How Moral Are You? -L. Kohlberg (1963) The Development of Children’s Orientations Toward a Moral Order: Sequence in the Development of Moral Thought

What are Morals? Morals – attitudes or beliefs people hold that help them decide what is right or wrong Morality – this is determined by norms and rules that are set by culture and internalized since birth

Kohlberg’s Ideas We are all born without morals Wanted to address how we acquire morals Incorporated some of Jean Piaget’s stages of intellectual development to define moral development

Theoretical Propositions Moral development occurred in stages These stages were unique and different from one another Same sequence Stages are preprotent – children understand all stages below and can’t understand any stage above them until they are ready

Method Presented children with 10 hypothetical moral dilemmas Conducted two hour interviews, asking questions about morals The subjects in the original study were 72 boys from Chicago suburbs Group was half upper middle class, half lower middle class

Sample Question # 1 The Brother’s Dilemma – Joe’s father promised he could go to camp if he earned the $50 for it, and then changed his mind and asked Joe to give him the money he had earned. Joe lied and said he has only earned $10 and went to camp using the other $40 he had made. Before he went he told his younger brother Alex about the money and lying to his father. Should Alex tell their father?

Sample Question # 2 The Heinz Dilemma – A women was dying of cancer and there was a drug out that might save her. A druggist recently discovered the drug and was charging 10x the amount it cost to make. ($200 to make, $2000 he was selling it for) The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, only could come up with $1000. Even though he explained to the druggist his wife is dying and needs the medicine he refused to sell it. Heinz broke in later on and stole it, should the husband have done this?

Responses Danny, age 10, The Brother’s Dilemma – “In one way it would be right to tell on his brother or his father might get mad at him and spank him…” Andy, age 13, The Brother’s Dilemma – “If my father finds out later, he wont trust me..” Don, age 16, The Heinz Dilemma – “It was really the druggist’s fault, he was unfair, trying to overcharge and letting someone die…”

Results Kohlberg found six stages in which he divided into three moral levels

Level 1 Premoral level – children are egocentric Stage 1 – oriented with punishment and obedience Consequences of actions determine right or wrong Fear of Punishment Stage 2 – More oriented with other’s needs Behaves morally to get moral behavior in return

Level 2 Morality of Conventional Role Conformity – Child’s interpersonal relationships now important Stage 3 – Behaves morally to live up to other’s expectations Stage 4 – Respects law and order Whatever that’s a law is good

Level 3 Morality of Self-Accepted Moral Principles – morality takes a more societal view Stage 5 – Recognizes some laws are better than others Sometimes what its moral isn’t legal and vice versa Still follows laws A person at this stage experiences conflict in attempting to make sense of morality with legality

More Level 3 Stage 6 – based on own moral judgments and belief that principles are universal When laws aren’t moral, they act on their own ethical beliefs, regardless of the law Morality is based on an individuals conscience Very few people reach this stage Gandhi, Thoreau, Martin Luther King, etc.

More Results… Kohlberg concluded that these levels advance with a person’s age as age increases, the levels used increases Age 7 – Stage one used the most (70%), followed my stage two (30%) Age 10 – 30 % use stage 1, 20% stage two, etc. Age 13 – 60% in stages three and four Age 16 – 60% in stage 4 and 5, only 10% in stage 6!

Discussion Study clarifies Kohlberg’s views on how children understand and organize moral thoughts What about the ladies? Can children skip stages?

Criticisms Psychologists agree Kohlberg is right about moral development, but moral reasons differ from moral behavior Moral behavior and what a person thinks is moral may not be linked Females and males differ in moral development Not as universal as Kohlberg thought If morals are based on a specific cultures norms, they can’t be universal

Recent Applications A study was done across various cultures to see if Kohlberg’s stages were the same throughout other cultures. Reasoning wasn’t the same in America as is was in Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, and Isreal (Simpson, 1974)

Recent Applications Carol Gilligan (1982), felt there are gender differences involved in moral development Women talk more about their relationships, avoided hurting others, and felt it was important to be connected with people Men cared more about justice Women would score lower on Kohlberg’s scale

Valliant, P; Laurentian, U. Psychological Reports (2000) Follow up Study Moral Reasoning, Interpersonal Skills and Cognition of Rapists, Child Molesters, and Incest Offenders Valliant, P; Laurentian, U. Psychological Reports (2000)

Method The study was to determine if male sex crime offenders had different moral reasoning skills than general offenders 54 male offenders were divided into 4 groups – rapists (14), incest offenders (9), child molesters (11), and general offenders (20, the control group)

Method Various tests were administered to all inmates These tests included the MMPI, non-verbal intelligence, defining issues test, and a survey of interpersonal values

Results Child molesters and rapists scored higher on moral reasoning and the defining issues test Rapists scored higher on paranoia on the MMPI, then the other control groups This implies sex offenders have the ability to reason morally However, they ignore these interpersonal reasoning cues because of their personalities

Conclusion and Thoughts Kohlberg’s work is still being debated and researched, however it did open a new door for behavioral development Can these levels overlap? Do we all go through them? Are they the same for males and females? Even with morals and morality, why is crime so high?