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Born in New York City in 1927. Graduated from the University of Chicago in one year.

. Attended Yale and earned a PhD in psychology. Became fascinated by moral development in children. Theorized six stages of human moral development.

Morality is based upon the physical punishment that follows an action, rather than right or wrong. The concern is for self - "Will I get into trouble for doing (or not doing) it?" Good behavior is associated with avoiding punishment. Ex: The child wont grab the candy at the supermarket for fear of being spanked.

The concern is "What's in it for me?" Action is judged right if it helps in satisfying one's needs or involves a fair exchange. Ex: A mother tells her child: If you are quiet at the mall, I will buy you an ice cream.

People should live up to the expectations of the family and community and behave in "good" ways. Good behavior means having good motives and interpersonal feelings such as love, empathy, trust, and concern for others.

Ex: Volunteering at a nursing home is the right thing to do.

While stage three actions are more concerned with pleasing your family, stage four is associated with following society as a whole. Emphasis is spent on obeying laws to maintain social order. Ex: If you drink and drive your endangering the lives of others on the road, not just yourself.

At stage 4, people want to keep society functioning. However, a smoothly functioning society is not necessarily a good one. Nazi Germany was a well organized society, but nine million were murdered in the process. At stage 5, people begin to ask, "What makes for a good society?" They begin to think about society considering the Ex: It is important for the rights and values that a society world to stop the killing in ought to uphold. Darfur because we are

morally obligated to stop genocide.

The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement(JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing nonArab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs. It is also known as the Darfur Genocide.

At

least 1,370 girls are aborted every day in India. For perspective, some 250 Indians die every day in road accidents. Terrorists killed about six people, on an average, every day in 2009. In the last two decades of economic progress, 10 million girls have died before being born. More are strangled, slowly starved or simply tossed in the trash.

As human beings we are obligated to live by the principal that all men are created equal regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or political belief. Justice is universal, so unjust laws must be broken. Ex: Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus because it was an unjust law discriminating against African Americans.

Huck must ultimately decide whether he should return Jim back to his master. Huck must choose between obeying the laws of his society (support slavery), or being loyal to his friend Jim (help him to escape to freedom).

In each case he presented a choice to be considered for example between the rights of some authority and the needs of some deserving individual who is being unfairly treated.

One

of the best known of Kohlbergs stories concerns a man called Heinz who lived somewhere in Europe.

Heinzs wife was dying from a particular type of cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her. The drug had been discovered by a local chemist and the Heinz tried desperately to buy some, but the chemist was charging ten times the money it cost to make the drug and this was much more than the Heinz could afford. Heinz could only raise half the money, even after help from family and friends. He explained to the chemist that his wife was dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or pay the rest of the money later. The chemist refused saying that he had discovered the drug and was going to make money from it. The husband was desperate to save his wife, so later that night he broke into the chemists and stole the drug.

Kohlberg asked a series of questions such as: 1. Should Heinz have stolen the drug? 2. Would it change anything if Heinz did not love his wife? 3. What if the person dying was a stranger, would it make any difference? 4. Should the police arrest the chemist for murder if the woman died?

By studying the answers from people of different ages to these questions Kohlberg hoped to discover the ways in which moral reasoning changed as people grew. Kohlberg told several dilemma stories and asked many such questions to discover how people reasoned about moral issues. He identified three distinct levels of moral reasoning each with two sub stages. People can only pass through these levels in the order listed. Each new stage replaces the reasoning typical of the earlier stage. Not everyone achieves all the stages.

Authority is outside the individual and reasoning is based on the physical consequences of actions.
1. Punishment and obedience stage. The child/individual is good in order to avoid being punished. If a person is punished they must have done wrong. 2. Reward stage, The child/individual is good in order to be rewarded. The chemist should have let Heinz pay later, because one pay he might need something from Heinz.

Authority is internalized but not questioned and reasoning is based on the norms of the group to which the person belongs. 3. Good boy/good girl stage. The child/individual is good in order to be seen as being a good person by others. Therefore, answers are related to the approval of others. 4. Law and order stage. The child/individual becomes aware of the wider rules of society so judgments concern obeying rules in order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt.

Individual judgment is based on self-chosen principles, and moral reasoning is based on individual rights and justice.
5. Awareness of complications stage. The child/individual becomes aware that while rules/laws might exist for the good of the greatest number, there are times when they will work against the interest of particular individuals. The issues are not always clear cut. For example, in Heinzs dilemma the protection of life is more important than breaking the law against stealing. 6. Universal ethical principles stage. People at this stage have developed their own set of moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law. The principles apply to everyone. E.g. human rights, justice and equality. The person will be prepared to act to defend these principles even if it means going against the rest of society in the process and having to pay the consequences of disapproval and or imprisonment. Kohlberg doubted few people reached this stage.

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