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Lawrence Kohlberg (19271987) was a psychologist who drew on education,
anthropology, and philosophy, to inform his work on the development of moral
judgment and on moral behavior. Kohlberg was raised in Bronxville, New York, and
attended Phillips Academy, an elite boarding school. After World War II he assisted in
smuggling European Jewish refugees to Palestine. This work, a turning point in
Kohlberg's interest in morality, was documented in his first article, Beds for
Bananas (1948). At the age of 21, Kohlberg enrolled as an undergraduate at the
University of Chicago and earned his bachelor's degree within a year. Kohlberg
continued studying at the University of Chicago in pursuit of a degree in clinical
psychology; he was inspired by Jean Piaget's work to interview children and
adolescents about morality, which was the focus of his dissertation. Kohlberg
completed his doctoral degree in 1958. He held a faculty position at the University of
Chicago department of psychology for six years before joining the Graduate School
of Education at Harvard in 1968. Kohlberg was devoted to developing his research
and mentoring students at Harvard until his death in 1987.
Kohlberg's initial contribution to educational psychology set the stage for the
remainder of his work. Previous theories on morality assumed that society or adults
imposed morality on children or that moral judgments were based on avoiding
negative feelings. In contrast, Kohlberg asserted that children are moral
philosophers whose ability to formulate their own moral decisions develops with
experience. For his doctoral dissertation, Kohlberg interviewed 72 White Chicago
boys about the Heinz dilemma: Heinz, a man without the means to buy the drug
necessary to save his wife's life, steals the drug from the pharmacist. Based on the
boys' responses and influenced by Piaget's theory of developmental stages,
Kohlberg identified six stages of moral judgment development contained within
three levels. The preconventional level includes stage 1, punishment and obedience
orientation, and stage 2, instrumental relativist orientation. The conventional level
includes stage 3, interpersonal concordance orientation, and stage 4, society
maintaining orientation. The postconventional or principled level includes stage 5,
social contract orientation, and stage 6, universal ethics principles. Seeking to
validate his theory, Kohlberg developed an interview protocol and scoring guidelines
(moral judgment interview) and gathered longitudinal and cross-cultural data. These
studies included a 22-year study with data collected every three years and over
forty studies conducted in Western and nonWestern countries. Generally, these
studies found support for Kohlberg's theory.
Although widely known for his theoretical and empirical work, Kohlberg focused
increasingly on practical applications of his work. He consulted on and created moral
education programs for schools, universities, prisons, and community organizations.
The most radical of these programs was his just community approach in which
organizations are fully democratic. Kohlberg helped several schools adopt this
approach in which every student and staff member has an equal voice, and an equal
vote, in every school decision. One decision at the Cluster School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, allowed students to leave school early if there was no elective
course they wanted to attend. Elsa Wasserman, a Cluster School counselor, reported
that the students felt a rare sense of commitment to the school and to fellow
students due to the just community approach.
Source: http://www.education.com/reference/article/kohlberg-lawrence-1927-1987/
2 Individualism, Instrumentalism,
and Exchange
6 Principled Conscience
The first level of moral thinking is that generally found at the elementary school
level. In the first stage of this level, people behave according to socially acceptable
norms because they are told to do so by some authority figure (e.g., parent or
teacher). This obedience is compelled by the threat or application of punishment.
The second stage of this level is characterized by a view that right behavior means
acting in one's own best interests.
The second level of moral thinking is that generally found in society, hence the
name "conventional." The first stage of this level (stage 3) is characterized by an
attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The second stage is
one oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty.
The third level of moral thinking is one that Kohlberg felt is not reached by the
majority of adults. Its first stage (stage 5) is an understanding of social mutuality
and a genuine interest in the welfare of others. The last stage (stage 6) is based on
respect for universal principle and the demands of individual conscience. While
Kohlberg always believed in the existence of Stage 6 and had some nominees for it,
he could never get enough subjects to define it, much less observe their longitudinal
movement to it.
Kohlberg believed that individuals could only progress through these stages one
stage at a time. That is, they could not "jump" stages. They could not, for example,
move from an orientation of selfishness to the law and order stage without passing
through the good boy/girl stage. They could only come to a comprehension of a
moral rationale one stage above their own. Thus, according to Kohlberg, it was
important to present them with moral dilemmas for discussion which would help
them to see the reasonableness of a "higher stage" morality and encourage their
development in that direction. The last comment refers to Kohlberg's moral
discussion approach. He saw this as one of the ways in which moral development
can be promoted through formal education. Note that Kohlberg believed, as did
Piaget, that most moral development occurs through social interaction. The
discussion approach is based on the insight that individuals develop as a result of
cognitive conflicts at their current stage.
Attachment 3: Assesmnet