Postconventional Moral Development

Determining right from wrong and dealing with problems and moral dilemmas is a part of social and emotional or “socioemotional” growth. Throughout life, our sense of ethics and morals are being developed. Lawrence Kohlberg, an American psychologist, theorized moral development in three stages: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. During childhood, moral development begins with learning right from wrong from the consequences of behavior; the stage Kohlberg labeled preconventional moral reasoning. Children learn that behavior is good or bad based on punishment. Once children reach puberty, they enter the conventional moral reasoning stage, where, society’s rules are the primary factor in determining right from wrong. Lastly, postconventional moral reasoning proposes that right and wrong are deciphered by an individual’s personal ethics,

Of note, there are cases where people do not progress beyond the early stages of moral development. In the early and latter stages of moral development - preconventional, conventional, and postconventional – consequences are a driving factor in defining right and wrong; however, conventional and postconventional moral reasoning do not rely on consequences alone. Additionally, in the early stages of moral development, children have not been influenced by socialization. Furthermore, during adolescence, moral development progresses to the conventional level whereby, the expectations of others, such as parents, mentors, and society, have an important role in guiding judgement of right and wrong. Comparatively, while the rules of society are generally followed, postconventional moral reasoning is based heavily on an individual’s personal, ethical, and moral beliefs and society’s rules may possibly be overlooked in an effort to uphold ones moral