Moral Development

1
Moral Development

• The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for
  example, has concluded on the basis of over
  twenty years of research that there is a sequence
  of six identifiable stages in the development of
  a persons ability to deal with moral issues.

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• Kohlberg grouped these stages of moral
  development into three levels each containing
  two stages. The sequence of six stages can be
  summarized as follows

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• LEVELONEPRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL
•  At the first two stages, the child is able to
  respond to rules and social expectations and can
  apply the labels good, bad, right, and
  wrong. These rules however, are seen as
  something externally imposed on the self.

4

• Right and wrong are interpreted in terms of the
  pleasant or painful consequences of actions or in
  terms of the physical power of those who set the
  rules. The child sees situations only from his
  or her own point of view, and since the child
  does not yet have the ability to identify with
  others to any great extent, the primary
  motivation is self-interest.

5

• Stage One Punishment And Obedience
  OrientationAt this stage the physical
  consequences of an act wholly determine the
  goodness or badness of that act. The childs
  reasons for doing he right thing are to avoid
  punishment or to defer to the superior physical
  power of authorities. There is little awareness
  that others have needs and desires similar to
  ones own.
•  

6

• Stage Two Instrument and Relativity
  OrientationAt this stage right actions are
  those that can serve as instruments for
  satisfying the childs own needs or the needs of
  those for whom the child cares. The child is now
  aware that others have needs and desires similar
  to his or her own and begins to defer to them in
  order to get them to do what he or she wants .

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• LEVEL TWO CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
•  Maintaining the expectations of ones own
  family, peer group, or nation is seen as valuable
  in its own right, regardless of the consequences.
  The person does not merely conform to
  expectations but exhibits loyalty to the group
  and its norms.

8

• The person is now able to see situations from the
  point of view of others in the group and assumes
  that everyone is similar. The person is
  motivated to conform to the groups norms and
  subordinates the needs of the individual to those
  of the group.
•  

9

• Stage ThreeInterpersonal Concordance Orientation
• Good behavior is living up to what is expected by
  those for whom one feels loyalty, affection, and
  trust, such as family and friends. Right action
  is conformity to what is generally expected in
  ones role as a good son, daughters, brother,
  friend, etc. Doing what is right is motivated by
  the need to be a good person in ones own eyes
  and in the eyes of others.

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• Stage four Law and Order Orientation.
•  Right and wrong are determined by loyalty to
  ones own nation. Laws are to be upheld except
  where they conflict with other fixed social
  duties. The person is now able to see other
  people as parts of a larger social system that
  defines individual roles and obligations, and he
  or she can separate the norms generated by this
  system from his or her interpersonal
  relationships.

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• LEVEL THREE POSTCONVENTIONAL, AUTONOMOUS, OR
  PRINCIPLED LEVEL
• At these stages the person no longer simply
  accepts the values and forms of the groups to
  which he or she belongs. Instead the person now
  tries to see situations from appoint of view that
  impartially takes everyones interests into
  account.

12

• The person questions the laws and values that
  society has adopted and redefines them in terms
  of self-chosen universal moral principles that
  can be justified to any rational individual. The
  proper laws and values are those to which any
  reasonable person would be motivated to commit
  himself or herself, whatever place the person
  holds in society and whatever society he or she
  belongs to.

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• Stage five Social Contract Orientation.
•  The person is aware that people hold a variety
  of conflicting personal views and opinions, and
  emphasizes fair ways of reaching consensus by
  agreement, contract, and due process. The person
  believes that all values and norms are relative
  and that apart from this democratic consensus,
  all should be tolerated.
•  

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• State Six Universal Ethical Principles
  Orientation.
•  Right action is defined in terms of universal
  principles chosen because of their logical
  comprehensiveness, their universality, and their
  consistency. These ethical principles are not
  concrete like the Ten Commandments but abstract
  universal principles dealing with justice,
  societys welfare, the equality of human rights,
  respect for the dignity of individual human
  beings, and with the idea that persons are ends
  in themselves and must be treated as such..

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• Kohlbergs theory is important because it helps
  us understand in detail how individuals develop
  their moral capacities or virtues through the
  internalization of the moral standards prevalent
  in their communities. It also reveals how we
  become increasingly sophisticated and critical in
  our understanding of the moral standards.