KOHLBERG - moral development

Question 1

Background? (stages of moral development)

Answer 1

Level 1 = Pre-mortality
- Stage 1 - fear of punishment
- Stage 2 - personal gain

Level 2 = conventional mortality
- stage 3 - following the majority
- stage 4 - duty

Level 3 = Post-conventional mortality
- Stage 5 - doing what’s right even if it’s against the law
- Stage 6 - inner conscious

Question 2

AIM?

Answer 2

To investigate development of moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood.

Question 3

Method?

Answer 3

interviews

Question 4

Design?

Answer 4

Longitudinal (12yrs, every 3 years)

Question 5

Sample?

Answer 5

75 American boys age 10-16 at the start until age 22-28.
- Also studied boys of other cultures including GB, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey.

Question 6

Procedure? with the 75 american boys.

Answer 6

P’s were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas (short stories) to solve. The stories were to determine each participants stage of moral reasoning for each of the 25 moral concepts.

Question 7

Procedure with the different cultures?

Answer 7

Taiwanese boys = were asked a story involving theft of food.
Other boys = were tested similarly but as a cross-sectional study not longitudinal.

Question 8

Results?

Answer 8

Not all P’s over the study period progressed through all stages and reached stage 6.

Question 9

Cross-cultural findings?

Answer 9

Middle-class children were found to be more advanced in moral judgement than matched lower class children.

Question 10

Conclusions?

Answer 10

Children, adolescents and young adults go through a series of stages in which moral reasoning develops from pre-conventional to conventional to post-conventional.