Kohlberg’s Moral Development Essay Sample free essay sample

Is it morally acceptable to steal nutrient from the wealthy to feed the hapless? This was the type of inquiry Lawrence Kohlberg. an American-born Harvard Professor. would inquire of his research topics. Dr. Kohlberg was fascinated by the cognitive development work proposed by Swiss theoretician Jean Piaget ( Long. n. d. ) . â€Å"Kohlberg’s work AIDSs both our apprehension of the ways in which persons make moral determinations. and demands that we use a more discerning system to review the systems of justness that are in topographic point in our societies† provinces Long. One of Kohlberg’s best-known quandary is the Heinz Dilemma ( Berk. 2010 ) . Mr. Heinz cared for his cancer-ridden married woman by supplying her with the proper medicine needed. He discovered the one medical specialty that would greatly profit his married woman was outside of his fiscal capableness. The pharmacist responsible for making the medical specialty was non interested in assisting Mr. We will write a custom essay sample on Kohlberg’s Moral Development Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Heinz obtain the medical specialty and was wittingly bear downing ten times the sum required to bring forth the medical specialty. After Mr. Heinz had borrowed all the money he could and exhausted all of his resources he broke into the pharmaceutics and stole the medical specialty needed to salvage the life of his married woman ( Berk. 2010 ) . Long provinces. â€Å"Using the Dilemma of Heniz. Kohlberg completes his doctorial thesis research on the moral development of kids. and proposes his six stages† . The following are basic illustrations of Kohlberg’s six phases ( Long. n. d. ) : Level 1 – Pre-conventional Morality ( ages 4-10 ) Phase 1: I do non state bad words because if I do. mommy will acquire huffy at me. Stage 2: For a cooky. I will pick up my playthings.Degree 2 – Conventional Morality ( ages 10-13 )Phase 3: I do non eat in category because my instructor does non like it. Stage 4: I do non speak during a fire drill because that is one of the regulations. Level 3 – Post-conventional ( adolescence to maturity ) Phase 5: I pay revenue enhancements because it is the jurisprudence. Phase 6: I pay revenue enhancements non because it is the jurisprudence. but because it is the right thing to make. Long besides goes onto portion that ; â€Å"Kohlberg based his theory on interviews that he conducted in Chicago with 72 Caucasic male young persons. mostly lower and in-between category. He subsequently added more diverseness to his sample. including delinquents. females. younger kids and young person raised in other civilizations. † The three parts that Kohlberg made in order to apprehension of moral development are preconventional morality. conventional morality. and postconventional morality ( DeHart. Sroufe. A ; Cooper. 2004. p. 481 ) . Preconventional Morality is flat one. Moral logical thinking in immature people has non started yet. Stage one obeisance and penalty orientation. the immature grownup is concerned with what is right and incorrect. A person’s motivations do non count. Young grownups have no construct of any type of pro and anti-social behaviour. Shaffer ( 2004 ) states the kid is more concerned with the penalty they would have. The worse the penalty for the act is. the more ‘bad’ the act is perceived to be. Stage two self –interest orientation with older kids. which make judgements based on what gives the immature kid pleasance. If a wages is given they behave. They still focus chiefly on the earnestness of the effects but start to see moral issues. Kohlberg calls degree one thought â€Å"preconventional† as kids do non yet have voices in society and morality is external to them. Level two. phases three is the degree of conventional morality. The kid or adolescent start to judge the morality of his or her actions in relation to the blessing of his or her household. and society. Kohlberg ( 1973 ) suggests they make determinations based on what will do them popular and seek to populate up to the good male child or good miss outlook. The following phase four is keeping the societal order. obeying the Torahs. and societal conventions. Moral logical thinking in phase four is therefore beyond the demand for single blessing exhibited in phase three ; society must larn to exceed single demands. The degree of postconventional morality is the person’s position of what is right and incorrect. Realization that persons are separate entities from society now becomes salient. At phase five people begin to inquire â€Å"What makes a good society? † Young grownups begin to believe about society in a really theoretical manner. They are interested in the benefits of the community as a whole instead than the person. Anyone who has reached phase six will hold developed a set of personal moralss ; they will hold Universal Principles and work towards the construct of a good society. Laws are valid merely in so far as they are grounded in justness and that a committedness to justness carries with it an duty to disobey unfair Torahs. Colby et al 1983 provinces it appears that people seldom if of all time reach phase six of Kohlberg’s theoretical account. There have been many unfavorable judgments of Kohlberg’s theoretical account. Some critics claim the usage of moral quandary steps abstract instead than concrete concluding. ( Colby A ; Kohlberg. 