Download Kohlberg`s Moral Development Theory

Kohlberg’s Moral
Development Theory
Harvard Center for Moral Education
 20 years of using interviews to investigate
the nature of moral thought, by classifying
interview responses to a story. The
interviewee answers a series of questions
about the moral dilemma
 From these answers Kohlberg
hypothesizes three level of moral
development

The Story of Heinz

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind
of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought
might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist
in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten
times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman's
husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow
the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000
which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his
wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let
him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered
the drug and I'm going to make money from it."

Kohlberg used this moral dilemma to
question various interviewees to
determine their moral thought pattern.
He would follow the story with, “Should
Heinz steal the drug?”
What he was looking for

Kohlberg did not care about the yes or no
answer about stealing the drug, but rather
the explanation behind the answer

Kohlberg then broke down the answers
and developed the three stages of moral
development:
– Preconvention
– Conventional
– Post conventional
Preconventional Stage

Level 1.Obedience and punishment
orientation
– Children obey because adults tell them
to obey. People base their moral
decision on fear of punishment

Level 2. Self–interest orientation
– Individuals pursue their own interests
and expect others to do the same –
what is right involves equal exchange
Conventional Stage

Level 3. Mutual interpersonal
expectations and conformity
– Individuals value trust, caring, and
loyalty to others as a basis for moral
judgments– Want to live up to expectations

Level 4 Social system morality
– Moral judgments based on social law
– The importance of doing one’s duty
– Maintaining the fabric of society
Postconventional Stage

Level 5.Social contract and Individual
rights
– Individuals reason that values, rights and
principles may transcend the law – difference
between moral and legal right

Level 6.Universal ethical principles
– Individual principles of conscience and justice