Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development
For those of you not able to attend the session on Lawrence Kohlberg, go online and research his theory of moral development. Post your understanding of his stages. I have handouts for this section that will be either mailed to you or posted on CAMS.
4 comments:
Level I: Pre-conventional methods: The use of the words "the child is responsive" is so general that the reader may wonder whether the author has and provides evidence that "every" child is responsive. Does he assume that all age groups are concerned, that children of all cultures have been assessed and that a significant number of children have been observed interpreting labels in terms as indicated? If so, how many children, Boys and Girls, Caucasian or from all ethnic groups and/or of different IQ, spoken or written language performance levels, and where have indeed been observed so as to authorize the generalizations stated about the abstract "pre-conventional" level and stages?
Stage 0, 1 and 2: Egocentric judgment, punishment and obedience orientation, instrumental relativist orientation:
Is this verified for a given percentage of various samples of children (How, when, where, by whom) or is this valid for a very large "parent population" including representative samples of children, mixing origin, years of schooling, personal status (orphan, one-parent family, only child and children with brothers and sisters, in the US, Australia, Africa, Japan, China, etc.), health condition, physical and/or mental skills development etc.? When was the data collected, how, by whom, using which methods for observation, recording, analysis and comparisons?
Level II: Conventional level. The author switches from the words "the child is" to the words the individual perceives. Does this include or exclude children of both sexes, all ages, members of all cultural or only a few cultural groups? What year or in what years where the observations gathered, recorded, analyzed and by whom? Would statistics be provided to support the generalizations stated?
Stage 3: The interpersonal concordance or "good boy-nice girl" orientation. Are the concepts of "good boy" and/or "nice girls" observed similarly in most or many cultural environments? Are there significant differences that have been noted in various cultural environments, periods, and locations? Is "meaning well" taken in account in a comparable way in different social settings?
Stage 4: Law and authority possibly refer to an array of beliefs, attitudes, reactions, strength and structure of institutions? What is the data the author refers to when he writes "the individual" is oriented towards authority, etc. Every individual? Everywhere? May "right behavior" refer to very different concepts in diverse places, at different times?
III. Post-conventional, autonomous, or principle level. The emphasis on "legal point of view", "Official morality" might hardly fit the interpretations that are made by individuals, groups, nations. If, on the other hand, the sequence is universal, what is the evidence produced?
Stage 5: The social-contract legalistic orientation (generally with utilitarian overtones). Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society. There is a clear awareness of the relativism of personal values and opinions and a corresponding emphasis upon procedural rules for reaching consensus. Aside from what is constitutionally and democratically agreed upon, right action is a matter of personal values and opinions. The result is an emphasis upon the "legal point of view", but with an additional emphasis upon the possibility of changing the law in terms of rational considerations of social utility (rather than freezing it in terms of stage 4 "law and order"). Outside the legal realm, free agreement, and contract, is the binding element of obligation. The "official" morality of the American government and Constitution is at this stage.
Stage 6: The universal ethical-principle orientation. Right is defined by the decision of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles that appeal to logical comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency. These principles are abstract and ethical (the Golden Rule, the categorical imperative); they are not concrete moral rules like the Ten Commandments. At heart, these are universal principles of justice, of the reciprocity and equality of the human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.
Kohlberg’s theory of human development is based on moral development, generally considered a modification and expansion of Piaget’s work which focused largely on cognitive development. His theory is intended to address how people “structure their experiences of and judgments about the social world.” His theory assumes that moral reasoning develops sequentially through the stages, with some individuals being halted at certain levels and never advancing to the higher levels, but with any advances being in the same progression path. Kohlberg considers three levels, each with two stages. Those three levels are: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional Principled.
Within the first level, Preconventional Morality, we have the stages Heteronomous Morality (sometimes referred to as Obedience and Punishment) and Instrumental Exchange (or Individualism and Exchange). In the first stage, which Kohlberg referred to as a “premoral position”, the primary population is children, as most individuals advance past this stage. During this period, people see rules as fixed and absolute guidelines which must be followed in order to avoid punishment. Actions are considered right or wrong based on whether they result in punishment. Individuals in this stage are looking for physical size or other signs of authority figures who determine right and wrong. In the second stage of this level, Instrumental Exchange, we again primarily find children, but potentially find some older individuals who have not developed beyond this stage (this will be true in all subsequent stages). In this stage, people have become more self-interested or egocentric but have the beginning ability to be aware of and consider the needs and interests of others. Consequently, reciprocation becomes a common mode of activity, but only when it serves one’s own needs.
The second level, Conventional, has the stages of Mutual Interpersonal Relations and Social System & Conscience (Maintaining Social Order). In this third stage of Mutual Interpersonal Relations, the individual is largely focused on living up to expectations and roles defined by society. Kohlberg indicates that this is when the interpesonal stages really develop and he uses some couplets to define this stage such as “I see you seeing me; I see you seeing me seeing you”. The individual typically seeks to confirm, to be “good” in the eyes of others. There is an increased awareness of how the individual’s choices affect others and their subsequent behaviors. In the fourth stage, people move to a greater awareness of society as a whole and an understanding of how their actions affect that larger network/society. The primary focus is on maintaining “law and order”, doing your individual duty for the larger good, and maintaining a healthy respect of authority.
The third level, Postconventional Morality, has the stages of Social Contract/Individual Rights and of Universal Ethical Principles. In that fifth stage people are able to begin accounting for the different opinion, beliefs and values of other people. At this point, people recognize the relativity of most social laws and rules but also the importance of upholding them because of the overall societal impact. In this stage we see people concerned for human rights and balancing the individual or minority rights with the overall good. Stage six builds on the prior stages, and adds the commitment to principles of justice, which are abstract, general guidelines against which to judge rules and laws. Kohlberg states that the ‘golden rule’ is such a principle.
Through these three levels and six stages, Kohlberg defines the progression of moral development, recognizing that individuals may stop development at any of the stages. This theory aligns well with the theories developed by Erikson and Piaget, based on personality and cognition, respectively.
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