Kohlberg Hersh

Moral Development: A Review of the Theory

Authors

  • Lawrence Kohlberg

    • Professor of Education

    • Director, Center for Moral Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Richard H. Hersh

    • Professor of Education

    • Associate Dean, Teacher Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon

Purpose of the Article

  • The article serves to elaborate on the application of moral development theory to teaching practices.

  • Provides a comprehensive review of key concepts in moral development literature, serving as an introductory context for the corresponding articles in this issue of Theory into Practice.

  • Acknowledges that schooling inherently involves moral issues, and these issues are pervasive in teaching content and processes.

Moral Education and Schools

  • It is crucial to recognize the role of schools as significant moral education institutions, which is often overlooked, leading to an assumption of value neutrality in education.

  • Schools have traditionally been viewed as institutions for socialization, leading to the use of terms like socialization, acculturation, and citizenship that obscure the moral implications of education.

  • The nature of value education in schools typically lacks clarity on moral principles and leaves unresolved the content of moral development.

  • Discussion of moral outcomes must consider varying definitions of the 'good' and 'right' because all individuals can be seen as "socialized" within their social environments, yet the principles may vary greatly.

  • Misconceptions around moral education often lead educators to rely on the teaching of a fixed set of virtues that are culturally bound and potentially ineffective in fostering moral development.

Cognitive-Moral Development

  • Moral development, as defined by Jean Piaget and refined by Lawrence Kohlberg, refers not to a mere increase in cultural values but to transformations in an individual's reasoning structure.

  • Distinguishes between content (varied cultural values) and form (universal structures of moral judgment), emphasizing the need to analyze moral reasoning systematically across cultures.

Stages of Moral Development

Overview of Stages

  • Stages are characterized by:

    1. Stages as organized systems: Thought is consistent across moral judgments.

    2. Invariant sequence: Progression through stages is fixed and cannot be reversed, except under extreme trauma.

    3. Hierarchical integration: Higher stages encompass and integrate lower stages of reasoning.

Detailed Definition of Moral Stages

  1. Preconventional Level: Focused on adherence to cultural labels of good and bad, grounded in physical consequences and power dynamics.

    • Stage 1: Punishment-and-obedience orientation

      • Goodness or badness depends on physical consequences of actions (avoidance of punishment).

    • Stage 2: Instrumental-relativist orientation

      • Good action satisfies own needs and sometimes those of others; relations are transactional.

  2. Conventional Level: Emphasis on conformity to social expectations and group loyalty.

    • Stage 3: *Interpersonal concordance orientation (