kohlberg

kohlberg: sample

• 75 American boys 

• Aged 10-16 at the beginning of the study 

• Aged 22-28 at the end 

• Also studied people from Great Britain, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey 

kohlberg: methodology

• Kohlberg used interviews to assess the moral reasoning of the boys 

• Longitudinal study:  over a period of 12 years, interviews were re done every 3 years 

• Cross cultural comparison 

kohlberg: strength, longitudinal

• Longitudinal: shows moral development over time, same sample of boys helps reduce impact of participant variables 

• HOWEVER, takes too long with a high risk of sample attrition, Kohlberg may lose contact 

kohlberg: strength, cross cultural

• Cross cultural: allows us to see if moral development is universal or culturally relative 

• HOWEVER, Kohlberg took dilemmas and questions that were American and used them in other cultures where they weren’t relevant  

kohlberg: strength, interviews

• Interviews: used open ended questions for boys to give their reasoning on moral dilemmas, resulted in qualitative data allowing Kohlberg to understand the moral reasoning in detail 

• HOWEVER, difficult to analyse the data as boys reasoning for each dilemma may have been different 

kohlberg: weakness, identity

• Boys may struggle to identify with the dilemma, not relevant (steal drugs for wife) - this may mean the answers they give don’t accurately reflect their moral reasoning 

• This lowers the validity of the study 

kohlberg: weakness, hypothetical

• The dilemmas were hypothetical, so it's not true how they might act if this moral dilemma was happening 

• This makes the study lack ecological validity 

kohlberg: ethics, right to withdraw

• May have been given the right to withdraw 

• HOWEVER, some participants may have felt obligated to continue due to longitudinal method, feeling like they must stay for the 12-year duration 

kohlberg: ethics, informed consent

• It's assumed that parents gave informed consent 

• HOWEVER, children can’t give informed consent as they are unlikely to understand the study