any given stage and at any age
• Conclusions of Kohlberg


  Moral development occurs in the same sequence, i.e. there is an invariant developmental sequence in an

  individual's moral development across all cultures

  
  

  > Each stage comes one at a time + individual may stop at any given stage and at any age

  
  

  The only thing that is affected is the rate at which individuals'

  progress through the sequence
• ethics broken Kohlberg


  Protection from harm - some concern could be given to the scenarios they were asked to think about, for example if participants would realise that they would agree that the doctor should 'mercy kill' a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain if it is against their family values etc. this could cause some discomfort.
• Ethics adhered to


  Deception - none involved

  
  

  Confidentiality/Privacy - we are only aware of their age and nationality

  
  

  
  

  Right to withdraw - presumed based on the original article.
• Applications of Kohlberg


  Kohlberg's use of moral dilemmas has been used to promote consideration of ethical behaviour in establishments as diverse as schools and military training establishments

  
  

  > In his Just Community Schools, Kohlberg (1975) got staff and students to collaborate on establishing a system of rules based on ethical principles, assuming students would be more willing to co-operate in running the school in a way in which respect, justice and a consideration of the welfare and rights of others were paramount.
• How does Kohlberg link to developmental area

  People change and develop with age and experience

  
  

  > One aspect of development is the idea that people change over time, passing through a prescribed set of stages in an unchanging (invariant) order. Each stage involves the acquisition of certain skills which then allows the individual to move to the next stage

  
  

  > For example, Kohlberg shows that children start their moral development with the orientation towards punishment - often their main concern is avoiding it. Once they've progressed to stage 2, they wouldn't worry about punishment but focus on obeying the rules to obtain rewards
• Another way Kohlberg link to developmental area

  Development may be social, cognitive or biological

  
  

  > Since Kohlberg's theory is linked to ages, this would suggest that moral development is linked to the process of maturation (bio), with a child only gradually developing the cognitive skills sophisticated enough to pass through each stage

  
  

  For example, initially young children may be focused on obeying the rules in order to avoid punishment (stage 1), whereas with time they might base their morals on what is right according to society and what has been democratically agreed upon (Stage 5).
• How does Kohlberg link to moral development

  Kohlberg looked at moral development of 75 American boys by presenting them with moral dilemmas + analysing how moral thinking changes over time

  
  

  > found that moral development is invariant and comes in stages. Each stage comes one at a time, and an individual may stop at any given stage + any age- original research limited to one culture. However, subsequent research allowed him to claim that his was a universal theory, with context playing a part in reasoning, but not changing the fundamental nature of the reasoning. The level of reasoning, from self-interest to the interest of humanity, did not change, whatever the culture

  
  

  > The only thing that is affected is the rate at which individuals' progress through the sequence.
• Ethnocentrism (Kohlberg)


  > American boys ethnocentric bias - interpreting reasoning within the constraints of an existing stage theory may involve using norms and values which are not appropriate to other cultures

  
  

  
  

  Language issues may influence the interpretation of moral reasoning

  
  

  The moral dilemmas presented to pps might be too culture bound to the USA

  
  

  He followed up his work with data from other cultures (e.g. UK, Mexico...), so on the face of it, it seems less ethnocentric
• Pop validity Kohlberg


  >Main research - only American boys over 12 years, therefore androcentric, since there is some evidence that females show different moral development - females more caring

  
  

  
  

  Ethnocentric - American boys HOWEVER he followed up his work with data from other cultures, so seems less ethnocentric. But let's not forget about language and cultural barriers.
• Reliability


  • Large sample (75 American boys and participant in other countries) - therefore not just 'one off' results

  
  

  
  

  • Standardised procedure - same moral dilemmas and questions

  
  

  • Internal reliability

  participants didn't consistently give responses linked to a particular stage of moral development

  
  

  • For external reliability - Would need to be replicated today as this research done in 50s and 60s - moral thinking may have changed since then
• Internal validity


  >Social desirability- don't know whether they will actually act like this only hypothetical answers

  
  

  >Potential demand characteristics? However, it would be hard to pretend to show a higher level of moral reasoning just to support the researcher's aims

  
  

  >Extraneous variables: economic background, education, upbringing

  
  

  > dilemmas themselves may have been testing something other than moral development, e.g. intelligence
• Eco validity


  How people would act in hypothetical situation may be very different to how they would act in real life

  
  

  > Most moral choices in everyday life are simpler than Kohlberg's dilemmas
• Qualitative vs Quantitative data

  Qualitative - interview responses and justifications of how they would behave in moral dilemmas