Download Kohlberg`s Theory of Moral Development

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral
Development:
A system to study character
development in literature
A Sociological
Approach to Criticism
• Looking at the Adam
and Eve/Cain and
Abel is looking at
Archetypal patterns
• Looking at Theories
of Morality is an
approach from lens of
morality
An allegorical painting representing
charity….a virtue revered by society
Why we will look at Kohlberg
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To compare and contrast character behavior
To illuminate more fully our understanding of the text
To analyze and evaluate character behavior
To view character motivation from a cultural/ethical point
of origin
Preconventional Stages
• Stage Zero –Pre-Moral
• Stage One – Simple Authority Orientation
• Stage Two – Instrumental Relativist
Stage Zero
• 4% of society never moves beyond this point
• Pleasure-Pain determine behavior (think of the
child touching the stove)
• No sense of obligation or morality
• Not immoral, but amoral (without)
• Take what is pleasant; avoid what is unpleasant
• Person guided only by what he can and wants to
do
Stage One: Simple Authority
Orientation
• Think Machiavelli’s Prince/Robert Bruce in
the film Braveheart
• Obedience-and-punishment
• Physical consequences determine
good/bad behavior
• Deference to superior power or prestige
• Authority figure determines standards
• Responsive to rules
Stage Two: Instrumental Relativist
• Naively egoistic orientation (self-centered in a
naïve way)
• Instrumentally satisfying needs of self
(occasionally others)
• Equal sharing, exchange, reciprocity, fairness
(children playing with toys…if you loan me your
Barbie, I’ll be your best friend)
• Eye for Eye, same for all, treat all the same
• You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours (not
centered in loyalty or concern, but fair) Think
politicians/spies etc.
Conventional Moral Stages
Stages 3 and 4
• Stage Three – Interpersonal concordance
or Good Boy/Nice Girl Orientation
• Stage Four – Law and Order
Stage Three: Interpersonal
Concordance
• Being nice, approval, pleasing a limited group
are important (think of the groups of students in
teen movies like Mean Girls or Never Been
Kissed
• Consider own feelings (conscience) and feelings
of others
• Put oneself in other’s shoes
• Stereotypes of right behavior of majority
• Intentions (“he means well…”) become
important
• Teenagers often find themselves here
Stage Four: Law and Order
• Orientation toward authority and maintenance of
the social order
• Maintain the given social order for its own sake
• Doing duty
• Rigid: fixed rules hard to change (imagine the
person at the broken stop light who won’t go
even if there is not a car in sight)
• Respect for authority and majority rule
• 70-80% of adults peak here
Post-Conventional
Stage 5, 6, and the nebulous 7
20% adult population may reach
• Stage Five – Social Contract
• Stage Six – Ethical Principle
• Stage Seven – Nebulous/God on Earth
Stage Five: Social Contract
• Legalistic orientation
• Standards critically examined and socially agreed upon
• Constitutional and democratic (ideals which guided our founding
fathers)
• Legalistic but law can be changed for benefit of society
• Individual rights respected except when contrary to constitutionally
agreed rights
• Personal values respected
• Utilitarian
• Moral values defined in terms of individual rights and standards
agreed upon by the society (pants issues in Atlanta right now)
• Consensus rather than majority
• “Official” Morality of our country
Stage Six – Ethical Principle
• Guided by self chosen principle
• Orientation to principles above social rules Jean
Valjean, Ghandi, MLK, George Washington,
Erwin Rommel and Robert E. Lee are examples
• Principles appeal to logical university and
consistency
• Justice with individual dignity
• Obedience or disobedience to law based on
moral respect for justice
• Saints, ascetics, people who die for a cause
Stage Seven – Out of this world
• Christ on Earth….we don’t see this in our
world…
• This would be a person of undescribed
morality
• Sometimes you see Kohlberg’s theory list
a 7 and sometimes it goes only to 6…it is
a nebulous area.
Movement through Kohlberg
• Each person’s moral reasoning develops through the
stages outlined
• Stages can’t be skipped; progress occurs only one at a
time
• Some people go farther and faster than others
• Once can only comprehend all stages up to and
including his present stage.
• Given the right circumstances, one can understand and
operate at a moral level immediately above the present
level
• Moral reasoning more than one stage higher cannot be
fully comprehended
Movement….cont.
• One tends to prefer the next stage as he understands it
• Moral reasoning stages lower than that attained will be understood
but rejected; they do not affect behavior or persuade the thinking of
the individual
• Moral development is always progressive – regression does not
occur; once higher level is attained it is never lost and movement
continues forward
• Moral development is not automatic; it may be arrested at any stage
• A person may be in transition between stages
• When one is “in stage” at least 50% of his responses are typical of
that stage, with some higher and some lower
• The sequence of stages does not vary with culture, social class, or
religion; these factors may affect speed of movement or stages
typical of a given age.
The process of moral development
can be stimulated by:
• Experience of moral conflict or dilemmas
• Exchange of different views
• Exposure to next higher level or moral
reasoning……
• We can see these things in literature…and
this should stimulate conversation and
thought