...Kohlberg Theory on Moral Development Team Peace: Belinda Cooper, Dawn Lunsford, and Laverne Phillips PSY 600 August 24, 2015 Dr. Ellingford Introduction Summary of Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory Three Contributions of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development Three Limitations of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development Although Kohlberg is considered an authority on the human development of morals, his theory is considered limited by other reputable psychologists. Kohlberg’s theory states there are six stages to the development of morals and those six levels are divided into three levels: the pre-conventional stages of moral development, the conventional stage of moral development, and the post-conventional stage of moral development. Other psychologists have claimed that there are no specific stages to the development of morals. Psychologists believe that because people make moral decisions at one age in their life and tend to make the same moral decision later in their life that moral judgment does not develop in stages like Kohlberg theorized. “With respect to stages, we recognize that age-related trends exist in the types of moral judgments people make, and we acknowledge that cognitive development plays a role in determining them. However, because the evidence suggests that different aspects of moral cognition may change in different ways, that people do not relinquish their old ways of thinking when...
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...of moral development is based upon the principles of cognitive development proposed by Piaget. This suggests behaviour is driven by cognitive processing | 1 | Kohlberg’s investigative methods were more systematic than Piaget and therefore the explanation may have greater objectivity. | 2 | Similar to Piaget, Kohlberg suggests that moral development occurs in invariant stages which are culturally universal. | 2 | Snarey’s meta-analysis, which covered both collectivist and individualist cultures, supported the idea that these stages are universal in all cultures. | | | 3 | However, other research has suggested that the theory is culturally biased and Eurocentric. | | | 4 | Kohlberg takes a social constructivist approach to moral development, which means behaviour is affected by interaction This means that ‘good’ development can be promoted and ‘bad’ development can be addressed with therapy. | 3 | Kohlberg suggested that the process is driven by a gradual maturation of thinking skills which enable the individual to take different perspectives. | 5 | Whereas Piaget’s theory suggests that cognitive development occurs until about 12, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development suggests that it continues into adulthood. | 4 | Kohlberg also stated that development necessitates environmental and social interaction. | 6 | Therefore, Kohlberg is incorporating the theories of both Piaget and Vygotsky into the theory of moral development. | 5 | Kohlberg proposed that moral development...
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...‘How effective is Kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development in explaining moral reasoning and moral behaviour?’ Morality refers to the ‘principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour’ (Oxford dictionary, 2013). Moral development focuses on the way morality changes from childhood to adulthood. It consists of two things; moral reasoning and moral behaviour. Moral reasoning is when an individual tried to work out the difference between right and wrong by using logic. This is a process that is undertaken by people daily in their lives when faced with dilemmas and they need to make a decision based on the morality of the action and what the consequences could be. Moral behaviour is the way people can behave depending on their moral reasoning. Moral behaviour consists of four components; moral sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation and moral character. Many theories have been developed on moral development. These theories are based on an individual’s level of cognitive maturity. This essay focuses on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, and aims to discuss how effective Kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development is, in explaining moral reasoning and moral behaviour. Kohlberg Developed the moral development theory based on Piaget’s theory. Piaget believed that moral development was only a two-staged theory; the first stage of his theory was common in childhood and was called the ‘Heteronomous’ stage. The general idea was...
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...A Summary of Kohlberg’s Theory Tiffany Easterling, Sandra Maxey, and Nakeia Trimble PSYCH/600 – Developmental Psychology October 5, 2014 Vicki Koenig Abstract How the development of morality in children develops has been a big question for parents and philosophers for decades. The issue of moral development has been and has become a hot topic within education and psychology. “One of the best known theories was developed by a psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg who modified and expanded up Jean Piaget’s work to form a theory that explained how children develop moral reasoning” (Cherry, 2014). Moral development was described in two stages by Piaget. Kohlberg took those two stages described by Piaget and elaborated on them. The theory of moral development, which is described by Kohlberg, outlines three levels with six stages. Kohlberg believes that political liberalism “will not be replaced by a new ideology of the West but will continue to be its dominant ideology for the next century” (Crain, 1985). Kohlberg’s proposed moral development is a process that is continuous and occurs over the period of a person’s lifetime. “Furthermore, Kohlberg believes that the liberalistic concept of justice represents a higher conceptualization of justice in the same sense in which a higher developmental stage in morality represents a higher understanding of justice” (Crain, 1985). However, Carol Gilligan a well-known psychologist, ethicist, and feminist is against Kohlberg’s...
