Kohlberg

Question 1

Methodology

Answer 1

• interviews to collect qualitative data
• study included cross-cultural comparisons and a longitudinal element
• Participants
• group of 75 American boys, 10-16yo and then again 22-28yo

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• assess moral thinking
• created nine hypothetical moral dilemmas - each presented a conflict between two moral issues
• each participant was asked to discuss three of these dilemmas, promptend by a set of ten or more open-ended questions
• Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?
• If respondent in favor of steling ask - If Heinz doesn’t love his wife should he steal the drug for her?
• The boys’ answers were analysed and common themes were identified so that the stage theory could be constructed
• Each boy reinterviewd three years later
• same kind of interview was used with children and adults in other countries

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• Boys answers were analysed and common themes were identified so that the stage theory could be constructed
• stage theory is an account for how behaviour changes at different ages
• Found that younger children thought at the pre-conventional level and as they got older their reasons for moral decisions became less focused on themselves and more focused on doing good because relationships with others are important
• final level of development is related to moral principles
• Results in Mexico and Taiwan were the same except that development was a little slower

Question 4

Conclusions

Answer 4

• Concluded that the key features of moral development are:
• Stages are invarient and universal - people everywhere go through the same stages in the same order
• Each new stage represents a more equilibriated form of moral understanding, resulting in a more logically consistent and morally mature form of understanding

Question 5

Evaluation - Sampling

Answer 5

• Issue = Based on interviews with boys
• Gilligan suggested that male morality might be difference to female morality - based on justice rather than caringness
• Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas more concerned with wrongdoing and therfore to do with justice
• found evidence that women tend to be more focused on relationships than justice when making moral decisions - Kohlberg’s theory is gender-biased

Question 6

Evaluate - External validity

Answer 6

• Lacked external validity
• Gilligan - criticised the research as the evidence was not based on real-life decisions
• they were hypothetical scenarios.

Question 7

Evaluate - social desirability bias

Answer 7

• self-report methods - participants prefer to present themselves in good light
• may describe their moral behaviour idealistically rather than what they would actually do
• asking how people think rather than what they would do - theory is about idealistic moral thinking than about behaviour