Kohlberg Flashcards
What are the 14 key facts of the methodology of Kohlberg?
75 American Boys
Longitudinal Study
10-16 at start
22-28 at end
Self-Report method
Qualitative Interviews
Opportunity Sample
Investigated Moral development
Cross-Cultural
Mexico
Turkey
Great-Britain
Canada
Taiwan
What was the procedure of Kohlberg
To assess the participants moral thinking Kohlberg created 9 moral dilemmas which created two moral issues they must decide between. Kohlberg used interviews to assess the moral reasoning of the boys. Each participant was asked to discuss three of these dilemmas, prompted by a set of ten or more open-ended questions
One is ethical but results in a negative outcome for instance.
The other is unethical but results in a more positive outcome.
(Killing a baby to save people)
These interviews produced qualitative data.
The boys were re-interviewed every 3 years recording common themes in their answer in order for Kohlberg to gage how our moral thinking changes as we get older.
What was the Moral Dilemma given?
Kohlberg found that younger children think at the preconventional level and as they get older their reasons for moral decisions become less focused on themselves and instead doing good for other people in the stages of conventional and postconventional.
The results in Mexico and Taiwan were the same but the development was slightly slower.
What were the findings of Kohlberg’s Research?
Kohlberg found that younger children think at the preconventional level and as they get older their reasons for moral decisions become less focused on themselves and instead doing good for other people in the stages of conventional and postconventional.
The results in Mexico and Taiwan were the same but the development was slightly slower.
What did Kohlberg conclude about his research?
Kohlberg concluded that the key features of moral development are that:
Stages are invariant and universal meaning everyone goes through the same stages in the same order.
Each new stage represents a more profound form of moral understanding resulting in a more logically consistent and mature form of understanding.
He found that Moral Discussions help to improve the moral thinking of children.
Found that discussions between children at stages 3 and 4 resulting in the stage 3 child moving forwards.
Evaluate Kohlbergs research in terms of Sampling
One issue with the sampling of Kohlbergs research is that it is entirely based on interviews with males, this may mean the results cannot be generalised to females. This issue is supported by Gilligan who suggested that male morality made me different to female morality. They suggested male morality is to do with justice while female morality is to do with caringness.
Evaluate Kohlbergs research in terms of External Validity
It could be argued this research lacks mundane realism.
Gilligan also criticised Kohlberg’s research because the evidence was not based on real-life decisions. The moral dilemmas were completely hypothetic scenarios which may have made little sense, especially to young children.
Gilligan’s own research involved interviewing people about their own personal moral dilemmas such as the decision about whether or not to have an abortion.
Evaluate Kohlbergs research in terms of Social Desirability Bias
Another problem highlighted with the research is the use of self-report methods.
These are problematic as participants will often prefer to present themselves in a good light than give honest answers.
Therefore they may describe their moral behaviour idealistically rather than realistically.
Additionally, Kohlberg was asking how people think rather than what they would do meaning this theory is more about idealistic moral thinking than natural adult behaviour.