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...Moral Development and the Justice System As law enforcement officials, we need to understand the moral development of not only those we come in contact with in our job, but also of ourselves. Why? The answer is, as police officers; we may be confronted with hundreds of issues about moral reasoning each day. These may range from the decision a suspect makes about whether to resist arrest to whether or not we issue a speeding ticket to a friend. Every day, citizens, as well as officers, make hundreds of decisions that involve moral reasoning. It is imperative as officers of the law that we understand and recognize the reasons behind the decisions of other as well as ourselves. To change our behavior and appreciate others behavior we must be aware of why we as humans make the decisions we make. A psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg identified three levels of moral development or reasoning. The first level is pre-conventional morality, and it contains two stages. At the pre-conventional level, one does not have a personal code of morality. Instead, our moral code is formed by the standards of adults in our environment and the consequences of adhering to or breaking their rules. This stage is prevalent in children, but can be seen even in older youth and in some cases, adults. The two stages in Level one are: Obedience and Punishment Orientation and Individualism and Exchange. In the first stage an individual is good to avoid being punished. In the second stage, the person recognizes...
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...Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Early childhood is not only a period of amazing physical growth, it is also a time of remarkable mental development. Cognitive abilities associated with memory, reasoning, problem-solving and thinking continue to emerge throughout childhood. When it comes to childhood cognitive development, it would be impossible to avoid mentioning the work of psychologist Jean Piaget. After receiving his doctoral degree at age 22, Jean Piaget began a career that would have a profound impact on both psychology and education. Through his work with Alfred Binet, Piaget developed an interest in the intellectual development of children. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."Piaget created a theory of cognitive development that described the basic stages that children go through as they mentally mature. He believed that children are like "little scientists," actively trying to make sense of the world rather than simply soaking up information passively. Schemas One of the key concepts in Piaget's theory is the use of schemas. According to Piaget,schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help people organize and interpret information. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to or completely change previously existing schemas. For example, a young...
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...Lawrence Kohlberg laid the groundwork for the current debate within psychology on moral development. He proposed that children form ways of thinking through their experiences which include understandings of moral concepts such as justice, rights, equality and human welfare. Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment beyond the ages. He determined that the process of attaining moral maturity took longer and was more gradual than other studies have shown. Kohlberg identified six stages of moral grouped into three major levels. Each level represented a fundamental shift in the social-moral perspective of the individual. At the first level, the preconventional level, a person's moral judgments are characterized by a individual perspective. Within this level, a Stage 1 they focused on avoiding breaking rules that are backed by punishment, obedience for its own sake and avoiding the physical consequences of an action to persons and property. At Stage 2 there is the early emergence of moral reciprocity. The Stage 2 focused on the value of an action. Reciprocity is of the form, "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." The Golden Rule becomes, "If someone hits you, you hit them back." At Stage 2 one follows the rules only when it is to someone's immediate interests. What is right is what's fair in the sense of an equal exchange, a deal, an agreement. At Stage 2 there is an understanding that everybody has his own interest to pursue and these conflict, so that right is...
