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Kohlberg's morality of justice

26 七月, 2019 - 10:10
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One of the best-known explanations of how morality of justice develops was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates (Kohlberg, Levine, & Hewer, 1983; Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1991). Using a stage model similar to Piaget's, Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral development, grouped into three levels. Individuals experience the stages universally and in sequence as they form beliefs about justice. He named the levels simply preconventional, conventional, and (you guessed it) postconventional. The levels and stages are summarized in the Table 3.5.

Table 3.5 Moral stages according to Kohlberg

Moral stage

Definition of what is “good”

Preconventional Level:

Stage 1: Obedience and punishment

Stage 2: Market exchange

Action that is rewarded and not punished

Action that is agreeable to the child and child's partner

Conventional Level:

Stage 3: Peer opinion

Stage 4: Law and order

Action that wins approval from friends or peers

Action that conforms to community customs or laws

Postconventional Level:

Stage 5: Social contract

Stage 6: Universal principles

Action that follows social accepted ways of making decisions

Action that is consistent with self-chosen, general principles