Lawrence Kohlberg
Development of Moral
Reasoning
‘telling right
from wrong’
Ideas of Moral Reasoning
As intelligence matures so
does moral behaviour
 Loosely based on Piaget’s
theory
 Longitudinal study of 50
males aged 10-26 years.
Interviewed every 3 years
 Asked questions about
hypothetical dilemmas


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM_ImH
jYqyo&feature=related
Stages
Provide central organizing themes
o Stages imply qualitative differences
o Invariant Sequence
 Hierarchical
o
1
An example of Kohlberg’s story
dilemmas.

Mr. Heinz's wife is dying.There is one drug
that will save her life but it is very
expensive.The druggist will not lower the
price so that Mr. Heinz can buy it to save
his wife's life. What should he do? More
importantly, why?

Reasoning used to defend position was
more important than actual choice made.
Noticed age effects

Kohlberg’s stages of moral
judgement.

PRECONVENTIONAL
1. punishment-obedience orientation
2. personal reward orientation

CONVENTIONAL
3. good boy-nice girl orientation
4. law and order orientation

POSTCONVENTIONAL
5. social contract orientation
6. universal ethical principle orientation
Preconventional Level
punishment and rewards dominates sense
of right & wrong
 morality is externally controlled
 children accept the rules of authority
figures
 behavior that results in punishment are
bad
 behavior that results in rewards are good

2
Stage 1
• Stage 1: Punishment and obedience
orientation (the consequences of acts
determines of they are good or bad).

Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
Stage 2

Instrumental orientation (an act is
moral if it satisfies one's needs).
◦ Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
The Conventional Level
laws' and society's needs are the defining
feature
 don't steal b/c against the law
 maintaining the affection and approval of
friends and relatives motivates good
behavior

3
Stage 3

Good person orientation (an action
is moral if it pleases or helps others
and leads to approval).
◦ Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
Stage 4

Maintaining the social order
orientation (moral people are those
who do their duty in order to
maintain the social order).
◦ Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
Postconventional Level

personal moral beliefs and values
4
Stage 5

social contract and individual rights
orientation (a moral person
carefully weighs rights against
society's needs of consensus rules).
◦ Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
Stage 6

Universal ethical principles
orientation (the ultimate judge of
what is moral is a person's own
conscience operating in accordance
with certain universal principles.
Society's rules are arbitrary and
they may be broken when they
conflict with universal moral
principles
◦ Possible answers to Heinz dilemma?
Small Group Activity

Identify level and stage of each written
response to the Heinz dilemma.
5
Another Dilemma
In a country in Europe, a poor man named Jean could find no work,
nor could his sister and brother. Without money, he stole food and
medicine that they needed. He was captured and sentenced to
prison for six years. After a couple of years, he escaped from the
prison and went to live in another part of the country under a new
name. He saved money and slowly built up a big factory. He gave
his workers the highest wages and used most of his profits to build
a hospital for people who couldn’t afford good medical care.
Twenty years had passed when a tailor recognized the factory
owner as being Jean, the escaped convict whom the police had been
looking for back in his hometown. Should the tailor report Jean to
the police, why or why not?
Small Groups: Come up with responses for each level.
Support for Kohlberg’s Theory

Older individuals
are on average
more advanced
in their moral
development
More Support
Individuals do progress through each
stage in sequence; virtually no individuals
skip any stages. No regression to a
previous stage.
 Mixed support for the idea that all
individuals advance through all 6 stages

6
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s
theory



Moral development may not occur in stages
Is moral reasoning = moral behavior?
Cultural bias of Kohlberg's research: moral
reasoning is cultural-specific
◦ -some evidence 1st four stages are universals across
cultures
◦ -cross-cultural variance in final two stages

Bias against women
Carol Gilligan
Males = justice perspective (formal rules
and abstract principles of right and
wrong)
 Females = responsibility perspective
(judge a situation based on personal
relationships and loyalties.
 Justice is a masculine ideal and too little
emphasis on care and responsiveness, a
feminine ideal, is considered in moral
research

7