Kohlberg

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  • Kohlberg
    • Kohlberg's theory
      • K developed a systematic three-level, six-stage sequence of development, which reflected the changes in moral judgement throughout the lifespan. K argued that development proceeds from a selfish desire to avoid punishment (personal), to a concern for group functioning (societal), to a concern for the consistent application of universal ethical principles.
    • Aim
      • To show how, as young adolescents develop into young manhood, they move through the distinct levels and stages of moral development proposed by Kohlberg in his theory of moral development.
    • Sample
      • 75 american boys ages 10-16 were followed at three-year intervals through to the ages of 22-18.
      • Moral development was studied in boys of other cultures including GB, Taiwan, Turkey, Mexico and Canada.
    • Research method
      • Longitudinal
      • Data collected using interviews
      • moral development in other cultures was studied using hypothetical moral dilemmas to give the study a cross-cultural element.
    • Procedure
      • OTHER CULTURES
        • Taiwanese boys (aged 10-13) asked: 'a man's wife is starving to death but the store owner won't give the man any food unless he can pay, which he can't. Should he break in and steal some food? Why?' [boys in GB, Mexico, Canada, Turkey were tested similarly)
      • AMERICAN
        • P's presented with hypothetical, deliberately philosophical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories.
          • Stories determined each P's stage of moral D for each 25 moral concepts
            • Aspects assessed:
              • Motive given / moral actions
              • Value of human life: tested by asking p at 10: 'is it better to save the life of one important person or a lot of unimportant people?' 13,16,20,24: 'should the doctor 'mercy kill' a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?'
    • Key findings
      • 50% of each of the six stages a participants thinking was at a single stage and p's showed progress through the stages with increased age
      • Not all p's went through all stages
      • P's progressed through the stages one at a time and in the same order
      • Once a P had reached a particular stage they either stopped or continued to move upward/
      • A child at an earlier stage of development tends to move forward when confronted with views of a child one stage further along
    • Cross-cultural findings
      • US: at age 16 stage 6 was rarely used
      • At 16, stage 5 thinking was much more salient in the US than either Mexico or Taiwan
      • Taiwanese boys 10-13 tended to give classic stage 2 responses
      • Middle-class children were found to be more advanced in moral judgment than matched lower-class children.
      • No important diffeences were found among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims or Athiests
    • Conclusion
      • Moral D fits w K's stage pattern theory
      • An individual can stop at any given stage/age
      • There is cultural universality of sequence of stages
      • Middle and working class children move through the same stages but middle class children move faster and further

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