Kohlberg

Name the cognitive account that Kohlberg based his theory off of.

Jean Piaget put forward a cognitive account of moral development to do with the ways children think and theorised two levels of moral thinking:

1. Heteronomous moral thinking weighs the outcome of the action to determine how bad it is.

2. Autonomous moral reasoning takes into account the intent of the person committing the action.

What was the aim of this study?

To investigate whether his theory about moral development progressing through six distinct stages is backed up by evidence.

Describe the US sample.

75 boys aged 10-16 until they were 22-28 years old, so the same boys were followed for 12 years.

Summarise the procedure.

1. Every boy was presented with moral dilemmas every 3 years.

2. Using the answers the boys gave, Kohlberg ranked them in six categories (1 being least morally developed and 6 being the most morally developed) if about 50% of their responses to any of these moral concepts fall into that stage.

3. This formed his theory of stages of moral development.

How and why was the American part of Kohlberg's study longitudinal?

Since he spent a long period of time (12 years) looking at the same boys.

Name all the stages of moral development.

Pre-conventional

1. Orientation towards punishment - well behaved but able to behave immorally if authority structure is missing

2. Self-interest orientation- behaves self-centred, doing what benefits self

Conventional

3. Good boy/girl orientation- seeking approval from others and considers intent of act

4. Orientation towards authority, fixed rules and social order- sees right behaviour as duty to show respect and maintain social order

Post-conventional

5. Social contract orientation- does what's right based on law and personal values and opinions, sees laws as changeable

6. Universal ethical principles- based judgement on universal human rights of justice, equality, reciprocity and respect for the individual

What were Kohlberg's conclusions?

• Stages follow an invariant developmental sequence (come one at a time and always same order)

• All movement us forward in sequence, doesn't skip steps

• Nature of sequence isn’t affected by widely varying social, cultural or religious conditions, its universal

• Moral thought behaves like other thought with each step of development being a better cognitive organisation than the one before it

Evaluate ethics.

Upheld

• Consent

• Right to withdrawal

• Protection from harm

Broken

• Informed consent

• Deception

• Confidentiality (partially)

• Protection from harm

• Debrief

Evaluate reliability.

Internal

• Can't be standardised since took a long time but research was kept similar for each participant so can be replicable e.g. same time period, same dilemmas etc.

External

• Large 75 sample

• Includes various other countries such as Taiwan, Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia, Canada and the UK

Evaluate validity

Construct

• Could've caught on to the study's aim and started to behave in a way they think they're supposed to

• Could be influenced by upbringing

• Might not want to participate so give inaccurate answers

• BUT didn’t really know the aim

Population

• Lacks girls

• Lacks individuals younger than 10 and older than 28

• BUT different countries used

Ecological

• Aren't in actual dilemmas themselves so can't be certain about their answers

• Not normal to be asked every 3 years different dilemmas

• BUT in real life they might've faced similar dilemmas that'd help shape their answers

Evaluate ethnocentrism.

Low

• Said he used various other boys from different countries (6)

• US is very diverse and he could've used various states

High

• Results only shown for US group

• Only seemed to have done a longitudinal study with US group

• Participants from other countries might not be able to understand the procedure

What debates link to this study?

Freewill-Determinism

• Moral reasoning develops in a set pattern, we don’t choose our stage but move through stages as we grow and learn.

Nature-Nurture

• Nurture as moral development happens through interaction with the environment- particularly through education and experience.