Kohlberg Study summary

Data collection - kohlberg

Qualitative so rich in detail and insight, could have gotten quantitative data using likert scale and closed questions

Authority orientation - Kohlberg's theory

Respect for authority, fixed rules, and doing one's duty, seeking to maintain social order

How does the study change our understanding of individual diversity?

Shows how each individual develops along the same stages of moral reasoning, at different speeds

Design - Kohlberg -experiment 2

Snapshot study, semi-structured

Dv - kohlberg

Stage of moral reasoning

Similarities between kohlberg and lee

Standardised procedure: replicable, bosth quasi

Reliability - kohlberg

Standardised: same questions and dilemmas, interviews measure morality which can be affected by demand characteristics and social desiribility

Results - kohlberg - experiment 2

Tawain boys gave stage 2 responses: he shouls steal the food because he needs his wife to cook for him - Mexico and Taiwan showed same results as experiment 1 but development was slower - isolated villages showed steady progress but at 16 yrs still stage 1 reasoning still most common - stage 6 rarely found but wasn't an alternative to stage 5

Practical applications - kohlberg

Teachers can understand their students better

Aim - Kohlberg

To gather further support for Kohlberg's view on moral development. To find out if people at stage 6 go through stage 5 or whether they are two alternate orientations

Punishment orientation - kohlberg's theory

Unquestioning deference to a superior power: the physical conseqence of an action determines its goddness or badness

How does the study change our understanding of social diversity?

culture is in a sense a social influence, as both studies show cultural differences in moral development, this supports the idea that morals are influenced by the social, cultural environment that a child is brought up in

Levels of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Link to area - kohlberg

- It is investigating how, as people get older, the nature of their moral thinking can be seen to evolve, passing through six distinct stages of moral development - Moral development is found to occur in a sequential order, according to Kohlberg's stage theory, where individuals may progress at their own rate depending on environmental factors such as class upbringing.

Conclusions - kohlberg

- There is a developmental sequence of an individual's moral development - each stage comes one at a tme and always in the same order - An indivudual may stop at any given stage, at any age

Role of society discussion - kohlberg

- as children mature they learn to see the world from the viewpoint of others At pre-con and con levels morals are culture bound but at pot-con they are based on universal principles - a person who understands justice more will act more justly (contradicts view that what people say and what they actually do are different)

Differences between kohlberg and lee

- longitudinal vs snaphot study - inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability - kohlberg focused on qualitative vs lee focused on quantitative - population validity

Results - kohlberg - experiment 1

- stages were reflected in answers given to dilemmas - progress through stqages with increased age - not all participants get to stage 6y - a child at an earlier stage of development moves forward when confronted with the views of a child one stage further along and they seem to prefer this next step

Trading up discussion - kohlberg

-Each stage requires more cognitive organisation -children understand the stages they have been through and even the next stage -children move stages when their own stage is challenged by views from the next stage along

Stages of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

1. Punishment orientation 2. Instrumental orientation 3. Good boy/good girl 4. Authority orientation 5. Social contract orientation 6. Universal ethical principles

Sample - Kohlberg - Experiment 1

75 American boys, starting ages: 10,13,16, Finsihing ages: 22-28, interviewed every 3-4 years, selected from ranges of socioeconomic and religious backgrounds

Social contract orientation - Kohlberg's theory

A legal ppoint of view, respect for democratic process of arriving at social rules

Iv - kohlberg

Age

Good girl/Good boy - kohlberg's theory

Behaving well to please others, behaviour judged by intention

Procedure - experiment 2 - kohlberg

Boys asked dilemmas through a chinese translater, dilemmas adjusted to more understandable concepts for the culture (e.g. stealing food rather than stealing medicine)

Procedure - experiment 1 - kohlberg

Boys assesed using moral judgement interview consisting of fictional moral dilemmas based on 25 moral concepts: - first assessed at 10-13 yrs and retested every 3-4 years - after given moral dilemma, open questions asked to explain reasons for their choices : the questions asked were aadjusted based on previous answers - 9 dilemmas, took 45 minutes

Internal validity - Kohlberg

Chinese interpreter may have posed questions differently, demand characteristics, social desiribility bias, repeated measures reduces individual differences

Universal ethical principles - kohlberg's theory

Desicions based on one's own conscience, respect for dignity of all humans

Population validity - kohlberg

Experiment 2 not ethnocentric, androcentric as only boys, range of socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, may be cultural differences in socities' view on morality, large sample reducing invidual differences

Instrumental orientation - Kohlberg's theory

Fairness is important as long as one's own needs are satisfied (I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine)

Ecological validity

Hypothetical though experiment cannot begeneralised to their real life actions, young children cannot relate to dilemmas (e.g Heinz), artificial dilemmas, However chinese participants had altered dilemmas so they were more culturally understandable

How does the study change our understanding of cultural diversity?

morality is deveoped over time across cultures

Design - kohlberg - experiment 1

Longitudinal study, semi-structured interview, quasi experiment, repeated measures

How is kohlberg related to the nature debate

Moral resoning progresses in the sae way in all cultures

How is kohlberg related to the individual debate

Moral thinking develops through the six stages in the same way

How is kohlberg deterministic

Moral thinking is determined mostly by innate processes that unfold over the course of development

Debates relating to kohlberg

Nature, individual, deterministic

Sample - kohlberg - Experiment 2

No data on number of participants, all male, starting ages: 10-13, participants from two villages in malaysia and taiwan, two isolated villages in Mexico and Turkey, and Uk and Canada

Ethics - kohlberg

No harm, consent, could drop out at any age, some situations could potentially cause distress