Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral Development Theory

Lawrence Kohlberg served as a professor at Harvard University for many years but rose to fame for his work there starting from the early 1970s. He is mostly known for his moral development theory that he based on the works of philosopher John Dewey and psychologist Jean Piaget. According to him, humans’ progress in their moral reasoning occurs in a series of stages. He formulated three levels of moral reasoning, which he further divided into 6 stages. In the obedience and punishment stage of the pre-conventional level, individuals’ behavior complies with norms that are socially acceptable as told by some authority, for instance, teacher or parent. Obedience is usually informed by the application or threat or punishment (Barger, 2000). The second

In the second stage (law and order), the individual abides by the law and order and responds to the obligations attached to his/her duty. Lastly, the post-conventional level, according to Kohlberg, is not attained by most adults. Its first stage (social contract) implies a genuine concern in the welfare of other people and an understanding of social mutuality. The second stage of this level (principled conscience) is characterized by demands of individual conscience and respect for universal principle (Barger, 2000). Although his work was later criticized by some scholars, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development has helped build a perspective that considers how ethical communities can be created. Further, his work can be used in nursing care to help understand the behavior of patients and tailor the care provided with respect to the stage of moral reasoning of the

His contributions towards human growth and development include detailed studies on cognition among children, coming up with a theory of child cognitive development, as well as the series of tests he developed that reveal the various cognitive abilities of children (Boeree, 2006a). A good understanding of a patient’s cognition is important as it allows the nurse to constantly organize and reorganize the tasks of care and the priorities in order to accommodate the fluctuating status of a patient. This is especially so because the hospital environment may be characterized by numerous distractions may affect the cognition of a