Kohlberg's Life and Work
Lawrence Kohlberg was born October 25, 1927 in Bronxville New York. He graduated from Phillips Academy in Massachusetts in 1945, and enrolled at the University of Chicago where he completed a B.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1958. He taught at various schools before settling down at Harvard University in 1968.
Kohlberg became interested in the research of Jean Piaget while working for his Doctoral degree. Piaget was studying the moral development of children, and he believed children naturally progressed from moral reasoning based on the consequences (punishment) of an act to reasoning that takes the actor's intentions into account. Kohlberg interviewed 72 lower- and middle-class children and presented a dilemma about whether it was okay for a man to steal a drug for his dying wife. Called the Heinz Dilemma, the children's responses became the basis of his six stage theory of moral development. In the preconventional stages, which included stages 1 and 2, the child believes that wrong acts are those that incur punishment, and right acts are those that avoid punishment. The conventional stages, stages 3 and 4, include the belief that right acts are those that gain the approval of others, and that it is one's duty to follow the rules set by society. In the postconventional stages, 5 and 6, the child recognizes that rules are arbitrary and can change depending on what society wants, and they begin to follow their own moral principles. Kohlberg's research became highly influential in the fields of psychology and education. At a time when most psychologists were behaviorists, Kohlberg broke some new ground by focusing on the cognitive element of his research. Kohlberg contracted a parasitic infection while doing some research in Belize that deteriorated his physical and mental health until he committed suicide in 1987. To see more details on the Heinz Dilemma and his stages of moral development, click on the sub-tags underneath "stages of moral development." |