Moral Development

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Moral Development

• Lawrence Kohlberg

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Warm Up

• What would you do in the following situation
• 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 make. 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 the husband have done that?
  (Kohlberg, 1963, p. 19)

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Introduction

• Harvard Professor
• 1970s Research
• Moral Development
• 3 Levels of ethical thinking
• Broken down into six stages with two stages at
  each level

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Pre-Conventional Stage 1Obedience Punishment
Orientation

• Childhood
• Obey authority without question
• Fear Punishment
• Its bad to steal

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Pre-Conventional Stage 2Individualism Exchange

• Believe that people have different viewpoints
• Pursue individual interests
• Everything is relative Do what you want

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Conventional Stage 3Good Interpersonal
Relationships

• Seeking the approval of others
• Community based expectations
• Steal for the love of your wife Dont be
  selfish

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Conventional Stage 4Maintaining Social Order

• Abiding by the law and respecting authority
• Concerned with the individuals society as a
  whole
• We cannot condone theft because what if everyone
  started stealing?

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Post- Conventional Stage 5Social Contract
Individual Rights

• A smooth functioning society is not always a just
  society
• Social Mutuality
• Care for the welfare of others
• Unjust laws may be changed democratically
• Life transcends property in any society

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Post- Conventional Stage 6Universal Principles

• Very rare to achieve level
• Equal respect for all
• Civil Disobedience
• A commitment to justice requires us to disobey
  unjust laws
• Consistently see yourself through someone elses
  eyes

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Movement Through Stages

• Move through stages 1 at a time
• Can only comprehend 1 stage above present stage
• Social interaction promotes movement

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WWKD (What would Kohlberg do?)

• Use the information from this lecture to analyze
  the hypothetical situations from your worksheet
• What level would your decision be for each
  situation (according to Kohlberg)?