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Moral Development
 The
American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg,
for example, has concluded on the basis of over
twenty years of research that there is a sequence
of six identifiable stages in the development of a
person’s ability to deal with moral issues.
 Kohlberg
grouped these stages of moral
development into three levels, each containing
two stages, the second of which is the more
organized form of the general perspective of
each level. The sequence of six stages can be
summarized as follows:
LEVELONE:PRECONVENTIONAL STAGES
 At these first two stages, the child is able to
respond to rules and social expectations and
can apply the labels “good”, “bad”, “right”, and
“wrong”. These rules however, are seen as
something external imposed on the self.
 Right
and wrong are interpreted in terms of the
pleasant or painful consequences of actions or
in terms of the physical power of those who set
the rules. The child sees situations only from
his or her own point of view, and since the child
does not yet have the ability to identify with
others to any great extent, the primary
motivation is self-interest.

StageOne: Punishment And Obedience Orientation
At this stage the physical consequences of an act wholly
determine the goodness or badness of that act. The child’s
reasons for doing he right thing are to avoid punishment or
to defer to the superior physical power of authorities.
There is little awareness that others have needs and desires
similar to one’s own.

Stage Two: Instrument and Relativity Orientation
At this stage right actions are those that can serve as
instruments for satisfying the child’s own needs or the
needs f those for whom the child cares. The child is now
aware that others have needs and desires similar to his or
her own and begins to defer to them in order to get them
to do what he or she wants .
 LEVEL TWO:
CONVENTIONAL STAGES
 Maintaining the expectations of one’s own family,
peer group, or nation is seen as valuable in its own
right, regardless of the consequences. The person
does not merely conform to expectations but
exhibits loyalty to the group and its norms.
 The
person is now able to see situations from the
point of view of others in the group and assumes
that everyone is similar. The person is motivated
to conform to the group’s norms and subordinates
the needs of the individual to those of the group.
Stage Three:Interpersonal Concordance Orientation

Good behavior is living up to what is expected by those
for whom one feels loyalty, affection, and trust, such as
family and friends. Right action is conformity to what is
generally expected in one’s role as a good son, daughters,
brother, friend, etc. Doing what is right is motivated by
the need to be a “good person” in one’s own eyes and in
the eyes of others.
 Stage
four: Law and Order Orientation.
 Right and wrong are determined by loyalty to
one’s own nation. Laws are to be upheld except
where they conflict with other fixed social duties.
The person is now able to see other people as parts
of a larger social system that defines individual
roles and obligations, and he or she can separate
the norms generated by this system from his or her
interpersonal relationships.
 LEVEL
THREE: POSTCONVENTIONAL,
AUTONOMOUS, OR PRINCIPLED STAGES
At these stages the person no longer simply accepts
the values and forms of the groups to which he or
she belongs. Instead the person now tries to se
situations from appoint of view that impartially
takes everyone’s interests into account.
The person questions the laws and values that society
has adopted and redefines them in terms of selfchosen universal moral principles that can be
justified to any rational individual. The proper
laws and values are those to which any reasonable
person would be motivated to commit himself or
herself, whatever place the person holds in society
and whatever society he or she belongs to.
Stage five: Social Contract Orientation.
 The person is aware that people hold a variety of
conflicting personal views and opinions, and emphasizes
fair ways of reaching consensus by agreement, contract,
and due process. The person believes that all values and
norms are relative and that apart from this democratic
consensus, all should be tolerated.

State Six: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation.
 Right action is defined in terms of universal principles
chosen because of their logical comprehensiveness, their
universality, and their consistency. These ethical principles
are not concrete like the Ten Commandments but abstract
universal principles dealing with justice, society’s welfare,
the equality of human rights, respect for the dignity of
individual human beings, and with the idea that persons
are ends in themselves and must be treated as such..


The person’s reasons for doing right are based on a
 Kohlberg’s
theory is important because it helps us
understand in detail how individuals develop their
moral capacities or “virtues “ through the
internalization of the moral standards prevalent in
their communities. It also reveals how we become
increasingly sophisticated and critical in our
understanding of the moral standards.