Preconventional

1. Kohlberg’s Theory Of
Moral Development

2. Lawrence Kohlberg
(1927-1987)
Lawrence Kohlberg was the
American psychologist who founded
the moral development theory.

3. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• The term Moral derived from the
Latin word Mores, meaning manners,
customs and folk ways
• A child has to learn what is right and
what is wrong, what is good and
what is bad
• He has to learn his duties.

4. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Morality has two dimensions which
are closely interlinked
• Rules of morality operate in social
context and secondly, it is used to
pursue the good life- Personal moral
code.

5. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Kohlberg’s beliefs
• Our ability to judge the morality of
actions evolves through stages as our
brains develop.
• Our development occurs in fairly
predictable stages

6. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Kohlberg continued to develop and
edit the theory based upon new
research throughout his life.
• The theory offers three levels of
moral development, each of which
contains two stages.

7. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Kohlberg asserts that moral
development is neither the result of
a genetic blueprint nor the result of
conscious teaching of morality.
• Rather, it is a process of maturing
that arises from thinking about moral
issues.

8. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Moral Dilemma
• fictional stories that
describe situations in
which a person has to
make a moral decision
• Example: Husband, wife
and her father

9. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Moral reasoning
• the process of
determining right or
wrong in a given
situation
• Example: three exams
on same day

10. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

11. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

12. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
The theory offers three levels of moral
development, each of which contains
two stages.

13. Preconventional
Morality
Conventional
Morality
Post-Conventional
Morality

14. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Preconventional Morality
Stage 1: Punishment or obedience
orientation
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose
orientation/ Individualism/Mutual
Exchange

15. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Conventional Morality
Stage 3: Interpersonal Relationship
Good Boy-Nice Girl orientation
Stage 4: Social Order/ Law-and-Order
Orientation/ Orientation towards authority

16. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Post-conventional Morality
Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights
orientation
Stage 6: Universal Ethical principle orientation

17. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Level-1 : Preconventional
Morality
Stage 1: Punishment or obedience
orientation
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose
orientation/ Individualism/Mutual
Exchange

18. 1. Preconventional Morality
( Pre adolescent age)
• Level one is Preconventional morality,
wherein a person is motivated by
obedience to authority.
• This level of moral development is
commonly associated with young
children and involves little thought
about morality.

19. Stage 1:
Punishment or obedience orientation
• morality is motivated solely by
punishment and anything which is
punishable is deemed wrong
• 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”

20. Stage 2:
Instrumental purpose
orientation/ Individualism
• Act according to ones own self-interest
• Mutual Exchange
• Tit for tat
• Reward seeking behaviour
• Speak as isolated individuals instead of
reasoning members of society

21. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Level 2 : Conventional Morality
Stage 3: Interpersonal Relationship
Good Boy-Nice Girl orientation
Stage 4: Social Order/ Law-and-Order
Orientation/ Orientation towards authority

22. Stage 3:
Interpersonal Relationship
Good Boy-Nice Girl orientation
• In this stage chid begins to like the
goodwill of others and tries to please
others to obtain their approval in the
form of “good boy”, “nice girl”.
• Good moral behaviour always please
others

23. • 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”

24. Stage 4:
Social Order/ Law-and-Order
Orientation/ Orientation towards
authority
• 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”

25. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
Post-conventional Morality
Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights
orientation
Stage 6: Universal Ethical principle orientation

26. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
In the post-conventional phase of
moral development, people look
beyond convention to determine moral
norms and appropriate social
interactions.

27. Stage 5:
Social contract and individual
rights orientation
• Emphasis on the social contract and the
maintenance of individual rights.
• 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”

28. Stage 6:
Universal Ethical principle
orientation
• search for universal principles.
• Ability to engage in abstract
reasoning
• Protection of individual rights and
disputes settled through the
democratic process

29. • At this stage the individual keeps in
mind not only the norms of society
but also the universal moral
principles.
• To uphold these principles, an
individual may be prepared to
sacrifice his all, including his life

30. • Most people never reach the post-
conventional level of morality.
• Most people in studies of Kohlberg’s
theories are in the conventional
morality level.

31. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

32. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

33. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

34. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

35. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

36. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

37. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

38. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

39. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

40. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory

41. CRITICISMS

42. • Gender Bias
• Most of the subjects of his research
were boys
• Some claim he made a serious
research error in generalizing the
results of these male subjects to all
humanity

43. • Culture ignorance
• Age according development is not
proper. Stage 5th and 6th are rarely
found
• Even at age of 20 people behave as
per stage 1 or 2.. Its not necessary that
people will behave as per stage 5

44. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Family influence on justice
• Context of situation is also important
• He underestimate young ones
• Moral thoughts vs behaviour
• Domain specific experience is more important
than age
• Micro moral issues, for example: giving seat in
a bus to an old person

45. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Carol Gilligan found that more men are in
advanced stages of morality than women, raising
serious questions about whether Kohlberg’s
stages are gender neutral or universal.
• Gilligan found, for example, that men tend to
focus on principles of justice while women tend
to focus on principles of fairness and caring.
• Gilligan, in turn, has been criticized for
essentializing behavioural differences between
men and women.

46. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #1 Rosa borrowed her
father’s car. She and her friend Judy
were very late coming home that
evening. They were further delayed at a
stop light on a quiet street. After what
seemed to be an unnecessarily long
wait, Judy reminded Rosa that they
were late.

47. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Rosa continued to wait, insisting that
if everyone ignored stop lights when
it was personally convenient to do
so, no street would ever be safe.

48. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #1 At what stage was
Rosa’s decision? Preconventional
Conventional Post conventional
• Situation #1 Conventional Rosa
acknowledges the needs of the other
drivers on the roads and she
recognizes the reasoning behind
such laws.

49. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #2 Bill was not prepared for a
difficult chemistry exam, so he wrote
some important formulas on a slip of
paper which he put in his pocket before
the test period. Just before the test
began, the teacher informed the class
that any students caught cheating would
automatically fail the test.

50. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Even though Bill needed the
information that he wrote, he didn’t
use it because the teacher stood too
close to his desk during the entire
exam.
• Situation #2 At which stage was Bill
operating? Preconventional
Conventional Postconventional

51. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #2 Bill’s decides not to
cheat only because his teacher was
standing too close to him, and if he
were to cheat he would almost
certainly get caught and be punished
for his actions. Preconventional

52. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #3 Early in the school year,
La Mar who played on the first string
of the basketball team, asked Janet
for a date. Janet was not attracted to
La Mar and politely declined. A few
weeks later Janet tried out for
cheerleading and made it.

53. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Several of the other cheerleaders
were dating boys on the team. When
La Mar asked Janet to go with him to
a party the team was having after an
important game, she accepted.
• Situation #3 Which stage was Janet’s
decision made at? Preconventional
Conventional Postconventional

54. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #3 Janet accepted La Mar’s
second offer because most of the
other cheerleaders were dating
basketball players. As a cheerleader,
this seemed to be normal. Therefore,
Janet believed that dating La Mar
would correspond with what was
considered to be right and normal for
a cheerleader. Conventional

55. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #4 Kevin asked his older
sister, Joyce, if he could borrow her
car so that he and his friend could go
to the beach for the afternoon. Joyce
reminded her brother that she never
wanted him to drive her car.

56. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• She suggested, however, that if it was
alright with him, they could all go
together. Soon after they got to the
beach, Kevin’s friend got ill.
• Kevin asked Joyce if she could drive
his friend home. Joyce refused saying
that she had just come all that way
and she was not going to turn around
and go right back.

57. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Kevin tried unsuccessfully to find
another way to get his friend home.
Finally, while Joyce was swimming,
Kevin wrote her a note telling her
that he would be back soon, took her
car keys, and drove his friend back
home.

58. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #4 Which stage was Kevin’s
decision made? Preconventional
Conventional Postconventional

59. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #4 Kevin questions
whether Joyce’s decision to not take
Kevin’s friend home is right or wrong.
Kevin realizes his sister does not
want him to drive her car, but
decides that the well-being of his
friend is more important that Joyce’s
decision. Postconventional

60. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #5 As Carl’s father was
leaving for work in the morning, he
asked Carl to clean out the garage
sometime during the day. Carl
responded, saying that he already
had plans to play tennis that day.

61. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Around noon, Carl and two of his
friends made plans that required Carl
to borrow his father’s car that
evening. Carl decided to skip playing
tennis and clean the garage.

62. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #5 Which stage was Carl’s
decision made at? Preconventional
Conventional Post conventional

63. Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory
• Situation #5 Carl initially decided that
cleaning the garage, as his father
asked, would not correspond with his
plans. When his plans changed, he
made time to clean the garage for his
father, knowing that if he did not, he
would face the consequences and
would most likely not be able to use
his father’s car.