Lawrence Kohlberg
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Kohlberg's Theory
Level One: Preconventional
Stage One: Obediance & Punishment
Stage Three: Good Boy/ Nice Girl
Stage Five: Social Contract Orientation
Level One: Preconventional
Stage One: Obediance & Punishment
- Physical consequences of action to determine good or bad, regardless of the human meaning or value of these consequences
- The individual determines right action as behaviors that satisfy one’s own needs and on occasion, the needs of others.
Stage Three: Good Boy/ Nice Girl
- The individual considers the expectations of his or her family, group, or nation, as valuable, regardless of the immediate and obvious consequences.
- The individual considers right behavior as doing one’s duty or showing respect for authority
Stage Five: Social Contract Orientation
- The individual defines what he/she did was the right action to take.
- The individual defines a right through a conscience decision about his or her ethical principles that are based on comprehensiveness, consistency, and universality. ( He/she explains if it were the other way around they would do the same for the other person.)
Applying Kohlberg's theory to a dilemma
Bob walks into class A block to his teacher writing on the board, "Pop Quiz." Bob hasn't been reading the book that the quiz is on so he asks his friend, Jamal, if he can cheat off of him because he needs this grade to pass the class. From Bob's point of view, is what he is doing okay or should he wing it?
Bob walks into class A block to his teacher writing on the board, "Pop Quiz." Bob hasn't been reading the book that the quiz is on so he asks his friend, Jamal, if he can cheat off of him because he needs this grade to pass the class. From Bob's point of view, is what he is doing okay or should he wing it?
- Level One; Stage One: It is okay to cheat if he doesn't get caught.
- Level One; Stage Two: His parents will be proud of his grade and he will pass the class.
- Level Two; Stage Three: His grandparents won't find out how he got the grade so they too will be proud. / His grandparents would be very disappointed if the do find out how he got the grade.
- Level Two; Stage Four: Cheating, no matter what case, is wrong.
- Level Three; Stage Five: It is okay to cheat because he doesn't know the information and his friend said it was okay.
- Level Three; Stage Six: If reversed, would Bob let Jamal cheat off of him?
Additional Information about Kohlberg
- Lawrence Kohlberg was born in 1927 in Bronxville, New York. Born into wealth, Kohlberg displayed an early concern for the welfare of others by volunteering as a sailor in World War II and, later, working to smuggle Jews through the British Blockade into Palestine.
- Kohlberg enrolled at The University of Chicago and completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology in just one year (1949).
- In 1971, Kohlberg contracted a tropical disease while he was completing research in Belize. The effects of this disease included both physical pain and depression, which persisted for sixteen years.
- On January 19th, 1987, Kohlberg took a one-day leave of absence from the hospital where he was being treated for the illness, drove himself to the coast, and drowned himself. It is unclear whether or not January 19th was the official day of his death, but it is widely accepted that Dr. Kohlberg committed suicide.
- One year after they pulled Dr. Kohlberg’s body from Boston Harbor, 600 people gathered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and declared April 15th as Lawrence Kohlberg Day.