Lawrence Kohlberg

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Lawrence Kohlberg

• moral reasoning is the basis for ethical behavior

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Six Stages of Moral Reasoning

• Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
• 1. Obedience and punishment orientation
• (How can I avoid punishment?)
• 2. Self-interest orientation
• (What's in it for me?)
• Level 2 (Conventional)
• 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
• (The good boy/good girl attitude)
• 4. Authority and social-order maintaining
  orientation
• (Law and order morality)
• Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
• 5. Social contract orientation
• 6. Universal ethical principles
• (Principled conscience)

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The Heinz Dilemma

• A woman was near death from a special kind of
  cancer. There was one drug that the doctors
  thought might save her. It was a form of radium
  that a druggist in the same town had recently
  discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but
  the druggist was charging ten times what the drug
  cost him to produce. He paid 200 for the radium
  and charged 2,000 for a small dose of the drug.
  The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone
  he knew to borrow the money, but he could only
  get together about 1,000, which is half of what
  it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was
  dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him
  pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I
  discovered the drug and I'm going to make money
  from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into
  the man's store to steal the drug for his
  wife.Should Heinz have broken into the
  laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or
  why not?5

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Stage one (obedience)

• Heinz should not steal the medicine because he
  will consequently be put in prison which will
  mean he is a bad person. Or Heinz should steal
  the medicine because it is only worth 200 and
  not how much the druggist wanted for it Heinz
  had even offered to pay for it and was not
  stealing anything else.

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Stage two (self-interest)

• Heinz should steal the medicine because he will
  be much happier if he saves his wife, even if he
  will have to serve a prison sentence. Or Heinz
  should not steal the medicine because prison is
  an awful place, and he would probably languish
  over a jail cell more than his wife's death.

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Stage three (conformity)

• Heinz should steal the medicine because his wife
  expects it he wants to be a good husband. Or
  Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing
  is bad and he is not a criminal he tried to do
  everything he could without breaking the law, you
  cannot blame him.

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Stage four (law-and-order)

• Heinz should not steal the medicine because the
  law prohibits stealing, making it illegal. Or
  Heinz should steal the drug for his wife but also
  take the prescribed punishment for the crime as
  well as paying the druggist what he is owed.
  Criminals cannot just run around without regard
  for the law actions have consequences.

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Stage five (human rights)

• Heinz should steal the medicine because everyone
  has a right to choose life, regardless of the
  law. Or Heinz should not steal the medicine
  because the scientist has a right to fair
  compensation. Even if his wife is sick, it does
  not make his actions right.

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Stage six (universal human ethics)

• Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a
  human life is a more fundamental value than the
  property rights of another person. Or Heinz
  should not steal the medicine, because others may
  need the medicine just as badly, and their lives
  are equally significant.

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Assumptions

• Moral judgment is not based on infant development
  but on later cognitive development.
• Morality Justice and fairness. This
  developmental understanding is cognitive not
  emotional.
• Individuals can tell the difference between
  action, intent and consequences.

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Problem of Study

• Study and explain the cognitive ontogeny of moral
  reasoning
• Not interested in
• Immorality
• Forms of jurisprudence (trial by jury)
• Social conformity (obedience, honesty, etc.)

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Method of Study

• Method of Study
• Moral Dilemmas followed by extensive interview
• This was the Piagetian influence
• He believed that Piaget under estimated the
  social context

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Internal Principles

• Cognitive Conflict
• The more experience we have with moral dilemmas
  the more likely we are to discern appropriate
  solutions.
• Cognitive Development
• Moral judgments are a direct relative of the
  cognitive operation from which the individual is
  operating.

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Internal Principles cont.

• Role Taking Ability
• Individuals who are capable of assuming roles
  have a higher potential for moral development.

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Bridge Principles

• Preconventional -
• Stage 1 Personal and Obedience Orientation
• Good or bad depends upon whether a person is
  punished or rewarded -- Spilled Milk dilemma
• Stage 2 Individualistic Morality
• Based upon self wants and needs -- You help me
  and I'll help you

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• Conventional - Fairness
• Stage 3 Interpersonal Relations and Conformity
• Justice is determined by ones peer group and a
  desire to please important people
• Stage 4 Morality and Conscience - Law and order
  
• Fulfilling contractual obligations. Following
  laws because they are necessary for order to be
  maintained.

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• Post Conventional -- Moral Thinking (The Golden
  Rule)
• Stage 5 Morality of Social Contract -
  Individual Rights
• Concern for values and moral issues underlie the
  formation of laws, thus, they may be challenged.
  They still may be obeyed but they may be
  questioned.
• Stage 6 Universal Ethical Principles
• Self Chosen Principles. When laws go against
  these principles it becomes your duty to violate
  them - used by virtually no one -

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Change Mechanism

• Cognitive Conflict
• Through cognitive conflict individuals
  synthesize competing claims, expectations, and
  principles to construct a principle that
  resolves or an least minimizes the conflict. (We
  learn from dilemmas and other views)

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School Applications

• Kohlberg and schools -- Unlike Piaget, Kohlberg
  was interested in how schools could enhance moral
  development.
• It is the process rather than the content of the
  program. Students learn to be more moral by
  listening to others who are.
• Schools which are more democratic (open schools)
  have better results than schools which are more
  traditional.
• Success is more likely at pre-conventional and
  conventional (2,3,4) than at post conventional
  levels. Like formal (consolidated) few people
  reach this stage.