Kohlberg 1968 - child as moral philosopher

what are the 3 stages of moral development

• pre conventional

• conventional

• post conventional

what are the 2 stages within the pre-conventional stage?

1) obedience vs punishment

2) Individualism + Exchange

what are the 2 stages within the conventional stage

3) Good Boy + Good Girl

4) Law + Order

what are the 2 stages within the post conventional stage

5) social contract

6) universal ethical principle

What was the methodology of Kolbergs’s study

• undertook various studies related to moral development using interviews to collect qualitative data

• studied a group of 75 American boys aged 10-16 and then 22-28 (longitudinal study)

• he also studied people in Britain ,Canada, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey (cross - cultural comparison)

what was the procedures of Kohlberg’s study?

• to asses moral development, he created 9 Hypothetical moral dilemmas (such as Heinz dilemma)

• each one presented conflict between 2 moral issues

• each participant was asked to discuss 3 of these dilemmas and then was asked a set of 10 or more open ended questions such as:

  • should Heinz steal the drug? Why or Why not?

  • if yes: if Heinz doesn’t love his wife, should he steal the drug for his wife? why or why not?

  • if not: does it make a difference whether or not he loves his wife? why or why not?

  • suppose the person dying isn’t your wife but a stranger. should Heinz steal the drug

• the boys’ answers were analyzed + common themes were identified so that stage theory could be bade. they were reinterviwed every 3 years

what was the Heinz dilema

• a women was near death from a rare type of cancer

• there was one drug that the doctor though might save her - type of radium that a pharmacist in the same town discovered

• drug was expensive to make but he was charging it 10x its manufacturing cost

• the sick women’s husband, Heinz went to everyone he knew to borrow money and only got half of what it cost

• he told the pharmacist his wife was dying and for him to sell it to him or let him pay the rest later but he denied and said hes gonna make money from it

• heinz got desperate and stole the drug for his wife

what were the findings of Kolberg’s study

• younger children thought at the preconventional stage and as they got older their reasons for moral decisions become less focused on themselves + more on going good as relationship with others are important

• results in Mexico + Taiwan were the same except that development was a little slower

what were the conclusions of Kolberg’s study

concluded the key features of moral development are:

• stages are invariant + universal - people everywhere go through same stages in order

• each new stage represents a more balance form of moral understanding

moral discussion classes can be used to help children develop their moral thinking → discussion between those in stage 3 and 4 will help stage 3 child develop.

Evaluation: Sampling

• based on interviews with boys → gender biased + restricted to one type of morality

• Gilligan 1982 suggested that male morality (Justice) is quite different to female (Caringness)

• females tend to be more focused on relationships rather than justice when making moral decisions

• many see giligans research to be more of an extension of Kolberg’s study

Evaluate: External Validity

• Gilligan criticized Kolberg’s work as not based on real life decisions

• the moral dilemmas were hypothetical situations which made sense to young children

• Gilligan’s own research involved interviewing people about own moral decisions - e.g. whether to have an abortions

Evaluation: Social Desirability Bias

• disadvantage of self report → social desirabity bias

• described their behavior as idealistically rather than what they will actually do

  • Kohlberg was asking how people think than what they would actually do

• predicted those who reason in a more mature way should be inclined to more morally mature behaviors

• when given an opportunity to cheat on test, 15% of college student at post conventional did whereas 70% of those at pre conventional

what is meant by stage 1: obedience vs punishment

ignores the intentions behind a behavior and focuses on obeying rules that are enforced by punishment

what is meant by stage 2: Individualism + Exchange

children view actions as ‘right’ if they satisfy their own needs

what is meant by stage 3: The Good Girl + Good boy

what is right is defined by what is expected of others to appear in a good light

what is meant by the stage 4: Law + Order

marks the shift from defining what is right in terms of role expectations to defining whats right due to norms made by society

what is meant by stage 5: social contruct

sees laws as relative + flexible where they are consistent with individuals right + interest of majority

believes some laws ,ust be brokem to uphold higher moral

what is meant by stage 6: universal ethical principle

morality is defined in terms of self chosen abstract moral principles

laws usually conform to these but where this isnt the case, the individual acts in accordance with their own moral principles - can go against society (nelson mandela, martin luther king)