Kohlberg‟s stages of moral development are
places of moral adequacy conceived by Lawrence Kohlberg to explain the
development of moral reasoning. Created while studying psychology at the
University of Chicago, the theory was inspired by the work if Jean Piaget and a
fascination with children‘s reactions to moral dilemmas. He wrote his doctoral
dissertation at the university in 1958, outlining what are now known as his stages
of moral development.
Levels and Stages of Moral Development:
Level 1: Pre-conventional Morality –The first level of morality, pre-conventional morality, can be further divided into two stages: obedience and punishment, and individualism and exchange.
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Stage 1: Punishment- Obedience Orientation
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Related
to Skinner‘s Operational Conditioning, this stage includes the use of
punishment so that the person refrains from doing the action and continues to
obey the rules. For example, we follow the law because we do not want to go to
jail.
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Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation
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In
this stage, the person is said to judge the morality of an action based on how
it satisfies the individual needs of the doer. For instance, a person steals
money from another person because he needs that money to buy food for his
hungry children. In Kohlberg‘s theory, the children tend to say that this
action is morally right because of the serious need of the doer.
Level 2: Conventional Morality - The second level of
morality involves the stages 3 and 4 of moral development. Conventional
morality includes the society and societal roles in judging the morality of an
action.
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Stage 3: Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation
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In
this stage, a person judges an action based on the societal roles and social
expectations before him. This is also known as the ―interpersonal relationships‖ phase. For example,
a child gives away her lunch to a street peasant because she thinks doing so
means being nice.
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Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
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This
stage includes respecting the authorities and following the rules, as well as
doing a person‘s duty. The society is the main consideration of a person at
this stage. For instance, a policeman refuses the money offered to him under
the table and arrests the offender because he believes this is his duty as an
officer of peace and order.
Level 3:
Post-conventional Morality
The post-conventional
morality includes stage 5 and stage 6. This is mainly concerned with the
universal principles that relation to the action done.
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Stage 5 : Social Contract Orientation
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In
this stage, the person is look at various opinions and values of different
people before coming up with the decision on the morality of the action.
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Stage 6 : Universal Ethical Principles Orientation
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The
final stage of moral reasoning, this orientation is when a person considers
universally accepted ethical principles. The judgment may become innate and may
even violate the laws and rules as the person becomes attached to his own
principles of justice.
Carol Gilligan - her fame rests
primarily on in a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women‘s Development
(1982) in which she criticized Kohlberg‘s research on the moral development of
used children. Which at the time showed that girls on average reached a lower
level of moral development than boys did. Giligan pointed out that the
participants in Kohlberg‘s basic study were largely male, and that the scoring
method Kohlberg used tended to a favor a principled way of reasoning that was
more common to boys, over a moral argumentation concentrating on relations,
which would be more amenable to girls. Kohlberg saw reason to revise his
scoring method as a result of Gilligan‘s critique, after which boys and girls
scored evenly.
Her work formed the
basis for what has become known as the ethics of care, a theory of ethics that
contrasts ethics of care to so-called ethics of justice.
The following are
some major factors affecting the social and emotional development of children
and adolescents:
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Media - the main means of mass communication (broadcasting,
publishing, and the Internet), regarded collectively.
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Parenting - is the process of promoting and supporting
the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from
infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child
aside from the biological relationship
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Role Models - is a person whose behavior, example, or
success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people.
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Peer groups - is a social group that consists of
individuals of the same social status who share similar interests and are close
in age.