Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development & Gilligan's Ethics of Care
Kohlberg's theory is divided into three levels with two stages per level.
- Each stage and level is slightly more complex and more effective than the prior.
- As children, adolescents, and adults assume more responsibility they may progress through the six stages.
- People understand their present stage, all below, and the one immediately above.
- They may revert to lower stages during stressful times.
- If a teacher or person in authority uses a control strategy at a level below the student's current level, the student will feel humiliated and may regress to that level.
Preconventional
Level one:
Stage one (Preschool age 3-4)
Stage two (K - grade 3)
Understands neither social conventional or moral rules
Stage one is characterized by a pain-pleasure response for individual satisfaction. Control: Use of physical force for compliance. Short-term effect. Physical constraint - Physical abuse
Stage two is characterized by the attitude: I want to appear fair, but come out ahead. Control: Positive reinforcement - Negative reinforcement - Abuse.
Conventional
Level two:
Stage three (grades 4 - 8)
Stage four (grades 9 - 1)
Understands and embraces social coventions
Stage three is characterized by a perception of the social order as a need to please, help, or conform for the benefit of the group. Control: Peer pressure - Concern for feelings of group. Range from cooperation and working together and helping each other to ostracism and shunning or shaming a person and making s/he an outcast.
Stage four is characterized by a perception of a need or duty to obey social rules and regulations to maintain social order to have an ordered society. Control: Individual responsibility, Legal systems with an over reliance on legalism and laws carried to extremes.
Postconventional
Level three:
Stage five (maybe grade 11-1 for a few?
Stage six (?)
Understands and embraces morality
Stage five is characterized by individuals that attempt to define moral principles as social-contracts, or legal-contracts based on an understanding of principles of justice and a democratic community. Control: Governance and sanctions based on general democratic principles: fairness, equity, toleration, freedom of thought...
Stage six is characterized by universal justice and ethical considerations that respect the dignity of individuals. Control: principled self-control.
Carol Gilligan vs Lawrence Kohlberg
Gilligan claims that Kohlberg’s theories exhibited a bias against women, as only men were used in his research. In contrast, by listening to women’s experiences, Gilligan suggested the existence of gender disparities in moral reasoning. She posits that a morality of care can effectively replace the morality of justice and rights in Kohlberg’s theory.
Lawrence Kohlberg - justice-based morality focused on rules and individual rights.
Carol Gilligan - care-based morality that prioritizes relationships and responsibility towards others.
Ethics of care - Three stages
- Pre-conventional: Orientation to individual survival: At this stage, a person primarily focuses on their own needs and well-being, considering actions based on what benefits them personally.
- Conventional: Conventional care: Individuals prioritize the needs of others, often neglecting their own needs to be good and meet societal expectations. Also know as goodness as self-sacrifice.
- Post-conventional: Integrated care: This stage represents a balance between caring for oneself and others, where individuals make decisions considering both their own needs and the needs of others in a responsible manner. Also morality of nonviolence