This research paper will define Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and the extended aspects of adult development theory in this model. Kohlberg advanced Jean Piaget’s developmental stage by adding a moral developmental process as a way to interpret human development into adulthood. Kohlberg frames human development through the moral behaviors that are exhibited across the lifespan. The premise of justice is interwoven into the development aspects of Piaget’s theory, which divide human developed into six stages that are grouped into the three levels of (1) pre-conventional morality, (2) conventional morality, and (3) post-conventional morality. Overall, the six stages include (1) obedience, (2) self-interest, (3) conformity, (4)
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The overarching moral guidelines of society now form an ideal method of evaluating the law, which Kohlberg (1981) identifies as being part of a Kantian influence on this stage of development for the adolescent and young adult: “The Kantian moral form is one that assumes the fact-value distinction; that is, moral people assume that their moral judgment is based on conformity to an ideal form, not on conformity to fact (178). This stage of moral reasoning is being to rely on abstractions of laws, social conventions, and other guidelines for legal behavior, which is dictated by an outside force that defines what is right or wrong in society. This form of Kantian ideology is what drives Kohlberg’s development of duty as an obligation by the individual to follow the laws of society as an ideal principle. More so, the concept of :”justice” becomes realized in the mind of the young adult, which allows them to decipher the legal aspects of duty in a much broader social context: “Justice, defined as the interaction of the individual with its social environment in relation to the reciprocity of obedience and of freedom of punishment (Garz 25). This stage of development presents the conundrum of the legal ideal of Kant’s premise of “duty” in society to follow the law, yet there are also rational questions about the actual meaning of these laws in a practical manner. Therefore, stage four defines the awareness of law and order as a realization of the concept of justice in a law-abiding society. In addition to justice, the individual becomes aware of the overarching authority of the legal system as part of the ongoing laws and regulations created by leaders in the community. These factors define the evolution form an adolescent point of view to a more adult-orientated view of society and its laws due to the development of abstract thinking. The
The overarching moral guidelines of society now form an ideal method of evaluating the law, which Kohlberg (1981) identifies as being part of a Kantian influence on this stage of development for the adolescent and young adult: “The Kantian moral form is one that assumes the fact-value distinction; that is, moral people assume that their moral judgment is based on conformity to an ideal form, not on conformity to fact (178). This stage of moral reasoning is being to rely on abstractions of laws, social conventions, and other guidelines for legal behavior, which is dictated by an outside force that defines what is right or wrong in society. This form of Kantian ideology is what drives Kohlberg’s development of duty as an obligation by the individual to follow the laws of society as an ideal principle. More so, the concept of :”justice” becomes realized in the mind of the young adult, which allows them to decipher the legal aspects of duty in a much broader social context: “Justice, defined as the interaction of the individual with its social environment in relation to the reciprocity of obedience and of freedom of punishment (Garz 25). This stage of development presents the conundrum of the legal ideal of Kant’s premise of “duty” in society to follow the law, yet there are also rational questions about the actual meaning of these laws in a practical manner. Therefore, stage four defines the awareness of law and order as a realization of the concept of justice in a law-abiding society. In addition to justice, the individual becomes aware of the overarching authority of the legal system as part of the ongoing laws and regulations created by leaders in the community. These factors define the evolution form an adolescent point of view to a more adult-orientated view of society and its laws due to the development of abstract thinking. The