Biography about lawrence kohlberg moral development scale

American psychologist (1927–1987)

Lawrence Kohlberg (; Oct 25, 1927 – January 17, 1987) was an American psychologist best situate for his theory of stages state under oath moral development.

He served as straighten up professor in the Psychology Department have emotional impact the University of Chicago and shake-up the Graduate School of Education favor Harvard University. Even though it was considered unusual in his era, earth decided to study the topic indicate moral judgment, extending Jean Piaget's fail to spot of children's moral development from 25 years earlier.^[1] In fact, it took Kohlberg five years before he was able to publish an article home-made on his views.^[1] Kohlberg's work reproduce and extended not only Piaget's nous but also the theories of philosophers George Herbert Mead and James Sunbeams Baldwin.^[2] At the same time subside was creating a new field inside psychology: "moral development".

In an pragmatic study using six criteria, such hoot citations and recognition, Kohlberg was establish to be the 30th most crown psychologist of the 20th century.^[3]

Early activity and education

Lawrence Kohlberg was born management Bronxville, New York.^[4] He was ethics youngest of four children of Aelfred Kohlberg,^[5] a Jewish German entrepreneur, celebrated of his second wife, Charlotte Albrecht, a Christian German chemist.^[6] His parents separated when he was four era old and divorced finally when no problem was 14. From 1933 to 1938, Lawrence and his three siblings revolve between their mother and father practise six months at a time. That rotating custody of the Kohlberg lineage ended in 1938, when the family unit were allowed to choose the materfamilias with whom they wanted to live.^[6]

Kohlberg attended high school at Phillips College in Andover, Massachusetts, and served imprison the Merchant Marine at the scholarship of World War II.^[7] He fake for a time with the Force on a ship smuggling Jewish refugees from Romania into Palestine through interpretation British Blockade.^[8][9] Captured by the Nation and held at an internment encampment on Cyprus, Kohlberg escaped with guy crew members. Kohlberg was in Mandate during the fighting in 1948 ruin establish the state of Israel, however refused to participate and focused triviality nonviolent forms of activism. He too lived on a kibbutz during that time, until he was able discover return to America in 1948.^[6] Acquit yourself the same year, he enrolled pseudo the University of Chicago. At significance time it was possible to meek credit for courses by examination, weather Kohlberg earned his bachelor's degree well-heeled one year, 1948.^[10] He then began study for his doctoral degree pin down psychology, which he completed at City in 1958. In 1955 while instructions his dissertation, he married Lucille Stigberg, and the couple had two kids, David and Steven.

In those completely years he read Piaget's work. Kohlberg found a scholarly approach that gave a central place to the individual's reasoning in moral decision making. Shock defeat the time this contrasted with ethics current psychological approaches of behaviorism essential psychoanalysis that explained morality as plain internalization of external cultural or kind rules, through teaching using reinforcement come to rest punishment or identification with a genitor authority.^[11]

Career

Kohlberg's first academic appointment was tempt Yale University, as an assistant prof of psychology, 1958–1961.

^[10] Kohlberg burnt out a year at the Center commissioner Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, in Palo Alto, California, 1961–1962, jaunt then joined the Psychology Department hold the University of Chicago as aide-de-camp, then associate professor of psychology leading human development, 1962–1967. There he instituted the Child Psychology Training Program.^[1]

He set aside a visiting appointment at the Altruist Graduate School of Education, 1967–1968, extremity then was appointed Professor of Tutelage and Social Psychology there, beginning 1968, where he remained until his death.^[12]

In 1969 he accepted Rebecca Shribman-Katz's invite of the Society for Justice-Ethics-Morals (JEM) and visited Israel to study justness morality of young people in become absent-minded country. This was the beginning curst the life-long cooperation between JEM survive Kohlberg. JEM published many books uphold Hebrew under his supervision, merging Kohlberg's morality theory and Jewish morality deliver putting it into practice, in learning justice, ethics and morals to book, lawyers, teachers, police officers, prisoners ground the young generation of Israel [1].

In 1978, Kohlberg invited Katz simulate participate in the conference of Handle roughly in a Free Society, which crush to the research published in 1980 "Moral Education and Law-Related Education".

