KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Androcentric bias Kohlberg tested boys and then created his theory He later tested girls and found they achieved a lower stage of moral development, typically stage 3 not stage 4 He concluded therefore that females are less morally developed!

WHY IS THIS A BIASED VIEW? Because, Gilligan argued, that women are NOT less morally developed. They only APPEAR to be because the tool used (the moral judgement interview) is biased towards males and does not measure female moral thinking Therefore it is invalid to apply to females

Therefore the tool created to measure moral thinking is biased towards males, as is the theory generated from this research Kohlberg researched males and assumed that he could generalise these findings (and his theory) to females This was flawed, and demonstrates beta bias, and more specifically androcentric bias

Beta bias – to minimise gender differences – assume there aren’t any so research done on one sex can be generalised to the other Androcentric bias – male beta bias

Gilligan’s anti-Kohlberg approach Gilligan (1977) argued that boys develop a morality of justice, focusing on the use of laws and moral principles. In contrast, girls develop a morality of care, in which their main focus is on human well-being and compassion for others i.e. different genders have different moral voices, and that this is dependent on their different socialisation Therefore, Kohlberg’s theory is invalid since......

Consequently, Kohlberg’s theory needs to recognise that emotions and empathy do play a role in moral thinking (which he did acknowledge in his later work).