Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is widely known for his proposed stages of moral development; he argued that the development of moral reasoning “is a continual process that occurs throughout the lifespan.” (Cherry). Moreover, Kohlberg’s stages of moral development involve three levels, namely: the preconventional moral reasoning, conventional moral reasoning and postconventional moral reasoning. Each of these levels consists of two stages. Furthermore, we will examine Kohlberg’s stages of moral development by creating a character named Ciara. Ciara is a mischievous, temperamental and aggressive 11-year old who studies at a christian school. Throughout this essay we will see how Ciara’s moral reasoning will evolve. To begin with, we will explain the first level of moral development, which is preconventional moral reasoning. Children’s moral reasoning usually occurs at this level, particularly children who are “10-13 years of age...” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.”). At this level, moral values are influenced by external forces such as the authority; behavior of children depends by their judgments of their actions and direct consequences. “Behaviors that results in punishment are viewed as bad, those that lead to rewards as good.” (Berk 320). Children differentiate right and wrong in terms of what their authority (such as their parents) tell them what is right and wrong by either giving them rewards or punishments because of their behavior. Stage One. Ciara’s advisor notices that she always teases and calls her African - American classmate the ugliest girl in school; as a result, she was sent to her Principal’s office and was faced a serious disciplinary action. If Ciara didn’t tease her classmate (obeyed her schoo... ... middle of paper ... ... Law." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia.com. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. . Berk, Laura E. Exploring Lifespan Development. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon, 2008. Print. Cherry, Kendra. "Moral Development - Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development. "Psychology – Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. About.com. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. "Freedom of Speech." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia.com. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. . “Kohlberg’s Moral Stages.” Haverford.edu. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. “Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.” Pegasus.cc.ucf.edu. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .
For this experiment we asked Norma Tapia to interview her to find out where exactly she lies in Kohlberg and Piagets moral stages. She is a seventeen year old high school senior who
Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his Theory of Moral Development. The method that Kohlberg used was that of “moral dilemmas”. Kohlberg studied Piaget but developed his own theory. He would give individuals of different ages these dilemmas and survey their answers to see what the reasoning behind their answers were. An example of a dilemma is the “Heinz Dilemma”. In this dilemma there is a man whose wife is very sick and needs a certain type of medication. There is only one man who sells this drug in the area and he is charging more than the man can pay for. The husband of the wife decided to steal the drug in order to save his wife. At the end of this scenario, it asks if the husband should’ve stolen the medicine. This provides an example of how he went about creating these moral dilemmas. They are situations in which there are multiple answers and reasoning that could be provided. There was no “right” answer in the moral dilemma questions (as the answer to each question was solely based off of the individual’s opinion and moral reasoning). The reasoning that the individuals presented help develop levels of reasoning. These levels are also known as stages. In Kohlberg’s stages, sub stages are also included. The stages are: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional. Each stages had two sub stages that helped determine what level of moral reasoning a person was at. In the preconvnetional stage the two sub stages are: Reward and punishment orientation and Naive reciprocity orientation. The preconventional stage begins at about age five and decreases with age. The sub stages in the conventional stage are: Good boy/girl Orientation and Authority and social order maintenance orientation. This stage increases ...
Morality, which is one’s general standards about right and wrong behavior, also includes prosocial behavior and other traits such as honesty, fairness, and concern about other people’s rights and welfare (Omrod, 2014). Both morality and prosocial behavior involve multiple parts of the brain, emotions and complex reasoning abilities. Some age-typical characteristics for preschool aged children include, some understanding that behaviors causing physical or psychological harm are morally wrong, a sense of guilt and shame about misbehaviors that cause harm to others, also display empathy and sympathy, and children at this age also show an appreciation for the need to be fair.
moral development. In these stages, Kohlberg concentrates on the reasons why people act the way they do; not the way they think about their actions or what action they take, but the reasoning behind their actions.
