The Kohlberg ReportThe Kohlberg ReportThe Kohlberg ReportThe Kohlberg ReportMoral DevelopmentMoral Development

Susan Galvin, Elizabeth Daniel, Jamie DerrySusan Galvin, Elizabeth Daniel, Jamie Derry

Background• Born in 1927

• Grew up in Bronxville New York• High school at Andover Academy in

Massachusetts• Became a Second Engineer on a freighter

carrying refugees from Europe to Israel• Was captured and held in a detention center

in Cyprus • Enrolled at University of Chicago in 1948

• Earned Bachelors Degree in One Year• Graduate work in Psychology

• Began interviewing Children and Adolescents on Moral Issues

• First Rendition of new stage theory in 1958

Influences• Piaget

• His own experiences in the U.S. Merchant Marine

Theory of Moral Development

• Pre-Conventional• 0.)Egocentric Judgment• (What do I like/want to do?)• 1.) Obedience and punishment Orientation• (How can I avoid punishment?)• 2.)Self-interest Orientation• (What’s in it for me?)• Conventional• 3.)Interpersonal Accord and Conformity• (Social Norms) & (The Good Boy/Girl Attitude)• 4.) Authority & Social-Order Maintaining Orientation• (Law and Order Morality)• Post-Conventional

5.)Social Contract Orientation• (What’s the right thing for everyone?)• 6.) Universal Ethical Principles• (Principled Conscience)

Critiques• It does not do justice to the affective aspects of moral

development. • Pays more attention to the cognitive aspects of moral

development, with the affective aspects receiving secondary treatment.

• Some critics claim that the use of hypothetical situations skews the results because it measures abstract rather than concrete reasoning. When children (and some adults) are presented with situations out of their immediate experience, they turn to rules they have learned from external authorities for answers, rather than to their own internal voice. Therefore, young children base their answers on rules of "right" and "wrong" they have learned from parents and teachers (Stages 1 and 2 according to Kohlberg's theory).

• In general, set expectations of children’s moral development in regard to age.

Classroom Applications

Encourage individuals to develop to the next stage of moral reasoning-“moral dilemmas”- equilibration

“What if…?” discussions

References• http://social.jrank.org/pages/351/Kohlberg-Lawrence-1927-19

87.html• http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm• www.gse.harvard.edu• www.commons.activemath.org/.../pics/jean_piaget.jpg• http://www.springerlink.com/content/h271g65030n56362/• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2602/is_0003/

ai_2602000337• http://www.xenodochy.org/ex/lists/moraldev.html• Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. Slavin, Robert

E.• Kohlberg, L. & Turiel, E. (1971). Moral development and moral

education. In G. Lesser, ed. Psychology and educational practice. Scott Foresman.