Kohlberg and Moral Development Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Meera's reasoning belongs to the Pre-conventional level.

At Kohlberg's pre-conventional level, an action is judged by its consequences for the child. In the first stage, obedience and punishment orientation, something is wrong because it brings punishment, which is exactly Meera's reason: stealing is wrong 'because doing so can cause punishment'.

At the conventional level the child reasons from approval of others and from rules and law, and at the post-conventional level from social contracts and universal principles. 'Formal conventional' is not a level in Kohlberg's theory. A four-year-old would also be expected to reason at the pre-conventional level.

Answer: A

The correct pair is Punishment and Obedience orientation - Avoidance of bad consequences.

At Kohlberg's first stage (preconventional level), a child judges an action right or wrong by whether it is punished, so moral behaviour is driven by avoiding bad consequences.

The other pairs are mismatched. The good boy-good girl orientation (stage 3) is about winning approval and being seen as nice; the greatest good for the greatest number belongs to the social contract orientation (stage 5). The law and order orientation (stage 4) is about obeying laws and doing one's duty; upholding universal principles of justice is stage 6. Considering others' perceptions fits stage 3, not the social contract stage.

Answer: C

Very young children's moral reasoning revolves around the ethics of egocentrism, as the paper spells it, 'egocentricism'.

At Kohlberg's pre-conventional level, young children judge right and wrong by the consequences to themselves: an act is wrong if it is punished and right if it brings a reward or serves their own interest. Their reasoning is centred on the self.

Taking the perspectives of others and following laws belong to the later conventional level, where children care about approval and social order. The ethics of care is Carol Gilligan's account of moral reasoning, offered as a critique of Kohlberg, not a stage of his theory.

Answer: B

Doing something because others approve of it belongs to the Conventional stage of morality.

In Lawrence Kohlberg's theory the conventional level has two stages: stage 3, the 'good boy, good girl' orientation, where a person acts to win the approval of others and maintain relationships, and stage 4, law and order. Seeking approval is the hallmark of stage 3.

At the pre-conventional level, behaviour is driven by avoiding punishment or getting rewards, not by approval. At the post-conventional level, a person follows self-chosen principles such as justice and rights even when others disapprove. 'Formal conventional' is not one of Kohlberg's levels at all.

Answer: B

The belief described matches the social-order maintaining orientation.

This is Kohlberg's stage 4, in the conventional level. People at this stage judge right and wrong by whether an act upholds laws, duties and the social system, because they believe maintaining that order keeps society and relationships stable.

The other stages differ. The punishment and obedience orientation (stage 1) judges actions only by whether they are punished. The instrumental purpose orientation (stage 2) is about fair exchange and self-interest ('you help me, I help you'). The universal ethical principle orientation (stage 6) follows self-chosen principles of justice even against the law, rather than maintaining the existing system.

Answer: A

Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

In Kohlberg's theory, young children at the preconventional level judge an act good or bad by its consequences, reward or punishment. At the postconventional level, people understand that laws and rules are social agreements that can be changed when they no longer serve human welfare. The assertion describes this movement correctly.

The reason states that moral development proceeds through a sequence of stages, and it is this stage-wise progression that carries the child from one way of reasoning to the other, so (R) explains (A).

Answer: B

This is the second stage in the first level.

Kohlberg's first, preconventional level has two stages. In stage 1 (obedience and punishment orientation) the child obeys to avoid punishment. In stage 2 (individualism and exchange, or instrumental purpose) the child is self-centred and acts to serve his own interests, doing things for others only in return for a benefit.

Stage 3 is the 'good boy, good girl' orientation of the conventional level, and stage 5 is the social contract orientation of the postconventional level.

Answer: A

Gilligan's critique centres on Ethics of care and the feminist perspective.

Carol Gilligan, in In a Different Voice (1982), argued that Kohlberg's stages were built on studies of boys and rank justice-based reasoning highest. She held that many women reason from an ethic of care, focused on relationships and responsibility, which Kohlberg's scale undervalued.

Her objection was not that Kohlberg overestimated children's abilities, nor about experimental design or school applications; it was that his scheme left out a different, care-based moral orientation.

Answer: B

Reasoning around the ethics of law belongs to Conventional morality.

Kohlberg's conventional level has two stages: the good boy-good girl orientation (stage 3) and the law and order orientation (stage 4), in which right means following rules and laws to maintain the social order. Reasoning based on law therefore belongs here.

At the pre-conventional level morality is driven by punishment and self-interest. Heteronomous and autonomous morality are Piaget's stages of moral development, not Kohlberg's.

Answer: D

The description is Kohlberg's universal ethical principle orientation, stage 6.

At the post-conventional level, Kohlberg's highest stage holds that right action is defined by self-chosen ethical principles such as justice, equality and respect for human dignity, which the person regards as valid for all humanity. Where a law conflicts with these principles, the person follows the principle.

The instrumental purpose orientation (stage 2) judges right action by what serves one's own interests in a fair exchange. The social-order maintaining orientation (stage 4) obeys laws to keep society functioning. The social-contract orientation (stage 5) sees laws as agreements that can be changed for the common good, but still grounds morality in social agreement, which the description explicitly sets aside.