Download Moral development focus on change and understanding of morality

Moral development focus on change and understanding of morality from infancy
through to adulthood. Based on Lawrence Kohlberg, morality is the principles for
how an individual ought to treat one another, with respect to justice, others’
welfare and rights. The two main person who research and came to a conclusion on
the different stage of moral development are Lawrence Kohlberg and Coral
Gilligan. The stage of moral development are conventional morality, preconventional and post conventional. Kohlberg did his research using sample
mainly from young boys and men. Coral Gilligan thought that his research was
bias and used her samples from females only.
Lawrence Kohlberg talk about three levels of moral development and six stages.
Level one pre- conventional morality, samples where used from children ages 9
and younger. At this stage, individuals are said to not have a personal code of
morality, instead, their codes are shaped by the standards of adults and the
consequences of following or breaking the rules set. Stage one and two are
describe under this level, stage one is obedience and punishment orientation and
stage two is individualism and exchange. Level two speak about convention
morality whereby, samples were taken from mostly adolescents and adults.
Individual at this stage starts to accept rules and standards of one’s group. Under
this level stage three and four are describe, stage three speaks about good
interpersonal relationships and stage four speaks about maintaining the social
order. Level three speaks about post conventional morality, at this stage individual
judgment is based on self-chosen principles and moral reasoning is based on
individual rights and justice. The two final stages are stage five which talks about
social contracts and rights, and stage six speaks about universal principles.
Coral Gilligan moral development theory of ethics care, pre-conventional speaks
about individual having only care for themselves in order to ensure survival. The
transitional phase is that the individual’s attitude is consider selfish and the person
seeks to connect themselves with others. The conventional stage is where
individual starts to show more care for others, and that individuals may begin to
ignore their own care. The transitional phase, this is where tension between
responsibility of caring for others and caring for self are faced. Post-conventional
is the final stage, individual starts to show care for self and others. The difference
between these theories is the source by which they used to collect their information
to prove their research.