Kohlberg's Moral Development Theory

The play Antigone by Sophocles, is about a girl who faces a family conflict over her deceased brother. The protagonist is Antigone and she stays the same morally throughout the play. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development helps people understand the stages individuals morally move through as they mature more. Because of Antigone’s decisions and ideas at the beginning and the end of the play, she is a morally static character through the story.

Kohlberg discovered social development is the moral reasoning change as people grew older where he came up with three levels divided into six stages based on his interviews of 72 Chicago boys aged 10-16 years for a span of 20 years. (Cherry, 2014).

As quoted by Dr. Seuss, "A person is a person, no matter how small." But is there a limit as to when a person considered a person? One question and a million answers. This has been a dilemma for so many years, and there will never be a finalized answer, because how diverse we are in our opinions. To me, a person is considered a significant being from the moment a he or she is conceived. No matter how minute in size it is, a fetus is a living being, and it is ethically and scientifically wrong to rid the world of life.

In every day life, we face many situations that require a moral decision. We have to decide what is right and what is wrong? Not always is this an easy task thus, it seems important to analyze how we make our moral decisions. I will start with an analysis of how we make decisions in general

In Thomas Nagel’s response to Bernard William’s, Moral Luck, Nagel questions whether our “moral goodness” or “moral badness” is simply a matter of sheer luck. Judging if someone is in fact “good” or “bad” or in other words, the way we are, the circumstances we face and, the way things turn out are indeed caused by luck. In this paper, I will confirm Nagel’s assertions in that the way things turn out, how we respond to given situations, and how one was raised are all a matter of luck in deciding ones moral goodness or badness.

Immanuel Kant and John Samuel Mill have various similarities and differences on how we see the world. Where both will have, different ideologies referring to the cases of rescue I and rescue II. Kant and Mill are similar in multiple ways where both recognize the moral rules where Kant calls them duties and Mill calls them subordinate principles. Both have the subordinate principles where not to lie, no to stealing, and deprive from liberty from others. Appealing the consequences of the derived duties, where Kant considers the consequence of Maxim to become a universal law of nature, Mill considers the consequence of kind action. Evaluating the morality within ourselves they evaluate morality on the principle of what is wrong or right. As equally

One model that explains an individual’s reaction to the incest in all innocence experiment is the social intuitionist model. In moral psychology, the social intuitionist model argues that intuitions are the embodiment of a particular culture. From this perspective, it is intuition, reason, social and cultural influences that produce moral judgments within an individual (Haidt, 2001,

When attempting to determine how an individual’s moral compass is constructed, there are a number of theories to consider. Freudian philosophy suggests that the early years of a person’s life are crucial in shaping components of their psyche. Most can agree on this concept, but the question is, does physical environment or independent psychological evolution ultimately influence that development? Based on the characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Glass Castle, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it is demonstrated that various environmental factors do in fact frame one’s conscience, but also that events and societal pressures later in life can change that.

In the first ten minute of observation, the children had just come back from recess to have a snack. The five year old male child proceeded to the sink and washed his hands. The child who refused to follow the directions when asked was not given a snack and not allowed to participate in free time after snack. The learned behavior of washing his hands in order to receive a snack and participate in playtime can be connected morality. He followed the rules(washed hands) to avoid punishment and gain a reward(snack/playtime). This aligns to Kohlberg's preconventional morality,

Gilligan ( 1997) achieved the conclusion that Kohlbergs hypothesis did not represent the way that ladies approach moral issues from a morals of consideration, instead of a morals of equity point of view, which moves a portion of the essential presumptions of Kohlbergs hypothesis. Additionally Critics have brought up that Kohlbergs hypothesis of good advancement overemphasizes the idea as equity when settling on good decisions. Commentators including Carol Gilligan have recommended that Kohlbergs hypothesis was sexual orientation one-sided since the majority of the subjects in his example were male. Kohlberg trusted that ladies had a tendency to stay at the third level of good advancement since they put a more grounded emphasis on things, for

The 2016 political election has caused great uproar on both the democratic and republican side. Yet, the main focus has been devoted to the actions of the candidates. Meanwhile coverage has been very minimal in terms of the unfortunate events that are to some extent influenced by the actions of these politicians. Recently there have been unfortunate hate expressions and attacks on people of color, in the name of current politicians. Although these events are very concerning, the rest of society seems to view these events as temporary and deem the importance. Social Psychologist, Jonathan Haidt looks at politics through moral foundations theory, in analyzing the relationship between morality and human reasoning. Therefore, this paper will analyze

Today, morality is tested in everyday situations; Whether on a test day or in a relationship. Everyday humans are presented with situations which often express or challenge morals. Individual morality comes from life in years not years in life, in other words experience and living. Although government and regulation are a huge aspect when it it comes to morals, freewill or the consciousness of what you are doing is “wrong” in society but still doing it anyway and accountability of one’s own actions contributes to one’s own morality. Individual morality is also influenced by religion, gender, culture, dreams and desires. While society morality is determined by gender, religion, social class, culture, government and time period.

Morality has long been used by human being as a basis for their actions. Believers of God think that doing good deeds is being moral and thus these actions will save them from their sins. They believe that following God’s will, that is the 10 commandments and in the new commandments stated in the New Testament is the written and visible basis for these actions found in the Holy Bible. .

Kohlberg’s moral development sees moral reasoning as progressing through three levels to support his claims. First, pre-conventional moral reasoning, it is characterized by apparent and physical events. The presentation of moral issues at this stage is concentrated with the rewards and punishments after the occurrence of their action. This stage is commonly exercised of children ages 4 to 10. In this stage, they follow the rules to avoid punishment and gain rewards. Some adolescents and adults remain at this level to gain their rewards and to satisfy their needs (Steinberg, 2002).

Shermer and Prinze carefully analyzes that moral decisions are primarily based on emotions while Bloom states that its based on reasoning. Shermer and Prinze are correct to state moral decisions are based on emotions because of evolving of morality, dominancy of emotions and emotional conditioning in morality. Emotions lead morals. Without them nobody would be able to understand what is evil or not since they are the basis of