Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning

Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, Apr 06, 2001 by Dianne K. Daeg de Mott

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987), an American psychologist, pioneered the study of moral development in the late 1950s. Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning involved six stages through which each person passes in order, without skipping a stage or reversing their order. His theory states that not all people progress through all six stages.

In the 1950s, science as a whole held to the positivist belief that scientific study should be free of moral values, maintaining instead a purely "objective," value-free stance. Western psychology at that time was dominated by behaviorists who focused on behavior rather than reasoning or will. In 1958, Lawrence Kohlberg published a study that broke with both the positivists and behaviorists by presenting a theory of moral development (bringing together science and moral values) based on cognitive reasoning (rather than behavior). Kohlberg's theory initiated an entirely new field of study in Western science that gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to inspire new research today.

Kohlberg's theory of moral development expands upon Jean Piaget 's work in the 1930s concerning cognitive reasoning. Piaget proposed three phases of cognitive development through which people pass in a loose order. In contrast, Kohlberg posited six stages (in three levels, with two stages each) of moral development, based on cognitive reasoning, through which each person passes in unvarying and irreversible order. According to Kohlberg, every person begins at Stage 1 moral reasoning and develops progressively to Stage 2, then Stage 3, etc. Not everyone makes it through all six stages; in fact, people who use Stage 5 or 6 moral reasoning are quite rare. Kohlberg claimed that his stages of moral development are universal, applying equally to all human beings across cultural divisions.

In brief, Kohlberg's theory of moral development presents three levels: the preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Each level contains two stages. Stages 1 and 2 in the preconventional level involve an "egocentric point of view" and a "concrete individualistic perspective" in which the person makes choices based on the fear of punishment and the desire for rewards. In Stages 3 and 4 of the conventional level, persons make choices from a "member-of-society" perspective, considering the good of others, the maintenance of positive relations, and the rules of society. Persons in the final stages of the postconventional level, Stages 5 and 6, reason from a "prior-to-society" perspective in which abstract ideals take precedence over particular societal laws.

To measure the level at which persons are operating morally, Kohlberg developed a highly refined interview process in which hypothetical situations are presented that involve a moral dilemma. The person's answers to questions surrounding that dilemma determine the stage at which he or she is reasoning. One of the best-known examples of hypothetical moral dilemmas presented in Kohlberg's interview is that of an impoverished man who needs a certain medicine for his wife who is ill: is the man justified in stealing the medicine from the pharmacy when he does not have enough money to pay for it? Why or why not? The details of the hypothetical situation can then be altered slightly to bring out the nuances of a person's moral reasoning (e.g., does it depend on how ill the wife is, how poor the husband is, whether it is a small, family-owned corner drugstore or a large, nationwide chain, etc.).

Kohlberg also developed a method of moral education based on an expanded form of the interview process. He believed that participation in moral discussions spurs growth in moral reasoning. The "just community" approach to education that Kohlberg helped create has three basic aims: 1) to encourage moral development through discussions of moral issues; 2) to develop a culture of moral norms through community-building and the democratic establishment of rules; and 3) to create a context where students and teachers can act on their moral decisions. Just Community programs were put into effect in a number of public schools, with a fair amount of success (see Power, Higgins, and Kohlberg 1989).

However, there have been many criticisms of Kohlberg's theory of moral development and his methods. Some critics claim that the use of hypothetical situations skews the results because it measures abstract rather than concrete reasoning. When children (and some adults) are presented with situations out of their immediate experience, they turn to rules they have learned from external authorities for answers, rather than to their own internal voice. Therefore, young children base their answers on rules of "right" and "wrong" they have learned from parents and teachers (Stages 1 and 2 according to Kohlberg's theory). If young children are presented with situations familiar to them, on the other hand, they often show care and concern for others, basing their moral choices on the desire to share the good and maintain harmonious relations, placing them in Stage 3 or 4 (which Kohlberg claimed was impossible at their age).