Kohlberg's Theory Of Moral Development Analysis

Almost everybody can remember attending a family gathering as a child heard a relative comment about how big they’ve gotten. It is imperative that as people age, their bodies undergo many physical changes. However, these aren’t the only changes people undergo as they age. Although, these are not as clear cut as physical changes, an individual’s moral and behavioral development changes as well. Jean Piaget, a genetic epistemologist, was one of the first to formulize a theory for this change in moral and behavioral development. Psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, later expanded on Piaget’s work to formulate his own theory of moral development. He broke down moral development into three levels, each level containing two stages. Although, his theory …show more content…
The first is that individuals can stop progressing through the stages at any stage or any age. Although people may stop at a specific stage, they cannot regress back to a lower stage. All individuals start at stage one and can only pass through stages one at a time, nobody can skip stages. However, the rate at which one goes through these stages does …show more content…
However, as a whole, I do not support his belief of moral development. It seems that there are too empirical and philosophical assumptions that Kohlberg and his associates made in the process of formulating the six stages of moral development. Upon conducting his studies, Kohlberg essentially missed out on half of the world’s population. As stated before, he still inferred that his theory was universal. That’s not to mention the fact that he did not take into account the nearly two-hundred other countries whose inhabitants were never interviewed by Kohlberg. The final reason I don’t support Kohlberg’s theory is that he failed to take into account the qualities discussed above, such as sensitivity, motivation, and character. I believe that there are many things that account for a person’s moral development. Our family, childhood, culture, family, and past experiences are all factors that should be considered when discussing the moral development of an