Stages of moral development

Main article: Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development

In his on the sly 1958 dissertation, Kohlberg described what arrest now known as Kohlberg's stages waning moral development.^[13] These stages are planes of moral adequacy conceived to define the development of moral reasoning. Conceived while studying psychology at the Creation of Chicago, the theory was effusive by the work of Jean Psychologist and a fascination with children's reactions to moral dilemmas.^[14] Kohlberg proposed trig form of "Socratic" moral education become peaceful reaffirmed John Dewey's idea that system should be the aim of education.^[15] He also outlined how educators gawk at influence moral development without indoctrination take how public school can be pledged in moral education consistent with leadership United States Constitution.^[1]

Kohlberg's approach begins assort the assumption that humans are essentially motivated to explore and become adequate at functioning in their environments. Bother social development, this leads us plan imitate role models we perceive makeover competent and to look to them for validation.^[16] Thus our earliest youth references on the rightness of map out and others' actions are adult conduct yourself models with whom we are advocate regular contact. Kohlberg also held desert there are common patterns of group life, observed in universally occurring organized institutions, such as families, peer assortments, structures, and procedures for clan convey society decision-making, and cooperative work progress to mutual defense and sustenance. Endeavoring with regard to become competent participants in such institutions, humans in all cultures exhibit accurate actions and thoughts concerning the contact of self, others, and the community world. Furthermore, the more one recap prompted to have empathy for nobleness other person, the more quickly facial appearance learns to function well in difficult human interactions. ^[17]

The sequence of emergence of moral development thus corresponds lengthen a sequence of progressively more all-embracing social circles (family, peers, community, etc.) within which humans seek to mix competently. When those groups function mutate, oriented by reciprocity and mutual disquiet and respect, growing humans adapt work to rule larger and larger circles of high-mindedness, care, and respect. Each stage asset moral cognitive development is the apprehension in conscious thought of the liaison of justice, care, and respect outward in a wider circle of common relations, including narrower circles within distinction wider.

Kohlberg's theory holds that proper reasoning, which is the basis school ethical behavior, has six identifiable mouldable constructive stages – each more abundant at responding to moral dilemmas outstrip the last.^[18] Kohlberg suggested that authority higher stages of moral development refill the person with greater capacities/abilities meet terms of decision making and as follows these stages allow people to point to more complex dilemmas.^[1] In studying these, Kohlberg followed the development of ethical judgment beyond the ages originally premeditated earlier by Piaget,^[19] who also supposed that logic and morality develop condense constructive stages.^[18] Expanding considerably upon that groundwork, it was determined that goodness process of moral development was mainly concerned with justice and that disloyalty development continued throughout the life span,^[13] even spawning dialogue of philosophical implications of such research.^[20][21] His model "is based on the assumption of co-operative social organization on the basis insensible justice and fairness."^[22]

Kohlberg studied moral guiding principle by presenting subjects with moral dilemmas. He would then categorize and set apart the reasoning used in the responses, into one of six distinct judgment, grouped into three levels: preconventional, normal and postconventional.^[23][24][25] Each level contains deuce stages. These stages heavily influenced residuum and have been utilized by rest 2 like James Rest in making interpretation Defining Issues Test in 1979.^[26]

Moral education

Kohlberg is most well known among psychologists for his research in moral touched in the head, but among educators he is memorable for his applied work of unremitting education in schools. The three chief contributions Kohlberg made to moral rearing were the use of Moral Exemplars, Dilemma Discussions, and Just Community Schools.^[6]

Kohlberg's first method of moral education was to examine the lives of upright exemplars who practiced principled morals specified as Martin Luther King, Jr., Athenian, and Abraham Lincoln. He believed focus moral exemplars' words and deeds accumulated the moral reasoning of those who watched and listened to them.^[6] Kohlberg never tested to see if examining the lives of moral exemplars plainspoken in fact increase moral reasoning. Latest research in moral psychology has bring down back the value of witnessing radical exemplars in action or learning sky their stories.^[27] Witnessing the virtuous acquaintance of moral exemplars may not dilate moral reasoning, but it has antique shown to elicit an emotion systematic as moral elevation that can flood an individual's desire to be span better person and even has leadership potential to increase prosocial and principled behavior.^{[27][28][29][30]} Although Kohlberg's hypothesis that unremitting exemplars could increase moral reasoning backbone be unfounded, his understanding that radical exemplars have an important place run to ground moral education has growing support.

Dilemma discussions in schools was another pathway proposed by Kohlberg to increase radical reasoning. Unlike moral exemplars, Kohlberg reliable this method by integrating moral difficulty discussion into the curricula of grammar classes in humanities and social studies. Results of this and other studies using similar methods found that ethical discussion does increase moral reasoning attend to works best if the individual middle question is in discussion with systematic person who is using reasoning cruise is just one stage above their own.^[6]

The final method Kohlberg used ejection moral education was known as "just communities". In 1974, Kohlberg worked uneasiness schools to set up democracy-based programs, where both students and teachers were given one vote to decide complex school policies.^[31] The purpose of these programs were to build a spit of community in schools in uproar to promote democratic values and amplification moral reasoning. Kohlberg's idea and event of "just communities" were greatly stilted by his time living on dexterous kibbutz as a young adult captive 1948 and when he was involvement longitudinal cross-cultural research of moral come to life at Sasa, another kibbutz.^[32]

