Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development:

A system to study character development in literature

A Sociological Approach to Criticism

• Looking at the Adam and Eve/Cain and Abel is looking at Archetypal patterns

• Looking at Theories of Morality is an approach from lens of morality

An allegorical painting representing charity….a virtue revered by society

Why we will look at Kohlberg

• To compare and contrast character behavior• To illuminate more fully our understanding of the text• To analyze and evaluate character behavior • To view character motivation from a cultural/ethical point

of origin

Preconventional Stages

• Stage Zero –Pre-Moral

• Stage One – Simple Authority Orientation

• Stage Two – Instrumental Relativist

Stage Zero

• 4% of society never moves beyond this point• Pleasure-Pain determine behavior (think of the

child touching the stove)• No sense of obligation or morality• Not immoral, but amoral (without)• Take what is pleasant; avoid what is unpleasant• Person guided only by what he can and wants to

do

Stage One: Simple Authority Orientation

• Think Machiavelli’s Prince/Robert Bruce in the film Braveheart

• Obedience-and-punishment

• Physical consequences determine good/bad behavior

• Deference to superior power or prestige

• Authority figure determines standards

• Responsive to rules

Stage Two: Instrumental Relativist

• Naively egoistic orientation (self-centered in a naïve way)

• Instrumentally satisfying needs of self (occasionally others)

• Equal sharing, exchange, reciprocity, fairness (children playing with toys…if you loan me your Barbie, I’ll be your best friend)

• Eye for Eye, same for all, treat all the same• You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours (not

centered in loyalty or concern, but fair) Think politicians/spies etc.

Conventional Moral StagesStages 3 and 4

• Stage Three – Interpersonal concordance or Good Boy/Nice Girl Orientation

• Stage Four – Law and Order

Stage Three: Interpersonal Concordance

• Being nice, approval, pleasing a limited group are important (think of the groups of students in teen movies like Mean Girls or Never Been Kissed

• Consider own feelings (conscience) and feelings of others

• Put oneself in other’s shoes• Stereotypes of right behavior of majority• Intentions (“he means well…”) become important• Teenagers often find themselves here

Stage Four: Law and Order

• Orientation toward authority and maintenance of the social order

• Maintain the given social order for its own sake• Doing duty• Rigid: fixed rules hard to change (imagine the

person at the broken stop light who won’t go even if there is not a car in sight)

• Respect for authority and majority rule• 70-80% of adults peak here

Post-ConventionalStage 5, 6, and the nebulous 7

20% adult population may reach

• Stage Five – Social Contract

• Stage Six – Ethical Principle

• Stage Seven – Nebulous/God on Earth

Stage Five: Social Contract• Legalistic orientation• Standards critically examined and socially agreed upon• Constitutional and democratic (ideals which guided our founding

fathers)• Legalistic but law can be changed for benefit of society• Individual rights respected except when contrary to constitutionally

agreed rights• Personal values respected• Utilitarian• Moral values defined in terms of individual rights and standards

agreed upon by the society (pants issues in Atlanta right now)• Consensus rather than majority• “Official” Morality of our country

Stage Six – Ethical Principle

• Guided by self chosen principle• Orientation to principles above social rules Jean

Valjean, Ghandi, MLK, George Washington, Erwin Rommel and Robert E. Lee are examples

• Principles appeal to logical university and consistency

• Justice with individual dignity• Obedience or disobedience to law based on

moral respect for justice• Saints, ascetics, people who die for a cause

Stage Seven – Out of this world

• Christ on Earth….we don’t see this in our world…

• This would be a person of undescribed morality

• Sometimes you see Kohlberg’s theory list a 7 and sometimes it goes only to 6…it is a nebulous area.

Movement through Kohlberg

• Each person’s moral reasoning develops through the stages outlined

• Stages can’t be skipped; progress occurs only one at a time

• Some people go farther and faster than others• Once can only comprehend all stages up to and

including his present stage.• Given the right circumstances, one can understand and

operate at a moral level immediately above the present level

• Moral reasoning more than one stage higher cannot be fully comprehended

Movement….cont.

• One tends to prefer the next stage as he understands it• Moral reasoning stages lower than that attained will be understood

but rejected; they do not affect behavior or persuade the thinking of the individual

• Moral development is always progressive – regression does not occur; once higher level is attained it is never lost and movement continues forward

• Moral development is not automatic; it may be arrested at any stage• A person may be in transition between stages• When one is “in stage” at least 50% of his responses are typical of

that stage, with some higher and some lower• The sequence of stages does not vary with culture, social class, or

religion; these factors may affect speed of movement or stages typical of a given age.

The process of moral development can be stimulated by:

• Experience of moral conflict or dilemmas

• Exchange of different views

• Exposure to next higher level or moral reasoning……

• We can see these things in literature…and this should stimulate conversation and thought