KOHLBERG LEVELS

Preconventional Reasoning

At this level, children interpret good and bad in terms of external rewards and punishments

Conventional reasoning

Individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are the standards of others, such as parents or the laws of society

Postconventional reasoning

individuals engage in deliberate checks on their reasoning to ensure that it meets high ethical standards.

justice perspective

A moral perspective that focuses on the rights of the individual and in which individuals independently make moral decisions.

care perspective

The moral perspective of Carol Gilligan, which views people in terms of their connectedness with others and emphasizes interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.

Social conventional reasoning

focuses on conventional rules that have been established by social consensus in order to control behavior and maintain the social system. The rules themselves are arbitrary, such as raising your hand in class before speaking, using one staircase at school to go up and the other to go down, not cutting in front of someone standing in line to buy movie tickets, and stopping at a stop sign when driving.

moral reasoning

focuses on ethical issues and rules of morality.Not arbitrary. They are obligatory, widely accepted, and some what impersonal (Turiel & Gingo, 2017). Rules pertaining to lying, cheating, stealing, and physically harming another person are moral rules because violation of these rules affronts ethical standards that exist apart from social consensus and convention.

domain theory of moral development

states that there are different domains of social knowledge and reasoning, including moral, social conventional, and personal domains

Moral Exemplars

are individuals who live morally outstanding lives, consistently acting with moral virtue and commitment

Moral Character

involves having the strength and motivation to consistently do what is right, especially when it's hard.

Moral Identity

refers to the extent to which being moral is central to a person’s self-concept.