Developmental: Kohlberg 1968

Procedure
1. 9 hypothetical moral dilemmas
  1. Represented a conflict between two moral issues
2. Answers analysed
  1. Used to construct the stage theory
    1. Re-interviewed every three years
3. open questions
  1. Should Heins steal the drug? Why or why not?
Evaluation
1. sample
  1. only boys
    1. gender-biased
    2. women more focused on relationships
    3. male morality different to female morality
2. external validity
  1. the questions may have been confusing
  2. Gilligan 1982: not real-life decisions
3. social desirability
  1. what they think not what they do
    1. a theory of reasoning
  2. present behaviour idealistically
Conclusions
1. stages
  1. invariant and universal
2. more equilibriated through each stage
  1. 3 large stages (two small ones in each)
Methdology
1. interviews
2. participants
  1. 10-16 and 22-28
  2. 75 American boys
  3. Also GB, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey
3. Longitudinal
4. Qualitative data
Findings
1. Younger children thought at the conventional stage
  1. Older children focused their decisions on doing good
2. changes in moral thinking
3. pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional

Resource summary

	Created by Eva Ihezue almost 5 years ago