The Psychology Book

292

M O R A L I T Y

DEVELOPS IN

SIX STAGES

L A W R E N C E K O H L B E R G ( 1 9 2 7 – 1 9 8 7 )

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Moral development

BEFORE

1923 Sigmund Freud offers

a psychoanalytic account

of moral development.

1932 Jean Piaget argues that

morality develops from two

types of reasoning: one that is

subject to the rules of others,

and another that is subject

only to a person’s own rules.

AFTER

1977 American educational

psychologist William Damon

suggests that young children

are able to take the needs of

others into account, earlier

than Kohlberg claims they are.

1982 American psychologist

Nancy Eisenberg argues that

in order to understand

children’s moral development,

we must examine their

reasoning when faced with

conflict between their own

needs and those of others.

L

awrence Kohlberg believed

that morality develops

gradually throughout

childhood and adolescence. In 1956,

he began a study involving

72 boys between the ages of 10 and

16. He presented the boys with
    moral dilemmas that required them
    to choose between two alternatives,

neither of which could be considered

completely acceptable, and noted

their responses. One example was

whether it was right or wrong for a

man with no money to steal drugs

that his sick wife desperately

needed. Kohlberg followed up on 58

of the boys, testing them every three

years over the course of 20 years, to

Morality develops in six stages throughout childhood,

adolescence, and adulthood.

In the two preconventional stages, moral behavior

is determined by the concepts of punishment,

reward, and reciprocity.

In the two conventional stages, moral behavior is

consistent with doing what others believe to be

right, upholding laws, and maintaining social order.

In the two postconventional stages, the individual

is the ultimate judge of moral behavior,

based on his own conscience and universal

moral principles rather than social norms.