Moral Development The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, has concluded on the basis of over twenty years of research that there is a sequence of six identifiable stages in the development of a person’s ability to deal with moral issues.

Kohlberg grouped these stages of moral development into three levels: each containing two stages. The sequence of six stages can be summarized as follows:

LEVELONE:PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL  At the first two stages, the child is able to respond to rules and social expectations and can apply the labels “good”, “bad”, “right”, and “wrong”. These rules however, are seen as something externally imposed on the self.

Right and wrong are interpreted in terms of the pleasant or painful consequences of actions or in terms of the physical power of those who set the rules. The child sees situations only from his or her own point of view, and since the child does not yet have the ability to identify with others to any great extent, the primary motivation is self-interest.

Stage One: Punishment And Obedience Orientation At this stage the physical consequences of an act wholly determine the goodness or badness of that act. The child’s reasons for doing he right thing are to avoid punishment or to defer to the superior physical power of authorities. There is little awareness that others have needs and desires similar to one’s own.  

Stage Two: Instrument and Relativity Orientation At this stage right actions are those that can serve as instruments for satisfying the child’s own needs or the needs of those for whom the child cares. The child is now aware that others have needs and desires similar to his or her own and begins to defer to them in order to get them to do what he or she wants .

LEVEL TWO: CONVENTIONAL LEVEL  Maintaining the expectations of one’s own family, peer group, or nation is seen as valuable in its own right, regardless of the consequences. The person does not merely conform to expectations but exhibits loyalty to the group and its norms.

The person is now able to see situations from the point of view of others in the group and assumes that everyone is similar. The person is motivated to conform to the group’s norms and subordinates the needs of the individual to those of the group.  

Stage Three:Interpersonal Concordance Orientation Good behavior is living up to what is expected by those for whom one feels loyalty, affection, and trust, such as family and friends. Right action is conformity to what is generally expected in one’s role as a good son, daughters, brother, friend, etc. Doing what is right is motivated by the need to be a “good person” in one’s own eyes and in the eyes of others.

Stage four: Law and Order Orientation.  Right and wrong are determined by loyalty to one’s own nation. Laws are to be upheld except where they conflict with other fixed social duties. The person is now able to see other people as parts of a larger social system that defines individual roles and obligations, and he or she can separate the norms generated by this system from his or her interpersonal relationships.

LEVEL THREE: POSTCONVENTIONAL, AUTONOMOUS, OR PRINCIPLED LEVEL At these stages the person no longer simply accepts the values and forms of the groups to which he or she belongs. Instead the person now tries to see situations from appoint of view that impartially takes everyone’s interests into account.

The person questions the laws and values that society has adopted and redefines them in terms of self-chosen universal moral principles that can be justified to any rational individual. The proper laws and values are those to which any reasonable person would be motivated to commit himself or herself, whatever place the person holds in society and whatever society he or she belongs to.

Stage five: Social Contract Orientation.  The person is aware that people hold a variety of conflicting personal views and opinions, and emphasizes fair ways of reaching consensus by agreement, contract, and due process. The person believes that all values and norms are relative and that apart from this democratic consensus, all should be tolerated.  

State Six: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation.  Right action is defined in terms of universal principles chosen because of their logical comprehensiveness, their universality, and their consistency. These ethical principles are not concrete like the Ten Commandments but abstract universal principles dealing with justice, society’s welfare, the equality of human rights, respect for the dignity of individual human beings, and with the idea that persons are ends in themselves and must be treated as such..

Kohlberg’s theory is important because it helps us understand in detail how individuals develop their moral capacities or “virtues “ through the internalization of the moral standards prevalent in their communities. It also reveals how we become increasingly sophisticated and critical in our understanding of the moral standards.