STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Kohlberg's theory on the stages of moral development was a modification of the work performed by Jean Piaget. While Piaget described moral development as a two-stages process, Kohlberg identified 6 stages. Kohlberg proposed that moral development was a process that continued throughout a person's lifespan.
THE HEINZ DILEMMA
In the Heinz Dilemma, Kohlberg told children a story about a woman in Europe who is near death because she has a special type of cancer. The drug that might save her is a form a radium. The druggist charges 2000 dollars for the radium that cost him just 200 dollars. But the dying woman's husband only manages to get 1000 dollar, so he asks the druggist to sell it for 1000 dollars or let him pay the rest later on. The druggist refuses so the husband breaks into the store to steal the drug. After this story the children get presented with the question: "Should the husband have done that?"
The answer to the dilemmas were not as important, it's the reasoning behind the decision. The children's responses were classified into 3 levels and 6 stages.
Level I: Preconventional morality
Stage 1. Obedience and punishment.
Children view rules as absolutes. Obeying the rules means avoiding punishment.
Stage 2. Individuals and exchange
Children begin to take individual points of view into consideration and judge actions based on how the needs of the individual are served.
Level II: Conventional morality
Stage 3: Interpersonal relationships
Children focus on living up to expectations set by society or the people close to them.
Stage 4: Maintaining social order
At this stage, society as a whole is taken into consideration. This means focus on following the rules to maintain law and order - even in extreme situations - respecting authority and fulfilling a duty that one has agreed to do.
Level III: Postconventional morality
Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights
Understanding that people have different beliefs, opinion and values, and that in order to maintain society, rules of the law should be based on standards that are agreed upon.
Stage 6: Universal principles
Following internal principles of justice and ethics, even if this means going against what the rules and law state.
CRITICISMS TO THE STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
It has been argued that Kohlberg's work reflected bias towards males: he claimed most men to be at a stage 4 and most women to be at stage 3. Also there is a notable difference between what a person says they ought to do and what they actually end up doing. Kohlberg also focused solely on justice but did not take into consideration things like compassion and caring.