Kohlberg Moral Development

Moral development is an individual’s sense of justice and what they define as right and wrong. Lawrence Kohlberg is a theorist of moral development. His theories focus on justice. He performed several experiments to evaluate differences in morals. One example, is the story of Heinz. This story is about a woman who is dying from cancer but cannot afford the drug that might save her. As a result, her husband’s manages to get some money, however, this amount is not sufficient enough to the druggist. Out of disparity to save his wife, the man steals the drug. This story sparks thoughts as to, is it morally wrong for the husband to steal the drug, or does the woman have moral rights to drugs that could save her life. Through Kohlberg’s studies he was able to develop three levels in which moral development is developed. It begins with pre-conventional level, then conventional level, and ends with post-conventional level. Each level contains two stages each. …show more content…
During these stages individuals focus on their actions and the consequences of them. For example, a child is spanked for doing something. The child registers that action as bad and knows the consequences of their action, therefore reducing the chance that they would do it again. The child is however is going to show more obedience to the spanker since a sense of power has been established. During this level people also realize that other people have needs, however, they still determine right and wrong terms based off the consequences to