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Kohlberg's theory of moral development - Coggle Diagram
Kohlberg's theory of moral development
AIMS
to show how his research supports his stage theory of moral development
PROCEDURE
studied 75 American boys for 12 years and presented them with moral dilemmas every 3 years
also went to other countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Mexico etc and found some cultural difference between moral reasoning for the same decision
BACKGROUND
PRE-CONVENTIONAL
Stage 1- obedience and punishment orientation (child is well behaved and responsive to cultural norms but able to misbehave if authority structure is missing)
Stage 2- self interest orientation (child behaves in a self-centred way)
stage 1 dilemma = "is it better to save the life of one important person than a lot of unimportant people?" stage 2 dilemma = "should the doctor mercy kill a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?"
(doctor dilemma for all other stages
CONVENTIONAL
Stage 3- conformity to expectations and rules (child now seeking approval from others)
Stage 4- authority and social order orientation (child now sees right behaviour as a duty)
POST-CONVENTIONAL
Stage 5- social contract orientation (child does what is right based on law plus personal values)
Stage 6- universal ethics principles (child now bases judgement on universal human rights of justice etc)
CONCLUSIONS
found that the rate children moved through the stages differed depending on their social class etc
moral development occurs in the same order regardless of where a child grows up
EVALUATIONS
RESEARCH METHOD: longitudinal studies are good in terms of controlling participant variables but also leads to high levels of attrition, another strength is the fact this study was cross-cultural
ETHICS: it can be assumed that the pps consented to take part and easily could have withdrawn
VALIDITY: could lack ecological validity as people may act differently if actually presented with the situation in real life, chance of demand characteristics/socially desirable answers, no control of extraneous variables
RELIABILITY: relatively large sample with a standardised procedure therefore reliable, however arguable that parenting style has changed since this study was conducted and so his results may not be valid today
SAMPLE: generalisability is limited to specifically American boys (ethno and androcentric)
ETHNOCENTRISM: assumes that every culture is the same and therefore this study is highly ethnocentric
NATURE/NUTURE: suggests each individual has a predetermined sequence of stages that is not effected by other factors (nature) however, there is a little bit of influence depending on culture so some aspects of nurture
SCIENCE: lacks objectivity due to lack of control over extraneous variables and subjective interpretation however used the scientific process of induction
FREEWILL/DETERMINISM: considered deterministic as they are invariant and happen chronologically
DATA: data collected was qualitative as he was looking at how the children justified their responses, however this makes it very subjective