Moral development – Lawrence Kohlberg
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Level
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Development
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Level l. Pre conventional morality/Level
Stage 0 (Birth to 2 Years): Egocentric Judgment
The infant has no awareness of right or wrong.
Stage 1 (2 to 3 Years): Punishment-Obedience Orientation
At this stage, children cannot reason as mature members of society.
Children view the world in a selfish way, with no real understanding of
right or wrong.
The child obeys rules and demonstrates acceptable behavior to avoid
punishment and to avoid displeasing those who are in power, and because the
child fears punishment from a superior force, such as a parent.
A toddler typically is at the first substage of the preconventional
stage, involving punishment and obedience orientation, in which the toddler
makes judgments based on avoiding punishment or obtaining a reward. hysical
punishment and withholding privileges tend to give the toddler a negative
view of morals.
Withdrawing love and affection as punishment leads to feelings of guilt
in the toddler.
Appropriate discipline includes providing simple explanations why certain
behaviors are unacceptable, praising appropriate behavior, and using
distractions when the toddler is headed for an unsafe action.
Stage 2 (4 to 7 Years): Instrumental Relativist Orientation
The child conforms to rules to obtain rewards or have favors returned.
The child’s moral standards are those of others, and the child observes
them either to avoid punishment or obtain rewards.
A preschooler is in the preconventional stage of moral development.
In this stage, conscience emerges and the emphasis is on external
control.
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Corresponds to pre operational level.
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Culturally oriented to the labels of good /
bad; right /wroTheories of Growth and Development : Psychosocial development – Erick Erickson with Mnemonicsng.
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Integrated terms in terms of the physical or
pleasurable consequences of their actions.
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Determine goodness or badness of an action in
terms of its consequences.
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Avoid punishments and obey without questions
to those who have the power. Avoid punishments and obey without questions to
those who have the power.
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No concept of basic moral order that supports
the consequences.
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Later determines that right behavior→ that
which satisfies their own needs.
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Elements of loyalty, fairness, give and take
and equal sharing are evident but interpreted in a practical, concrete manner
without loyalty, gratitude and justice.
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Level 2. Conventional morality/level.
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Correlates with concrete
operations.
Concerned with
conformity and loyalty.
Value the
maintenance of family, group, or national expectation regardless of
consequences.
Good → behavior
that meets with approval and pleases or helps others.
Earns approval by
being "nice.'
Obeying the
rules, doing ones duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining social
order are the correct behavior.
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Level 3. Post conventional morality/level(autonomous / principled)
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Autonomous/ principled level.
Reached cognitive stage of concrete operations. Correct behavior tends to
be defined in terms of general individual rights and problems that is
examined and agreed on by the entire society.
Procedural rules for reaching consensus is important BUT possibility of
changing the law is considered.
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