Piaget

Kohlberg
It provides a useful way to analyze our own
moral reasoning. How do we decide what
is right?

It is true that knowing what is right and

doing what is right are two very different
things, but we believe that if thinking
ethically comes first then acting ethically
may follow.
 Child born good
• Role of society: don’t corrupt -Eastern Perspective
 child born evil
• original sin –Freud, Rousseau
• Role of society: put controls on child
 child born neutral
• Blank Slate -Skinner
• role of society: provide positive environment that
gets internalized
 MORALITY
 Ability to distinguish between
right and wrong, and to be able
to act on this distinction.
 MORAL DEVELOPMENT
 Process by which children
acquire society's standards of
what is right and wrong.
1) The most basic notion of the
cognitive approach, is that moral
development depends on cognitive
development. We MUST understand right
from wrong if we are to be expected to
act in right or wrong ways.

2) Moral reasoning also proceeds through

a set of stages. As with his cognitive
stage theory, each moral stage evolves
from and replaces the earlier stage (no
skipping allowed).
Story A: A little boy who is called John is in his
room. He is called to dinner. He goes into the
dining room. But behind the dining room door there
was a chair, and on the chair there were 15 cups.
John couldn't have known that there was all this
behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks against
the tray, bang go the 15 cups, and they all get
broken.

 Story B: Once there was a little boy whose name was

Henry. One day when his mother was out he tried to
reach some jam out of the cupboard. He climbed onto
a chair and stretched out his arm. But the jam was
too high up and he couldn't reach it.... While he was
trying to get it, he knocked over a cup. The cup
fell down and broke.

 Are the children equally guilty?

 If not, who was naughtier??
 Piaget concluded that there are 3 STAGES of moral
development.
 Preschool children show little awareness of
rules
 Purpose of the game is to take turns and
have fun
 Rules which exist are idiosyncratic
 Parents and older children are more tolerant
of kid’s behavior.
 At the end of this stage (~4-5) children
become more aware of the “rules” by
watching older people and imitating their
behavior.
 MORAL ABSOLUTES
Child develops a strong respect for rules and a belief that


they must be obeyed AT ALL TIMES.

 Children at this stage tend to think of rules in terms of
“right” always means following the rules.
 Piaget's dilemma -- child who broke 15 cups naughtier.
Judgment based on objective CONSEQUENCES rather
than intent of the person
 Why focus on consequences?? Reprimanded or
PUNISHED DUE TO CONSEQUENCES.

 IMMANENT JUSTICE
 the child also believes in any violation of society rules will
be caught and punished. In SUM: rules exist outside of
themselves. Wrong is whatever adults forbid and punish.
Rules MUST NOT be questioned.
 Older, more autonomous
(independent) children begin to
understand that social rules are
arbitrary .They exist because
agreements have been made. It is
at this stage that rules begin to
be challenged. At this stage the
INTENTION of the individual begins
to have an impact (punish kid who
was stealing jam ).
 Childrenare increasingly away from their adult
authority figures for much of the time and are
spending a lot of time with “equal status”
peers. They are free from adult authority and
have to negotiate for themselves. They must
argue for their own view, cooperate with
others, participate in joint decisions.

 Throughthis process, children take on the role

of “governor” and “governed”. They begin to
understand HOW rules and standards are set and
understand that rules can also be changed. THIS
IS WHAT PIAGET CALLED MORAL AUTONOMY. In this
theory, morality goes from (1) Submissive to
power of parent to (2) self control.
 KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
 In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind
of cancer. There was one drug that doctors thought
might save her. It was a form of radium that a
druggist in the same town had recently discovered.
The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was
charging $2000, or 10 times the cost of the drug, for
a small (possibly life-saving dose). Heinz, the sick
woman's husband, borrowed all the money he could,
about $1000, or half of what he needed. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell
the drug cheaper, or to let him pay later. The
druggist replied “No, I discovered the drug, and I'm
going to make money from it”. Heinz then became
desperate and broke into the store to steal the drug
from his wife.
 Should Heinz have done that?
 Kohlberg proposed 3 stages of
moral development, with each
stage consisting of 2 distinct
sub stages.
 Each dilemma presented required the
individual to choose between:

 (A) obeying a rule, law, or

authority figure, or

 (B) taking some action which

conflicts with these rules or
commands while serving the welfare
of others.
 Kohlberg extended Piaget’s theory into
adolescence and adulthood. He was less
interested in subject's decision (e.g.
what Heinz should do), but more in the
underlying rationale. That is HOW they
EXPLAINED their judgments.
 LikePiaget, Kohlberg Moral development
follow some invariant sequence, where each
successive stage is built upon the
foundation of an earlier one,
 Accordingto Kohlberg, each stage
represents a METHOD OF THINKING about a
moral dilemma rather than a particular
TYPE of moral decision.
Children conform to rules imposed by
authority figures in order to obtain rewards
and avoid punishment and Moral decisions are
based on CONSEQUENCES and not INTENTIONALITY
 Stage 1: punishment and obedience
orientation

 a) goodness or badness of an act are based
on its consequences.

 b) child will defer to authority figure and
obey their commands in order to avoid
punishment (BUT there is no true conception
of rules-.It is only bad if you get caught).
 Stage 2: instrumental
orientation

 a) person conforms to rules in
order to gain rewards or to
satisfy personal needs,

 b) doing things for others is
“right” if the actor will
benefit in the long run
 -- at this level, the individual strives to obey the
rules set forth by others in order to win praise and
recognition or to maintain social order.

 Stage 3: “Good-boy / good-girl”

orientation
• a) moral behavior is that which
pleases, helps, or is approved by
others.
• b) actions are evaluated on the basis
of intent
• c) one objective is to be thought of
as a “nice” person
 Stage 4: Authority and social-order-
maintaining morality
• a) accepts and conforms to social
rules and conventions because of a
belief that rules and laws maintain
an order which is judged good or
moral.
•
• LAW AND ORDER MENTALITY
 --moral standards are internalized and
become the person's own.
 Stage 5: Social contract morality

• a) flexibility begins in moral

reasoning
• b) moral actions are those that express
the will of the majority of individuals

• c) a sense of having to live up to the

law, but an understanding that laws can
be wrong.
 Stage 6: Universal ethical principles
• a) “highest” stage of moral
reasoning
• b) right and wrong defined on a
personal belief or self-chosen ethics
• c) belief in abstract principles
which override all others (life,
liberty, equality)
• d) risk jail or social ostracism
rather than violate personal ethics
 Level 1 People attend to themselves

 Level 2 People attend to others and what others think of

them

 Level 3 People attend to society’s standards and their

relations to them and to their own principles
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