Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

Moral Development
Ethics is the study of morality and that a person begins to do ethics when he or she turns to
look at the moral standards that have been absorbed from family, church, friends, and
society, and begins asking whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable and what
these standards imply for situations and issues.
We sometimes assume that a person’s values are formed during childhood and do not change
after that. In fact, a great deal of psychological research, as well as one’s own personal
experience, demonstrates that as people mature, they change their lives in very deep and
profound ways. Just as people’s physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities develops as they
move through their lives. In fact, just as there are identifiable stages of growth in physical
development, so the ability to make reasonable moral judgments also develops in identifiable
stages.
The psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg pioneered the research in this field and concluded on the
basis of over 20 years of research that there is a sequence of six identifiable stages in the
development of a person’s ability to deal with moral issues.
Kohlberg grouped these stages of moral development into three levels, each containing two
stages, the second of which is the more advanced and organized form of the general
perspective of each level.
The sequence of the six stages can be summarized as follows.
KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
LEVEL ONE: PRECOVENTIONAL STAGES

At these first two stages, the child is able to respond to rules and social expectations and can
apply the labels good, bad, right and wrong. These rules, however are seen as something
externally imposed on the self. Right and wrong are interpreted in terms of pleasant or
painful consequences of actions or in terms of the physical power of those who set the rules.
If one were to ask a five year old, for example, whether stealing is right or wrong, the answer
will be something like, “because mummy will punish me if I steal.” The child can see situations
only from his or her own point of view; because the child does not yet have the ability to
identify with others to any great extent, the primary motivation is self- centered.
Stage One: Punishment and Obedience Orientation

At this stage, the physical consequences of an act wholly determine the goodness or the
badness of the act. The child’s reasons for doing the right thing are to avoid punishment or
defer to the superior physical power of authorities. There is little awareness that others have
needs and desires similar to one’s own.
Stage Two: Instrument and Relatively Orientation

At this stage, right actions become those that can serve as instruments for satisfying the
child’s own needs or the needs of those for whom the child cares. The child is now aware that
others have needs and desires similar to his or her own and begins to defer to them to get them
to do what he or she wants.
LEVEL TWO: CONVENTIONAL STAGES

Maintaining the experience of one’s own family, peer group, or nation is now seen as
valuable in its own right, regardless of the consequences. The person at this level of
development does not merely conform to expectations but exhibits loyalty to the group and
its norms. If one were to ask an adolescent at this level about why something is wrong or why it
is right, for example, the adolescent would probably answer in terms of “what my friends
think,” “what my family has taught me,” “what we Americans hold” or even “what are laws
say.” The adolescent at this stage is now able to see situations from the point of view of
others, but the only perspectives the adolescent can take up are the familiar viewpoints of
the people who belong to the adolescent’s own social group, such family, peers,
organizations, nation, and social class and she assumes that everyone is like them. The person
is motivated to conform to the group’s norms and subordinates the needs of the individual to
those of the group.
Stage Three: Interpersonal concordance Orientation

Good behavior at this early conventional stage is living to the expectations of one for whom
loyalty, affection, and trust, such as family and friends. Right action is conformity to what is
generally expected in one’s role as a good son, daughter, brother, friend, and so on. Doing what
is right is motivated by the need to be seen as a good performer in one’s own eyes and in the
eyes of others.
Stage Four: Law and Order Orientation

Right and wrong at this more mature conventional stage now come to be determined by
loyalty to one’s own larger nation or surrounding society. Laws are to be upheld except
where they conflict with other fixed social duties. The person is now able to see other people
as parts of a larger social system that defines individual roles and obligations, and he or she
can separate the norms generated by this system from his or her interpersonal relationships
and motives.
LEVEL THREE: POSTCONVENTIONAL STAGE

At this stage, the person no longer simply accepts the values and norms of the groups to
which he or she belongs. Instead the person now tries to see situations from a point of view
that impartially takes everyone’s interests into account. The person questions the laws and
values that society has adopted and redefines them in terms of self-chosen moral principles
that can be justified in rational terms. If an adult at this stage is asked why something is wrong,
the person will respond in terms of what has been decided through processes that are “fair to
everyone” or in terms of “justice,” “human rights” or “society’s overall welfare.” The proper
laws and values are those that conform to principles to which any reasonable person would be
motivated to commit him or herself.
Stage Five: Social Contract Orientation

At this stage, the person becomes aware that people hold a variety of conflicting personal
views and opinions and emphasizes fair ways of reaching consensus by agreement, contract,
and due process. The person believes that all values and norms are relative and that, apart
from this democratic consensus, all should be tolerated.
Stage Six: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation

At this final stage, right action comes to be defined in terms of moral principles chosen
because of their logical comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency. These ethical
principles are not concrete like the Ten Commandments, but abstract general principles
dealing with justice, society’s welfare, the equality of human rights, respect for the dignity of
human individual beings, and the idea that persons are ends in themselves and must be
treated as such. The person’s reasons for doing what is right are based on a commitment to
these moral principles, and the person sees them as the criteria for evaluating all other moral
rules and arrangements including democratic consensus.
Kohlberg’s theory is helpful because it helps us understand how are moral capacities develops.
Research by Kohlberg suggests that, although people generally progress through stages in the
same sequence, not everyone progresses through all the stages. Some people remain stuck at
one of the early stages through-out their lives. For those who remain at the pre-conventional
level, right and wrong always continues to be defined in the egocentric terms of avoiding
punishment and doing what powerful authority figures say. For those who reach the
conventional level but never get any further, right and wrong continues to be defined in terms
of the conventional norms of their social groups or the laws of their nation or society. However,
for those who reach the post conventional level and take a reflective and critical look at the
moral standards they have been raised to hold, moral right and wrong is defined in terms of
moral principles they have chosen for themselves as more reasonable and adequate.

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Moral Development

KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

LEVEL ONE: PRECOVENTIONAL STAGES

Stage One: Punishment and Obedience Orientation

Stage Two: Instrument and Relatively Orientation

LEVEL TWO: CONVENTIONAL STAGES

Stage Three: Interpersonal concordance Orientation

Stage Four: Law and Order Orientation

LEVEL THREE: POSTCONVENTIONAL STAGE

Stage Five: Social Contract Orientation

Stage Six: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation

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