Developmental: Kohlberg 1968

Developmental: Kohlberg 1968

1. Procedure

   • 9 hypothetical moral dilemmas
     • Represented a conflict between two moral issues
   • Answers analysed
     • Used to construct the stage theory
       • Re-interviewed every three years
   • open questions
     • Should Heins steal the drug? Why or why not?

2. Evaluation

   • sample
     • only boys
       • gender-biased
       • women more focused on relationships
       • male morality different to female morality
   • external validity
     • the questions may have been confusing
     • Gilligan 1982: not real-life decisions
   • social desirability
     • what they think not what they do
       • a theory of reasoning
     • present behaviour idealistically

3. Conclusions

   • stages
     • invariant and universal
   • more equilibriated through each stage
     • 3 large stages (two small ones in each)

4. Methdology

   • interviews
   • participants
     • 10-16 and 22-28
     • 75 American boys
     • Also GB, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey
   • Longitudinal
   • Qualitative data

5. Findings

   • Younger children thought at the conventional stage
     • Older children focused their decisions on doing good
   • changes in moral thinking
   • pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional