Kohlberg's Theory

Traditionally, psychology has avoided studying anything that is loaded with value
judgements. There is a degree of difficulty involved in trying to be unbiased about
things that involve terms like "good" and "bad!" So, one of the most significant
aspects of human life - morality - has had to wait quite a while before anyone in
psychology dared to touch it! But Lawrence Kohlberg wanted to study morality, and
did so using a most interesting (if controversial) technique. Basically, he would ask
children and adults to try to solve moral dilemmas contained in little stories, and to do
so outloud so he could follow their reasoning. It wasn't the specific answers to the
dilemmas that interested him, but rather how the person got to his or her answer.

One of the most famous of these stories concerned a man named Heinz. His wife was
dying of a disease that could be cured if he could get a certain medicine. When he
asked the pharmacist, he was told that he could get the medicine, but only at a very
high price - one that Heinz could not possibly afford. So the next evening, Heinz
broke into the pharmacy and stole the drug to save his wife's life. Was Heinz right or
wrong to steal the drug?

There are simple reasons why Heinz should or should not have stolen the drug, and
there are very sophisticated reasons, and reasons in between. After looking at
hundreds of interviews using this and several other stories, Kohlberg outlined three
broad levels and six more specific stages of moral development.

Level I: Pre-conventional morality. While infants are essentially amoral, very

young children are moral in a rather primitive way, as described by the two
preconventional stages.

Stage 1. We can call this the reward and punishment stage. Good or bad depends
on the physical consequences: Does the action lead to punishment or reward? This
stage is based simply on one's own pain and pleasure, and doesn't take others into
account.

Stage 2. This we can call the exchange stage. In this stage, there is increased
recognition that others have their own interests and should be taken into
account. Those interests are still understood in a very concrete fashion, and the child
deals with others in terms of simple exchange or reciprocity: "I'll scratch your back if
you scratch mine." Children in this stage are very concerned with what's "fair" (one
of their favorite words), but are not concerned with real justice.

Level II: Conventional morality. By the time children enter elementary school, they
are usually capable of conventional morality, although they may often slip back into
preconventional morality on occasion. But this level is called conventional for a very
good reason: It is also the level that most adults find themselves in most of the time!
Stage 3. This stage is often called the good boy/good girl stage. The child tries to
live up to the expectations of others, and to seek their approval. Now they become
interested motives or intentions, and concepts such as loyalty, trust, and gratitude are
understood. Children in this stage often adhere to a concrete version of the Golden
Rule, although it is limited to the people they actually deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Stage 4. This is called the law-and-order stage. Children now take the point of view
that includes the social system as a whole. The rules of the society are the bases for
right and wrong, and doing one's duty and showing respect for authority are
important.

Level III: Post-conventional morality. Some adolescents and adults go a step

further and rise above moralities based on authority to ones based on reason.
Stage 5. The social contract stage means being aware of the degree to which much
of so-called morality is relative to the individual and to the social group they belong
to, and that only a very few fundamental values are universal. The person at this level
sees morality as a matter of entering into a rational contract with one's fellow human
beings to be kind to each other, respect authority, and follow laws to the extent that
they respect and promote those universal values. Social contract morality often
involves a utilitarian approach, where the relative value of an act is determined by
"the greatest good for the greatest number."

Stage 6. This stage is referred to as the stage of universal principles. At this point,
the person makes a personal commitment to universal principles of equal rights and
respect, and social contract takes a clear back-seat: If there is a conflict between a
social law or custom and universal principles, the universal principles take
precedence.

Kohlberg's original work was done with boys. When the research began to include
girls, they found the girls to be less morally "developed" than the boys! Psychologist
Carol Gilligan, involved in that research, began to notice that it wasn't so easy to
distinguish "good boy/good girl" from "universal principles", especially in the girls.
Since then, psychologists have readjusted their work to take into account for the fact
that girls often express their morality in terms that emphasize personal caring more
than abstract principles.