Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 
In the view of psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, the advice you give Henry refl ects 
your level of moral development. According to Kohlberg, people pass through a 
series of stages in the evolution of their sense of justice and in the kind of reasoning 
they use to make moral judgments (Kohlberg, 1984). Largely because of the various 
cognitive limitations that Piaget described, preadolescent children tend to think 
either in terms of concrete, unvarying rules (“It is always wrong to steal” or “I’ll be 
punished if I steal”) or in terms of the rules of society (“Good people don’t steal” or 
“What if everyone stole?”). 
Adolescents, however, have typically reached Piaget’s formal operational stage of 
cognitive development and can reason on a higher plane. Because they are able to com-
prehend broad moral principles, they can understand that morality is not always black 
and white and that confl ict can exist between two sets of socially accepted standards. 
Kohlberg (1984) suggests that the changes in moral reasoning can be understood 
best as a three-level sequence (see Figure 2). His theory assumes that people move 
through the levels in a fi xed order and that they cannot reach the highest level until 
about age 13—primarily because of limitations in cognitive development before that 
Although puberty begins around 11 or 12 for girls and 13 or 14 for 
boys, there are wide variations. What are some of the advantages 
and disadvantages of early puberty?
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Module 38 
Adolescence: Becoming an Adult 
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age. However, many people never reach the highest level of moral reasoning. In fact, 
Kohlberg found that only a relatively small percentage of adults rise above the sec-
ond level of his model (Kohlberg & Ryncarz, 1990; Hedgepeth, 2005; Powers, 2006). 
Although Kohlberg’s theory has had a substantial infl uence on our understand-
ing of moral development, the research support is mixed. One diffi culty with the 
theory is that it pertains to moral judgments , not moral behavior . Knowing right from 
wrong does not mean that we will always act in accordance with our judgments. In 
addition, the theory applies primarily to Western society and its moral code; cross-
cultural research conducted in cultures with different moral systems suggests that 
Kohlberg’s theory is not necessarily applicable (Coles, 1997; Damon, 1999; Nucci, 
2002; Barandiaran, Pascual, & Samaniego, 2006).