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...Outline and evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (8+16 marks) Lawrence Kohlberg was influenced by Piaget’s theory of moral development where he also believed that the moral reasoning of children changes over time; he also used moral dilemmas to gather insight into the types of reasoning used by people as they mature. Kohlberg proposed six separate stages of moral development which he grouped together into three levels with the key points of this theory being that the stages are universal and invariant-people everywhere go through the same stages in the same order, each new stage represents a more equilibrated form of moral understanding resulting in a more logically consistent and morally mature form of understanding., each stage forms an organised whole-a qualitatively different pattern of moral understanding that is applied across all situations, and that moral maturity is achieved through biological maturation, disequilibrium, and gains in perspective taking. The first level is known as the pre-conventional level where children accept the rules of authority figures and judge actions by their consequences; actions that result in punishments are bad and those that bring rewards are good. Stage 1 of this level is the punishment and obedience orientation where this style of morality ignores the intentions behind a behaviour and focuses on obeying rules that enforced by punishment. The second stage to this level is the instrumental purpose orientation where children...
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...initially comprehend the definition of adolescence. Adolescence is defined as “the transitional period between puberty and adulthood in human development.” Two different developments occurring during this period are cognitive and emotional developments, both of which can be associated with developmental psychological theories. Cognitive development is one type of development occurring during adolescence, related to the way in which an adolescent thinks. Post-conventional moral reasoning, according to Lawrence Kohlberg, is associated with the cognitive development in adolescence. During this stage, societal rules and conventions move from an authoritative point of view to being seen with relativity and subjectivity. Post-conventional moral reasoning is integral to the development of an adolescent as it marks the realisation of independence in society, the precedence of an individual’s own thought, and the strengthening of one’s own principles of morality and reasoning. This means that a growing sense of independence and subjectivity is established within the adolescent, integral to adulthood later on in life. Emotional development is another type of development taking place throughout adolescence. Sigmund Freud established five (5) stages of emotional development known as the physosexual stages of development. The stage of this development, relevant to adolescence is Freud’s fifth stage, known as the genital stage. During this stage, adolescents focus their sexual urges to people...
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...The dispute between Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan influenced the subject of moral development following Gilligan’s 1982 book, “In a Different Voice,” one of the first to question male-centered psychological research. The distinction between Kohlberg and Gilligan comes down to whether males and females define “morality” differently. Men focusing on justice concerns, according to Kohlberg, and females more focused on caring and relationship needs, according to Gilligan. Theories on how people grow morally became the center of attention of psychology when Jean Piaget first studied how people's reasoning and logical skills evolve throughout their lifetime. Kohlberg liked Piaget’s approach and his next step was to perform research studies in the 1960s, he used the concluding data to develop a model of six “universal” stages through which individuals develop morally. By the late 1970s, his representation of moral development was the dominant view. But females constantly achieved Stage 3 when tested with his model, while men constantly scored at Stages 4 and 5. Gilligan, an old- student of Kohlberg’s, observed that the research and data was based off of tests performed on boys only, and argued whether women were really “morally inferior,” as test scores suggested. So, putting together her own research, she created an alternative model. The dispute mainly focuses around Gilligan’s statement that female psychology and values, including how women come to define morality, contrast...
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... reference to any aspect of Childhood Development and Educational Psychology, critically discuss what you think will be the major challenges to you as a teacher in the South African context and reflect on your own development as a learner in relation to the theory; • Developmental Stages – Piaget – Erikson – Kohlberg The way in which teachers are educated and supported to meet the challenges of the 21st century has huge influence on their ability to manage their classroom dynamics. Thus teachers need to engage with resources that enable them to provide substantial attention to learners, learning, and human development. Knowledge of the domain of educational psychology is a central resource to the teaching enterprise and to the preparation of teachers. Teacher who have knowledge of the psychology of learning, development, and instruction are better able to facilitate the learning and development of each individual student as they possess a broad and deep understanding of children, the subjects they teach, the nature of learning and schooling, and the world around them. As a student teacher specializing in the foundation phase of learning I have decided to investigate several aspects of Childhood Development and Educational Psychology. Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg are well known educational psychology theorists that...
