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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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 $ 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?

8. 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…”

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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!

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

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

19. 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)

20. 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)

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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?