Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development. This theory holds that moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental stages. The six stages of moral development are grouped into three levels: pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality. He believed that individuals could only advance through these stages one stage at a time. One could not, for instance, go from an orientation of selfishness to the law and order stage without falling out through the good boy/girl stage. He presents several dilemma stories and asked many such questions to discover how people reasoned about moral issues. That’s why he identified these three distinct levels of moral reasoning. But all the subjects for his research are exclusively “male” of different ages.

            Moreover, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is very relevant at the level of psychology. As human beings, one has the ability to develop his/her moral thinking depending on his/her cultural upbringing. One could somehow pass through these six stages one at a time because along the process of maturity one also developing his/her moral reasoning. A human person has the capacity to develop his/her character, the way he/she thinks, and the way he/she acts. Precisely because one has the capability to transcend beyond what is existing. And this is also true in psychology, one has the capacity to develop both intellectual and physical.

            However, the subjects for the experiments of Kohlberg’s research are exclusively “males”. I think the Kohlberg’s stage theory is sexually biased in favor of males. Kohlberg’s somehow shows that males are higher moral development than females. But, other researchers would say that there are other helping behavior which is also used to measure morality. These behaviors are empathy and guilt altruism. And these behaviors are dominant with the females. It is too erroneous to conduct an experiment of group of males representing the whole gender. Just like conducting an experiment of selected countries representing the whole world. It is erroneous because different countries and different people have different upbringing of cultures.

            In sum, Kohlberg’s stages of moral development are necessary for a human person as he/she progressed. But Kohlberg’s experiment is somehow sexually biased because the subjects for his experiments are all males. In fact, empathy and guilt altruism are helping behaviors to measure morality which is dominant in females and not really in males. In other words, one cannot easily conclude that through experimenting few individuals it already represents the whole.