AP PSYCH 6.6 Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg

Kohlberg excecuted a longitudinal study from 1958 to 1978
He used males ages 10-16 at the time the study commenced
He sampled 72 of them
When he found was three stages of morality with two stages in each
- He identified a consistent progression through the stages
- Economic class affected the speed of progression

Right and wrong is determined by rewards and punishments
Stage 1 involves punishment and obedience
- Whatever leads to punishment is wrong
Stage 2 develops the additional idea of rewards
- The right way to behave is the way that is rewarded

The opinions of others begin to matter
People begin avoiding blame and seeking approval
Stage 3 sees the development of good intentions
- Behaving in ways that conform to the good behaviors that others expect of us
Stage 4 involves obedience to authority
- There is now an importance of “doing one’s duty”

Abstract notions of justice develop
The rights of others can override obedience to laws or rules
Stage 5 differentiates between moral and legal rights
- There is a recognition that rules should sometimes be broken
Stage 6 involves individual principles of conscience
- Takes into account the likely views of everyone affected by a moral decision

Recall that validity is essentially accuracy
We should analyze if Kohlberg’s test was constructed in a way to provides an accurate measurement of morality
We should also question if the test questions predict principled moral behavior
- Does the test really determine if people would make those decisions in real life?
There may have been a confounding factor in that participants answered in a way that they felt was expected of them
- Additionally, participants could have answered knowing that they were ‘supposed’ to answer a particular way, even if they felt the opposite

Gilligan had a number of criticisms of Kohlberg’s study
She decided to conduct her own study, sampling only women
She found that Kohlberg, in excluding women, ruined his generalizability
Gilligan determined that the results Kohlberg found were not generalizable to women
Kohlberg was working on the basis of logic, social organizations, and justice
- He used this because that is how men tend to evaluate moral decisions: by what is expected of them and what benefits them
Gilligan took an alternate approach of interpersonal relationships
- Women tend to take a more empathetic look at the situation
- Women are more likely to disregard institutions and what they are told/expected to do in pursuit of being moral