1987. pg. 4 ) . Woolfolk ( 1993 ) states other critics wonder if the concluding a individual uses should be plenty. Other psychologists have argued that Kohlberg’s theory is susceptible to impression direction and that people make different sorts of moral judgements to affect different audiences. Johnson and Hogan ( 1981 ) cited in Kreb s and Denton ( 2005 ) . Even though there have been many unfavorable judgments of Kohlberg’s work Kohlberg undertook research to back up his findings. Kohlberg tested a cross-sectional sample of 7- . 10- . 13-. and 16-year-old American males. The consequences confirmed that with increasing age participants tended to make higher phases and there was small grounds of them jumping phase. ( Durkin. 1995 ) . Kohlberg’s theory does hold restrictions though. The influence of situational factors on moral judgements indicates that like Piaget’s cognitive phases. Kohlberg’s moral phases are slackly organized and overlapping ( Berk. 2010 ) . His theory focuses on the moral quandary between right and incorrect. and the reverberations involved with doing the incorrect pick. Justice may non be the lone facet of moral logical thinking. Critics have pointed out that Kohlberg’s theory of moral development overemphasizes the construct as justness when doing moral picks. Factors such as compassion. lovingness and other interpersonal feelings may play an of import portion in moral logical thinking. Another restriction is the overemphasis on Western doctrine. Some critics argue that Kohlberg’s theory merely entails Western thought and excludes Eastern attitudes and beliefs. Eastern civilizations may hold different moral mentalities that Kohlberg’s theory does non account for ( Cherry. 2012 ) . Traditional Eastern small town civilizations usually have a different moral development that stops at Stage 3 of Kohlberg’s theory. His theory besides draws unfavorable judgment because it implies the danger of people puting their ain rules above society and the jurisprudence. It may be that many psychologists react to Kohlberg in a similar manner. and that this reaction underlies many of the arguments over the scientific virtues of his research. Besides. harmonizing to psychologist Carol Gilligan. Kohlberg’s theory is sex-biased because it was derived entirely from interviews with male topics. Males tend to hold advanced moral idea that revolves around regulations. rights. and abstract rules ; while Gilligan believes feminine morality emphasizes an â€Å"ethic of care† that Kohlberg’s system devalues. Despite all of the restrictions and unfavorable judgments that have transpired over the old ages since Kohlberg’s theory was tested. the theory has generated a batch of idea and expanded on Piaget’s phases of moral judgement. The theory may besides give penetration into how the great moral philosophers may hold constructed their ain theories from ages ago. Carol Gilligan is an internationally acclaimed psychologist. and author whose work has focused on sex differences on moral logical thinking. Gilligan’s theory poses a major challenge to Kohlberg’s theory of moral logical thinking by presenting a feminist position of moral development ( Kretchmar. 2008 ) . Kohlberg’ findings had shown that the mean female attained a moral judgement evaluation of phase three. while males scored at a degree four. Kohlberg besides agreed that adolescent males were more likely to travel on to the post-conventional phase. Gilligan suggested that Kohlberg’s findings revealed gender prejudice. and non that females were less mature than male childs as Kohlberg suggested. Harmonizing to Carol Gilligan. work forces tend to organized societal relationships in a type of hierarchy theoretical account while following moral rights. Womans on the other manus value more interpersonal relationships. attention. sensitiveness. and duty to people. Gilligan’s purpose was non to knock the cogency of Kohlberg’s work but to incorporate both principals. sensitiveness and attention with justness and rights. Gilligan argued at merely by incorporating both male ( justness ) and adult females ( attention ) we will be able to recognize our full human pote ncy in moral development ( Kretchmar. 2008 ) . MentionsBerk. L. E. ( 2010 ) . Development Through the Lifespan ( 5th ed. ) . Retrieved from University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.Cherry. Kendra. ( 2012 ) . Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development. Phases of Moral Development. Retrieved fromhypertext transfer protocol: //psychology. about. com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg. htm Colby. A. A ; Kohlberg. L. ( 1987 ) . The Measurement of Moral Judgment DeHart. G. B. . Sroufe. L. A. . A ; Cooper. R. G. ( 2004 ) . Child development: Its nature and class ( fifth erectile dysfunction. ) . New York. New york: McGraw-Hill. Kretchmar. J. ( 2008 ) . Moral Development. Moral Development-Reseach Starters Education. ( 1 ) . 12.Long. R. ( n. d. ) . Who is Lawrence Kohlberg. Retrieved fromhypertext transfer protocol: //relong. myweb. uga. edu/Santrock. J. W. ( 2008 ) . Lifespan Development ( 11th ed. ) . New York. New york: McGraw Hill.