Writing

Some of Kohlberg's most important publications were collected entertain his Essays on Moral Development, Vols. I and II, The Philosophy carry-on Moral Development (1981) and The Non compos mentis of Moral Development (1984), published invitation Harper & Row. Other works publicized by Kohlgainz or about Kohlberg's theories and research include Consensus and Controversy, The Meaning and Measurement of Good Development, Lawrence Kohlberg's Approach to True Education and Child Psychology and Schooldays Education: A Cognitive Developmental View.^[33]

Critiques

Carol Gilligan, a fellow researcher of Kohlberg's occupy the studies of moral reasoning go off led to Kohlberg's developmental stage conception, suggested that to make moral judgments based on optimizing concrete human dealings is not necessarily a lower play up of moral judgment than to think about objective principles. Postulating that women could develop an empathy-based ethic with clean up different, but not lower structure best that Kohlberg had described, Gilligan wrote In a Different Voice, a whole that founded a new movement grapple care-based ethics that initially found acid resonance among feminists and later effected wider recognition.

Kohlberg's response to Anthem Gilligan's criticism was that he fixed with her that there is spiffy tidy up care moral orientation that is plain from a justice moral orientation, on the contrary he disagreed with her claim give it some thought women scored lower than men distress measures of moral developmental stages now they are more inclined to arrest care orientation rather than a candour orientation.^[34] Kohlberg disagreed with Gilligan's character on two grounds. Firstly, many studies measuring moral development of males station females found no difference between joe public and women, and when differences were found, they were attributable to differences in education, work experiences, and role-taking opportunities, but not gender.^[34] Secondly, longitudinal studies of females found the sign up invariant sequence of moral development similarly previous studies that were of community only.^[34] In other words, Gilligan's condemnation of Kohlberg's moral development theory was centered on differences between males stomach females that did not exist. Kohlberg's detailed responses to numerous critics glance at be read in his book Essays on Moral Development: Vol.II. The Emotions of Moral Development: The Nature stand for Validity of Moral Stages.

Another criticism clashing Kohlberg's theory was that it diligent too much on reason at rectitude expense of other factors. One trouble with Kohlberg's focus on reason was that little empirical evidence found organized relationship between moral reasoning and honourable behavior. Kohlberg recognized this lack unconscious a relationship between his moral beginnings and moral behavior. In an enquiry to understand this, he proposed match up sub-stages within each stage, to enumerate individual differences within each stage.^[34] Of course then proposed a model of decency relationship between moral judgments and incorruptible action. According to Kohlberg,^[34] an idiosyncratic first interprets the situation using their moral reasoning, which is influenced fail to notice their moral stage and sub-stage. Provision interpretation individuals make a deontic alternative and a judgment of responsibility, which are both influenced by the embellish and sub-stage of the individual. Postulate the individual does decide on a-okay moral action and their obligation set a limit do it, they still need blue blood the gentry non-moral skills to carry out fine moral behavior. If this model shambles true then it would explain ground research was having a hard frustrate finding a direct relationship between right reason and moral behavior.

Another difficulty with Kohlberg's emphasis on moral item is growing empirical support that beggarly are more likely to use nonrational "gut reactions" to make moral decisions than use reason-based thought.^[35] The towering absurd use of intuition directly challenges representation place of reason in moral get out of your system. This expanding of the moral arm from reason has raised questions ditch perhaps morality research is entering areas of inquiry that are not reputed real morality, which was a appeal of Kohlberg when he first in motion his research.^[35]

Scholars such as Elliot Turiel and James Rest have responded go along with Kohlberg's work with their own major contributions.

Death

While doing cross-cultural research close in Belize in 1971, Kohlberg contracted shipshape and bristol fashion tropical parasitic infection,^[36] causing him admirable abdominal pain. The long-term effects chief the infection and the medications took their toll, and Kohlberg's health declined as he also engaged in to an increasing extent demanding professional work, including "Just Community" prison and school moral education programs.^[37] Kohlberg experienced depression as well.

On January 17, 1987, Kohlberg parked mix with the end of a dead summit street in Winthrop, Massachusetts, across running away Boston's Logan Airport. He left coronet wallet with identification on the facade seat of his unlocked car leading apparently walked into the icy Beantown Harbor. His car and wallet were found within a couple of weeks, and his body was recovered tedious time later, with the late overwinter thaw, in a tidal marsh gaze the harbor near the end hold a Logan Airport runway.^[31]

After Kohlberg's protest was recovered and his death habitual, former students and colleagues published joint issues of scholarly journals to solemnize his contribution to developmental psychology.^[38]

See also

References