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...Analysis DEP2004 16 September 2014 Developmental Theory Analysis Moral development is an aspect of a person’s overall development that occurs over the course of a lifetime. There have been a number of theories that describe how and when moral development occurs in individuals; however, a theory that has become well known and widely accepted in the field of student affairs as well as psychology is Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development. Lawrence Kohlberg was a developmental theorist of the mid-twentieth century who is best known for his specific and detailed theory of children's moral development. His work continues to be influential today and contemporary research has generally supported his theory. He believed his stages of moral development to be universal. This paper explores the strengths, weaknesses, and research of what others had to say about this theory. The many strengths of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development include when a person reaches adulthood, they should have a good idea about the personal and social behavior. It also examines the ability to test and individual where they are in their moral development along with offering a structure for creating “just communities,” both within and outside of student affairs. It also focuses on educating young adults and their sense of intellectual and moral development. There are also several weaknesses to Kohlberg’s theory. One states that it was originally...
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...Brooke Armstrong M. Lakin - Child Development Period 2 October 7, 2015 Moral Development Moral development is the growth of how one may incorporate wise decision making, and a knowledge of right from wrong. This is one of the most important parts of developing because if you don’t know which decision is right or wrong, good or bad, you may make the wrong decision ending up with serious consequences. Also, moral development encompasses more than knowing right from wrong. It is also about showing others respect and treating them how you want to be treated. A big part of parenting is teaching respect and good decision making because they are key skills in maturing and learning how to live in the real world through the developing years. A psychologist of the name Lawrence Kohlberg formed ideas and stages of moral development according to the age of a child as they are growing. There are three stages; preconventional morality, conventional morality, and postconventional morality. Preconventional is centered around the ages of nine years old and up. This stage states that a child makes their decision based on rewards and punishment, and they also realize that adults have different rules and viewpoints. An example of preconventional morality is a child deciding whether or not to leave their timeout chair based on the punishment that would follow their choice of action. This is an example of preconventional morality because the child thought ahead about what the punishment will...
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...Freud Psychosexual Development In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory, that human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido (sexual energy) that develops in five stages. Each stage – the oral, the anal, thephallic, the latent, and the genital – is characterized by the erogenous zone that is the source of the libidinal drive. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced sexual frustration in relation to any psychosexual developmental stage, he or she would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder. Stages of Development Stage | Age Range | Erogenous zone | Consequences of psychologic fixation | Oral | Birth–1 year | Mouth | Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils, etc. Orally Passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual practices[4] Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible, immature, manipulativepersonality. | Anal | 1–3 years | Bowel and bladderelimination | Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, or excessively neat Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized, coprophiliac | Phallic | 3–6 years | Genitalia | Oedipus complex (in boys and girls); according to Sigmund Freud.Electra complex (in girls); according to Carl Jung. | Latency | 6–puberty | Dormant sexual feelings | Sexual unfulfillment if fixation occurs in this stage. | Genital | Puberty–death | Sexual interests mature...
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...Kohlberg’s Moral Development Linda Jones University of Phoenix Moral development over an individual’s lifespan remains a major topic of interest for psychologists. There are many theories that have been developed over time but one of the most well-known was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg expanded the work of Jean Piaget and modified it to explain moral reasoning and how it develops. While Piaget described a process of moral development that occurred in only two stages, Kohlberg’s theory grew to include six stages within three different levels. Kohlberg proposed three these six stages and three levels that moral reasoning was a process that continued through an individual’s life. Level 1 of Kohlberg’s Moral Development is Preconventional Morality. It contains two stages. The first stage is Obedience and Punishment. This marks the earliest formation of moral development and is typically seen in young children though adults are also able to express this reasoning. In the first stage the individual sees rules as unchanging and absolute. Obeying the rules becomes a top priority because it is the only way to not be punished (Brans & Blu, 1998). The second stage of Level 1 is called Individualism and Exchange. Children begin to account for their own points of view. They also begin to judge actions based on intent as well as how the action serves the individual (Graham, et al., 2011). Reciprocity begins to be an option but only if the individual’s needs are also...
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