The Stages of Moral Development
By: Clare Elfelt and Erin Moore

• Lawrence Kohlberg was born in 1927
• Received Bachelor’s Degree and PhD in Psychology
• Taught at Yale, the
University of Chicago, and
Harvard
• Expanded on Piaget’s theories of Cognitive
Development
• Made significant discoveries within the field of Moral Development
• Kohlberg died in 1971

• Moral Reasoning – the process of determining right or wrong in a given situation
• Moral Dilemma - fictional stories that describe situations in which a person has to make a moral decision
• Values – the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong
• Choice – An act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities

• Pre-Conventional Morality
• Stage 1: Obedience Orientation
• Stage 2: Individualism Orientation
• Conventional Morality
• Stage 3: Interpersonal Orientation
• Stage 4: Social Order Orientation
• Post-Conventional Morality
• Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation
• Stage 6: Universal Ethics Orientation

• The child assumes that the rules of the authority figure must be unquestioned
• View morality as external to themselves
• Example of reasoning: “It’s bad to steal”

• Act according to ones own self-interest
• Speak as isolated individuals instead of reasoning members of society
• Example of reasoning: “Stealing is okay if you need something”

• Best observed in two-person relationships
• Emphasis on living up to social expectations
• Example of reasoning: “He was a good man because he didn’t steal”

• Make observations in relation to society as a whole
• Focus on maintaining law and order
• Example of reasoning: “It’s against the law to steal”

• Understand that there are differing of opinion of what is right and wrong
• Need for rights and democracy
• Example of reasoning: “It is legally wrong to steal but it in this case it is morally right”

• Ability to engage in abstract reasoning
• Protection of individual rights and disputes settled through the democratic process
• Kohlberg believed this stage to be theoretical in nature

• Are Catholic students attending a Catholic school more likely to rely on traditional church teachings when responding to a moral dilemma that involves a specifically Catholic teaching than when responding to a moral dilemma that involves a generic/universal moral question?
• When evaluated using The Measurement of Moral Judgment:
Volume 2, Standard Issue Scoring Manual by Colby and
Kohlberg, will Catholic student responses to Catholic moral dilemmas fall into the same, higher, or lower stages of moral development as compared to the responses of the non-
Catholic students?
• Are there patterns of difference among boys and girls with respect to their stages of moral reasoning relevant to gender or religion?

• Catholic students attending a Catholic school will be more likely to rely on traditional church teachings when responding to a moral dilemma that involves a specifically
Catholic teaching than when responding to a moral dilemma that involves a generic/universal moral question.
• When evaluated using The Measurement of Moral
Judgment: Volume 2, Standard Issue Scoring Manual by
Colby and Kohlberg, Catholic students responses to Catholic moral dilemmas will fall into higher stages of moral development as compared to the responses of the non-
Catholic students.
• There will not be patterns of difference among boys and girls with respect to their stages of moral reasoning relevant to gender or religion.

Part 1
Are you Catholic? Circle yes or no.
Yes or No
How old are you? __________
What is your gender? Circle your answer.
Male or Female
Part 2
Joe is a 14-year old boy who wanted to go to camp very much. His father promised him he could go if he saved up the money for it himself. So Joe worked hard at his paper route and saved up the $100 it cost to go to camp and a little more besides. But just before camp was going to start, his father changed his mind. Some of his friends decided to go on a special fishing trip, and Joe’s father was short of the money it would cost. So he told Joe to give him the money he had saved from the paper route. Joe didn’t want to give up going to camp, so he thought about refusing to give his father the money.
Should Joe refuse to give his father the money? Why or why not? Use the space below to write your answer.
Part 3
Theresa is a really talented soccer player. All season, Theresa has worked really hard to make sure that her middle school soccer team made it to the finals. The hard work paid off and Theresa’s team won every single game. The finals schedule was posted online and Theresa saw that the championship game was scheduled for a Sunday. There was going to be a scout at that Sunday’s game and Theresa had a chance to get a soccer scholarship to the best high school in her town. The Catechism tells us “The Sunday
Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the
Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason” (2181, Catechism of the Catholic Church). Theresa thinks her soccer championship is a serious reason.
Should Theresa miss mass to play in championship game? Why or why not? Use the space below to write your answer.

Stage 1: Obedience and
Punishment Orientation
Stage 2: Individualism and
Exchange
Stage 3: Interpersonal
Relationships
Stage 4: Maintaining a
Social Order
Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
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Stage 6: Universal
Principles
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Kohlberg’s Definition:
T he child assumes that the rules of the authority figure must be unquestioned
View morality as external to themselves
Avoidance of punishment
Act according to ones own self-interest
Speak as isolated individuals instead of reasoning members of society
Notion of fair exchange
“Good Boy/Nice Girl” Orientation
Best observed in two-person relationships
Emphasis on living up to social expectations
Make observations in relation to society as a whole
Focus on maintaining law and order
Stress on basic rights and democratic procedures to change unfair laws
Understanding of differences in opinion regarding right and wrong
Ability to engage in abstract reasoning
Protection of individual rights and disputes settled through the democratic process
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Expected Statements in
Response to the Dilemma:
“My dad/mom told me not to…”
“You’ll get punished”/ “You won’t get punished”
“I don’t want to get in trouble”
“They may have thought it was the right/wrong thing to do”
“It was unfair”/ “The fair way would have been…”
“ This person had the right idea”
“His intentions were good, but…”
This person was “greedy, selfish” or
“caring and loving”
“Stealing or breaking the law is never right, even though it is understandable why the person did it”
“What would happen if we all did that”
“Laws are social contracts that everyone agrees to uphold”
“It is legally wrong but morally right”
“Her reason is more important than his”
Kohlberg considered Stage 6 to be theoretical in nature, therefore we did not consider this possibility in our research study

• “No she should go to mass because it’s one of the commandments and you need to abide by them.” –
Child A
• “She should miss mass because going to the championship is a once in a lifetime opportunity and her team is counting on her. You can go to mass every Sunday and it is okay to skip at least one mass.” - Child D
• “She shouldn’t miss her game because she worked really hard. There are a lot of masses on Sunday and she could just go to a later mass.” –Child E

• Only two students exhibited a change in moral reasoning
• The majority of students exhibited Stage 2 reasoning in both dilemmas
• One of our hypotheses was correct:
• The girl participant did not exhibit different reasoning than the male participants
• Two of our hypotheses were incorrect:
• Catholic students on the whole did not exhibit a change in moral reasoning
• Catholic students did not exhibit higher reasoning than
Non-Catholic students on the Catholic Dilemma

• Limited amount of survey subjects
• There was only one female participant in the study
• There was only Non-Catholic participant in the study
• Survey participants were distracted by their classmates
• Survey participation was limited to students in the 7 th grade
• Use of only two dilemmas provided limited information
• The Catholic Dilemma should have clarified that
Theresa’s parish does not offer a vigil mass
• Students did not choose to attend a Catholic school

Nature Nurture
Important Things to Consider:
”Social experiences can challenge a child’s ideas, motivating them to come up with new ones.”
“Stage structures and sequences do not simply unfold according to a genetic blueprint.”
Stages unfold in an invariant sequence and have crosscultural universality.