Psychology 3260 (Hartmann) Lecture 23:
Moral Development II (Kohlberg)
Psychology 3260: Personality
& Social Development
Don Hartmann
Spring 2007
© Lecture 23: Moral Development II
(Kohlberg)
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Interesting Moral Socialization
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Moral Development
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Text Overlap: Pp. 323-332
Lecture: Cognitive-Developmental
Theory (Moral Thinking)
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Introduction
Kohlberg: The 3 Ways
Evaluation of Kohlberg
Gilligan’s Theory Of Female Moral
Reasoning
Next: #24: Families--Parenting
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Psychology 3260 (Hartmann) Lecture 23:
Moral Development II (Kohlberg)
Moral Reasoning: Introduction
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Piaget got the ball rolling!
Moral reasoning a derivative of his
theory of cognitive development
Three stages:
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Premoral
Heteronomous morality (Moral realism)
Autonomous morality (Moral relativism)
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Kohlberg’s Refinements: I
Three levels each with two stages
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Preconventional:
1. Punishment & Obedience
Orientation
2. Naïve Hedonism
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Kohlberg’s Refinements: II
§ Conventional:
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4.
Person Orientation
Social-Order Maintaining
§ Postconventional: morality of selfaccepted moral principles:
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Social Contract Orientation
Individual Principles
of Conscience
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Psychology 3260 (Hartmann) Lecture 23:
Moral Development II (Kohlberg)
Whose kind of morality?
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Tests of Kohlberg
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Generally supportive results:
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Individuals progress pretty much in the order
that Kohlberg theorized
Few people progress beyond the conventional
level, and in some underdeveloped countries
individuals, particularly those from rural villages,
show no evidence of postconventional moral
reasoning. This may be due to limitations in
schooling.
Formal operational thought is necessary , though
not sufficient for post conventional moral
reasoning
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Tests of Kohlberg
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Generally unsupported results:
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Moral development seems not to be based on
universal principles, but instead is at least partly
contextually (e.g., culturally) defined
Gender biased: The average guy is at stage 4
(authority and social-order-maintaining) and gal
at stage 3 (good boy or good girl orientation).
Does this mean that boys are more moral than
girls?.
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Psychology 3260 (Hartmann) Lecture 23:
Moral Development II (Kohlberg)
And here she is…
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Gilligan’s Feminist
Concerns
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The manner in which we socialize girls & boys
results in differences in the manner in which they
reason about moral issues:
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boys being more oriented to rules and
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girls to relationships.
Because Kohlberg was a male, used only boys in developing his
stages, and used their performance to develop his scoring, he
interpreted stage 3 as being less sophisticated than stage 4 -rather than merely different.
Gilligan, in a study of pregnant females found 3 levels of CARE
with each level representing a more complex understanding of the
relationship between one’s own perspective and the rights and
concerns of others.
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Gilligan’s Stages of Care
Perspective
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Psychology 3260 (Hartmann) Lecture 23:
Moral Development II (Kohlberg)
Not the Utah Legislature!
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Summary of Moral-Reasoning
II Lecture
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Cognitive-Developmental Theory
(Moral Thinking): Kohlberg
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Tests of Kohlberg
Gilligan’s Theory Of Female Morality
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Next: #27 Families: Parenting
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Go in Peace
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