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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.
 Kohlberg’s empirical and psychological
ordering of the moral stages clearly has
philosophical implications. And can be
interpreted as a philosophical debate on the
subject of the adequacy of various moral
theories. His conceptualization of moral
development also throws light on the transition
from the egocentric (subjective state) to absolute
(objective state) of moral principles.
 The philosophical implications of Kohlberg’s
stages therefore are profound. For example
stage six proposes the utilitarian and
deontological moral theory (we will have detail
discussion of moral theories). Kohlberg suggests
that deontology is more adequate
philosophically than utilitarianism (stage five).

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