At a very young age, children are exposed to values before they gain the ability to reason effectively and to think critically. Whenever they misbehave, their parents correct their behaviors by means of punishment. Therefore, a misbehaved child will associate their wrongdoings with a negative emotion, deterring them from performing the punished behavior. They also learn morality by absorbing the emotions of those around them in their environment, and as a result, their feelings and behaviors are shaped by what they observe. Additionally, individuals introspect their feelings to decide whether or not their actions are considered moral. If an action makes the individual feel guilty, then he or she will conclude that it is wrong. This could not
Parental injunctions are also the source of moral imperatives. However, when a parent instructs a child to follow a moral injunction, he is, in fact, doing two things. First, he presents a specific ethical content to be followed. Second, he trains the child to comply with authoritative injunctions per se”. Milgram suggests that when a parent instructs or commands their child about something, they are implying an implicit and explicit imperative. For example, when a parent tells their child not to play too rough with their younger sibling, the child automatically receives two messages. The first is how to treat their younger sibling, and the second implicit imperative, is to obey the command itself. This is only the beginning of many more methods of conditioning a child will experience in their life. For example, when a child emerges out from the nesting of their family, they will enter another system of authority, which is school. At school, a child learns how to function in society, their actions regulated by their teachers. The child will soon grow older and enter the workforce, where their boss must permit everything they say or do. In this way, Milgrim suggests that the very basis of our morals and ideals are innately connected to having an obedient attitude. The groundbreaking results Milgram found from his obedience study can be explained using this view that people are conditioned early on in life to obey authority figures in order to achieve success and acceptance. This can explain why over 50 percent of all participants obeyed the command of delivering severe electrical shocks to someone who they believed was undeserving. It seems that it does not matter whether one is male or female, young
The first six years of a child’s life is a window of opportunity when a child unquestionably accepts the virtues modeled by his or her parents (“8 Ways to Raise a Moral Child | Ask Dr. Sears”). In their first few years, children believe that their behaviors are right or wrong according to what a parent tells them. By five years old, a child begins to adopt their parent’s values, whether they are noble or not. Merseault’s childhoo...
Theresa based her opinion on the fact that the druggist will be charged with an unfair amount of money for a cheap drug and will not budge on the price. She feels the importance of getting the drug for Heinz’s wife outweighs what’s right or wrong. Theresa is the type of person that views the moral importance of a situation and makes the adjustments for personal gain. Based on the Kohlberg Moral Development theory, we can assume that Theresa falls under the post conventional level of development, which means her age ranges from 13 years and up (Dacey, 2009, p. 248).
At the pre-conventional level, behavior is motivated by anticipation of pleasure or pain. The child is aware of cultural rules and labels of good or bad and right or wrong. (1) The subject interprets the labels in terms of the physical consequence, such as punishment or reward. (3) The child has an extreme self-interest. The first level of moral thinking is generally found at the elementary school level, before the age of 9. This level is divided into the following two stages. (2)
The moral development of children can depend on many factors. Parenting and upbringing of the child, their environment, social environment, gender, and race are all aspects that can contribute to how a child develops their moral standards and expectations. Many psychologist have tried for several years to develop a theory to how morality is developed. One in particular is Lawrence Kohlberg (1958), his moral development theory is based on the cognitive development of children and it is thought that moral development proceeds and changes as cognitive development occurs (Arnett, 2012). Kohlberg’s moral development theory consist of 3 different levels each containing 2 stages altogether making 6 stages of moral development, as Kohlberg conducted
Many of our inner standards take the form of judgments as to what is right and what is wrong. They constitute the moral and ethical principles by which we guide our conduct. Lawrence Kohlberg refined, extended, and revised Piaget’s basic theory of the development of moral values. Like Piaget, Kohlberg focused on the moral judgements in children rather than their actions. The manner in which moral judgments develop has been studied extensively by Kohlberg, through the questioning of boys seven years old and up. Kohlberg presented his subjects with a number of hypothetical situations involving moral question like the following. If a man’s wife is dying for lack of an expensive drug that he cannot afford, should he steal the drug? If a patient who is fatally ill and in great pain begs for a mercy killing, should the physician agree? By analyzing the answers and particularly the reasoning by which his subjects reached their answers. Kohlberg determined th...
A child is like a sponge that absorbs ideas and beliefs. Beliefs are taught to a child in subtle ways such as just listening to the parents and their opinions from everything including politics, social problems, moral issues and even opinions about how others behave. It is within the family unit that a person learns their moral values. It is from their parents that a child is taught right and wrong. Often this is through religious training. Religious beliefs or the lack of religious beliefs has a great influence on a person's beliefs and values.
The obedience and punishment orientation is the earliest stage of moral development and is also very common in young children; however, adults are also capable of expressing this stage of reasoning. In this stage, young children perceive rules to be fixed and absolute and that obeying them is a necessary means to avoid punishment (McLeod, S.A., 2013). The individualism and exchange orientation is the second stage of pre-conventional morality. At this stage, children take into account individual points of view and judge their actions based on how they serve individual needs (Cherry, K., 2014, October
Everyday we are tested as individuals to make the right choice. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are directly correlated to our moral decision-making. But morals are somewhat misleading. What might be a wrong decision for one person might be a solution to another. So how do we define morals? Do we follow Gods’ moral rules because to do so would increase out likelihood of obtaining salvation in the afterlife? Or is it simpler than that. Is God going to deny our entrance into heaven because we have run a stop sign here and there? No. I believe our moral values are much simpler than that. I believe that our moral decision-making comes from our upbringing of what is right or wrong. Our parents and the people we surround ourselves with, are, I believe, direct causes of how we make decisions. Having more positive family influences as we grow up to adults will better help us come to make the right decisions in tough situations. In this paper, I will take you through a situation where my morals were tested. It takes place in the northern woods of Vermont in a little town called St. Albans where a young boy transforms into a young man by controlling his emotions and making the right decision.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.