1 Psychology and human development1.12 Stages of human development
1.12.7 Moral development
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Written by Resident Doctor Committee · Published
Kohlberg's theory
Kohlberg studied moral reasoning, which differs from behaviour: two people may make the same choice for different reasons.
He extended Piaget's approach beyond childhood into adolescence and adulthood, drawing on a longitudinal study of 72 American boys first aged 10 to 16.
His account has three levels, each holding two stages, giving six stages.
In the Heinz dilemma, a man considers stealing a drug he cannot afford to save his wife.
A stage is assigned from the justification given, not from the decision reached.
The six stages
Level | Stage | What makes an act right | Heinz reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|
Pre-conventional | 1 Punishment and obedience | Whether, and how severely, it is punished, or the risk of being caught | "He will go to prison" |
Pre-conventional | 2 Instrumental-relativist (instrumental exchange) | It serves one's own interest, and fairness is an equal trade, a favour returned | "He wants her alive; she would help him too" |
Conventional | 3 Interpersonal accord and conformity ("good boy, nice girl") | It wins the approval and trust of people close to you and shows you are a good person | "A good husband would save his wife" |
Conventional | 4 Law and order (authority and social order) | It upholds the law, because society depends on laws and citizens have a duty to keep them | "Society cannot function if everyone steals" |
Post-conventional | 5 Social contract and individual rights | Laws draw their authority from mutual agreement to protect welfare and rights | He may put life first while accepting the legal consequences |
Post-conventional | 6 Universal ethical principles | A self-chosen universal principle held above the law | Rare; Kohlberg kept it as a theoretical endpoint |
Telling neighbouring stages apart
Conventional reasoning judges right and wrong by the expectations and rules of others, the group or society.
Stage 3 seeks the approval of people close to you; stage 4 keeps fixed rules out of duty to society.
Stage 4 keeps the law out of duty, not fear of punishment, which is stage 1.
Stage 5 holds that a law may be set aside when it defeats its purpose, and should be changed by fair or democratic process.
Stage 6 acts on principle regardless of any agreement and accepts the penalty.
Progression through the stages
The sequence is invariant, but people stop at different points.
Nearly everyone passes through the pre-conventional and conventional levels, and stage 4 is the usual adult endpoint.
Only about 10 to 15% of adults ever reach the post-conventional level, so most remain conventional.
People use different levels in different situations, especially when personal interest or emotion is involved.
Limits of the theory
Moral reasoning is only modestly linked to conduct, which also depends on empathy, guilt, self-control and situational pressure.
Gilligan argued that Kohlberg's focus on impartial justice undervalues an ethic of care: responsibility within relationships and responsiveness to need.
A simple split between women's care reasoning and men's justice reasoning is poorly supported; both orientations are found across genders.
Dilemma scores depend on language, schooling and framing, so a lower score in a cultural group does not show lower morality.