moral developmental
Theories of the Development of Moral Reasoning, Attitudes & Beliefs
( Kohlberg, Turiel, Gilligan)
Lawrence Kohlberg
• He established the Moral Judgement Interview in his original 1958 dissertation, the interviewer uses moral dilemmas to determine which stage of moral reasoning a person uses.
• The dilemmas are fictional short stories that describe situations in which a person has to make a moral decision.
• Kohlberg experimented on this theory by interviewing boys aged 10 to 16. They were presented moral dilemmas and where made to decide whether to respect and follow the authority, obey the rules or ignore the rules, and respond to the needs and welfare of other people
• The participant is asked a systemic series of open-ended questions, like what they think the right course of action is? Why certain actions are right or wrong?
Heinz Steals the Drug In Europe
A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not? 3 Levels of Moral Reasoning
Level 1 Pre-conventional morality
• Stage 1 Obedience & Punishment Orientation
- The child/individual is good in order to avoid being punished.
• Stage 2 Individualism
( Kohlberg, Turiel, Gilligan)
Lawrence Kohlberg
• He established the Moral Judgement Interview in his original 1958 dissertation, the interviewer uses moral dilemmas to determine which stage of moral reasoning a person uses.
• The dilemmas are fictional short stories that describe situations in which a person has to make a moral decision.
• Kohlberg experimented on this theory by interviewing boys aged 10 to 16. They were presented moral dilemmas and where made to decide whether to respect and follow the authority, obey the rules or ignore the rules, and respond to the needs and welfare of other people
• The participant is asked a systemic series of open-ended questions, like what they think the right course of action is? Why certain actions are right or wrong?
Heinz Steals the Drug In Europe
A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not? 3 Levels of Moral Reasoning
Level 1 Pre-conventional morality
• Stage 1 Obedience & Punishment Orientation
- The child/individual is good in order to avoid being punished.
• Stage 2 Individualism