Kohlberg's Three Stages Of Moral Development In To Kill A Mockingbird

Lawrence Kohlberg, a professor at Harvard, creates a theory of human moral development. Since his theory was an expansion of Jean Piaget moral development of children, he elucidates of his theory to have series of stages. Each stage were categorized into three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. During each level there are 2 stages which are consequent for moral development because they are action that manifest on who we are.

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

Scout later narrated, “He stood there until night fall, and I waited for him. When we went in the house I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him” (Lee, 63). Jem was more affected by the loss of connection because of his better understanding of Maycomb’s society, and he is able sympathize with Boo Radley, someone who had been gossiped, rumoured, and speculated about all around the neighbourhood and town to be a outcast because of his behaviour. Jem had been able to change his outlook towards Boo Radley and see him as a human being; however, a feat that hardly any of the adults in the town had been able to accomplish besides Atticus and Miss Maudie. As a result of his childlike viewpoint, Jem had been apt in recognizing that Boo Radley, no matter how he was portrayed by the people of Maycomb, was still a human being with both faults and strengths. This kind of innocence can directly influence children to see the unfairness and unkindness some adults can express to people they do not accept as equal.

Jem is Scout’s older brother who has a lot of bravery for a teenager. In all of Jem’s life he has never declined a dare. Jem was not hesitant to touch the Boo Radley house. Dill was saying he was afraid to even put a toe in the Radley’s front yard. Dill is Scout and Jem’s best friend and he is a smart little boy who visits Maycomb County every summer.

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

A moral: “To be concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour, and the goodness or badness of a character”. Harper Lee’s, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, evidently shows the importance of morals, and how Jem and Scout's development is affected and modified as the plot unfolds. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there are multiple debatable morals induced by Jem and Scout, and both their ways of being. Scout was able to progress throughout the plot, exceeding herself along the way. Jem as well had an increase of growth as the novel developed.

The second level of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral development is the Conventional Level. The Conventional level consists of stages 3 and 4. Stage 3 is based on interpersonal expectations. Those who are at this stage try to be a “good” boy or a “good” girl and live up to others’--such as close friends and family’s-- expectations. Stage 4 is based on Law-and-Order. They are not only focused on what their family and friends say; they are now focused on society. These stages are usually reached by early teens. They don’t blindly follow rules;

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development reflects on the idea that people’s decisions are based on how they process the importance of a situation. According to his theory, there are three stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Each level is based on how a person’s reflects to making a moral decision. In each level there are two stages on how their level of sophistication affected their way of thinking.

Kohlberg created three levels of moral thinking, Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional to understand progression of a person's morality as it becomes more internal and mature. Each of these three levels are then divided into two stages, which totals 6 stages altogether. Heteronomous morality, Individualism, Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Social Systems Morality, Social Contract or Utility and Individual Rights, and Universal Ethical Principles are the stages that were used to characterise the three levels. Kohlberg made each stage to explain a person's reason for their moral decisions and how the came be that way.

However, there is a level 2 which is now conventional moral reasoning which is more for adults with the laws. This level has stages 3 and 4 which are interpersonal expectations which means to follow the rules or do what other people what so that they can get their approval (Kohlberg Theory of Moral Development). Stage 4 is law and order which means to follow the laws instead of what one rele believes because following the laws is important. Also it’s basically someone trying to be a good citizen that follows the law and doesn’t break it because the are scared of what can happen. For example, if someone is driving in a road that is empty and there is a stop sign a person in this stage would stop even though nobody is around they know that would be breaking the law and in their mind they can’t do that. Of course many adults aren’t in this stage because some laws are just too strict but there are many in between which is they follow most rules or laws but break other ones. The people in this stage do this because they

Rather than being inspired by the work of Freud, Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is a cognitive developmental theory was inspired by Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Kohlberg’s theory is made up of three different levels; the preconventional level, the conventional level, and the postconventional or principled level. The three levels are each broken up into two separate stages. For the purpose of this observation, we will be mainly focusing on the preconventional level and the conventional level of moral development. Kohlberg intended the preconventional level to be focused toward infants and preschool children, however the students behavior more closely related to this level than that of the conventional level which is aimed toward his age range. The preconventional level is where children learn that their actions have consequences. The first stage of this level is the punishment and obedience orientation stage, children in this stage are focusing on the consequences of their actions rather than the logical thing to do. The following stage is the instrumental purpose orientation stage, within this stage children tend to believe that if they do someone a favor, that person should do a favor in return (Berk & Meyers,

The second level of moral development is the conventional moral reasoning; “Beginning in middle school, up to middle age – most people end up here” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.”). At this level,

Kohlberg (1963, 1981, 1984; Colby & Kohlberg, 1987) expanded Piaget’s work, developing a most influential cognitive developmental theory of moral development. Kohlberg proposed the progression through the invariant, universal sequence of three moral levels each composed of two distinct stages. According to Kohlberg, no stage can be skipped, neither will there be a regression to an earlier stage.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were based on a moral philosopher by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg. His main interest was to observe children during growth to develop and conclude which stages they best fit into. After observing both adults and children, he concluded that, “Human beings progress consecutively from one stage to the next in an invariant sequence” (“Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”). All of the 6 stages he created, represent the morality in which a child or adult can be at; he created an age zone for each stage. There are a total of 6 stages but each main concept consists of 3 levels. Level 1 is the preconventional stage. This stage focuses on punishment/obedience and how the person decides to act due to the

The theory of moral development, advanced by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is one of the most well-known persuasive theories in the field of cognitive science and stems from the work of Jean Piaget, which hypothesizes on the direct correlation that exists between moral and cognitive development. Kohlberg speaks of the appearance and understanding of what is right and wrong from childhood to adulthood and explains by this transition through the identification of various levels of morality known as pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional. People will make decisions based on the understanding of the possible outcome and through reasoning of morals. (Target Concept)