Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist best known for his theory of stages of moral development. He was born in 1927 and studied moral development in children, identifying six stages of moral reasoning. Kohlberg proposed that individuals progress through these stages sequentially as their capacity for moral reasoning develops. His theory was influential but also faced criticism for being too focused on males and Western cultural norms. Kohlberg suffered from chronic pain later in life and died by suicide in 1987.

1. 1927-1987

2.  Born in 1927 in Bronxville, NY into wealth.
 Showed an early concern for others welfare by
volunteering as a sailor in WWII and later in life
smuggling Jews past the British blockade of
Palestine.
 University of Chicago: Bachelors degree in
Psychology in just 1 year (1949)
 Pursued a Doctoral Degree at Chicago in 1949
focusing his dissertation on the moral development of
children
 His direction came from a fascination by the cognitive
development work proposed by Swiss theorist Jean
Piaget.

3.  1957-1958 Using the dilemma of Heinz, Kohlberg finishes
his dissertation research on the moral development of
children and proposes his six stages of moral development
 1962-1967 Associate professor in psychology and human
development at the University of Chicago
 1968 Accepted a position at Harvard University teaching
education and social psychology, while continuing his
research
 1971 Contracts a tropical disease while conducting cross-
cultural work in Belize (As a result he suffers from pain and
depression for the next 16 years)
 1987 Requests day of leave from Massachusetts hospital
where he was being treated and commits suicide by
drowning himself in Boston Harbor.

4.  Set up questions about the dilemmas which
were designed to probe for the subject’s reasons
for recommending specific courses of action in
situations
 He evaluated the students responses by a
scoring system which indicates which stage or
level of moral development the subject has
reached.
 Heinz Dilemma:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxJ07klMhr0
 Extra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxpF5M0KT
g

5.  Pre-conventional Stage
The child is responsive to cultural rules and labels
of good and bad, right or wrong, but interprets
these labels in terms of either the physical or the
hedonistic consequences.
 Stage 1: The Punishment and Obedience
Orientation: The physical consequences of an
action determine its goodness or badness
 Stage 2: The Instrumental Relativist
Orientation: Right action consists of that which
satisfies one’s own needs.

6.  Conventional Stage
Maintaining the expectations of the individual’s
family, group, or nation is perceived as
valuable
 Stage 3: The Interpersonal Concordance of “Good
Boy—Nice Girl” Orientation: Good behavior is that
which pleases others and you’re judged by
intention.
 Stage 4: The Law and Order Orientation: There is
orientation toward authority, fixed rules, and
maintenance of the social order.

7.  Post- Conventional, Autonomous, or Principled Level
Clear effort to define moral values and principles which
have validity and application apart from the authority.
 Stage 5: The Social-Contract Legalistic Orientation:
Right action tends to be defined in terms of general
individual rights and in terms of standards which have
been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole
society.
 Stage 6: The Universal Ethical Principle Orientation:
Right is defined by decision of conscience in accord
with self-chosen ethical principles appealing to logical
comprehensiveness.

8.  One must develop through the stages in order
and cannot get to the higher stage without
passing through the one preceding it
 Subject cannot comprehend moral reasoning at
a stage more than one stage beyond their own
 Reasoning at higher stages is cognitively more
adequate than reasoning at lower stages, since
it resolves problems in a more satisfactory way
 Movement through stages is effected when
cognitive disequilibrium is created . This
happens when a persons cognitive outlook is not
adequate to cope with a given moral dilemma

9.  Piaget and Kohlberg both do not concentrate on
moral behavior rather on the reasoning behind
the behavior
 Piaget only had 2 stages of moral development
and Kohlberg’s methods of investigating the
development and the sequence of the stages
were different as well.
 Kohlberg’s theory in the conventional stage says
that belonging to a group is important and
reinforces one’s notion of self worth much like
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

10.  Carol Gilligan criticizes Kohlberg for only
studying males moral development
 Criticism was made that his dilemmas were used
to identify individual protagonists, with whom
subjects could identify and younger interviewees
may not be able to break out of this character to
discuss wider issues.
 Although Kohlberg worked with Gilligan
eventually and began expanding his studies to
females he kept most of his dilemmas very
similar to the originals.

11.  Duska, R., & Whelan, M. (1975). Moral
development: A guide to piaget and
kohlberg. Broadway, N.Y.: Paulist Press.
 Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral
development: Moral stages and the idea of
justice (essays on moral development,
volume 1). NYC, NY: Harper & Row,
Publishers.
 Langford, P. (1995). Approaches to the
development of moral reasoning. East
Sussex, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Ltd.