Lawrence Kohlberg

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Lawrence Kohlberg (born October 25, 1927 in Bronxville , New York , † January 19, 1987 ) was an American psychologist and professor of education at Harvard University School of Education. Kohlberg founded a theory that divides the moral development of people into stages, the stage theory of moral development .

Life

Lawrence Kohlberg was born in 1927 as the fourth child to a Jewish family in a suburb of New York. He spent his high school years at the prestigious Andover Academy , where he was on probation for almost the entire time for various offenses against school regulations. After graduating in 1945, he had to go to war-torn Europe to do military service. He was hired as a machinist on a ship that brought Jewish refugees through the British blockade to Palestine . The ship was captured with the use of weapons and Kohlberg was interned in a prison in Cyprus.

After his liberation by the Hagana , he lived in a kibbutz in Palestine for a while, then returned to the United States and began studying psychology at the University of Chicago . Because of his outstanding achievements, he received his bachelor's degree after just one year . During an internship in a psychiatric hospital, Kohlberg was horrified to see a chief physician administering electric shocks to a 'defiant' patient.

In 1958, Kohlberg wrote his dissertation on "The moral development of man" and thus expanded the theory of cognitive development by Jean Piaget . With Kohlberg, the process of moral development is not completed with a certain age, but can drag on for a lifetime. The highest level of development in his model - the justification of moral action by universal principles - is to be seen as a hypothetical goal that is only achieved by a few people.

From 1968 to 1987 Kohlberg was Professor of Education at Harvard University and directed the Center for Moral Development and Education he founded .

During a stay in Belize in 1971 he became infected with lamblia and has since suffered from the consequences of the parasite infestation. After a hospital stay, Lawrence Kohlberg drove his car to Winthrop, near Boston, on January 19, 1987 . He committed suicide on the local beach by throwing himself into the Atlantic Ocean.

Determination of the relationship between politics and morals

Moral development and political maturity are related to each other. While children, adolescents and adults cannot develop an understanding of politics at the first three levels because they lack an eye for the interests of society as a whole, adults from the fourth level can make moral judgments on the basis of a critical examination. From the fifth level, political judgments are based on higher principles.

As already indicated, political understanding presupposes an understanding of society. In the following level model of morality, a distinction is made between the personal and the interpersonal level at all levels. A member of society must first understand, determine and want to assert his interests, before he is able to include the interests of others.

People who live together in a community have to repeatedly weigh up their own interests and those of others. If people come to the insight that on the one hand they serve their own interests while on the other hand they serve the interests of others, then the full potential of a society and justice can develop in the same context.

The stages of moral development

According to Kohlberg, people go through various characteristic stages in their moral development. Basically, a connection between age and level of moral development can be observed, but there can sometimes be serious differences in maturity between people of similar age. The stages can only be run through in the order described below; there is normally no "relapse" into a previous stage.

I Preconventional stage

When people are born, they do not yet know the rules of this world. It takes time for you to learn which laws and which regularities or social rules exist in society. When children are born, the mother is considered the primary caregiver who, through rewarding and punishing, shows the child what behavior is good and bad . At this stage, the children learn what is good and bad through reward and punishment .

Stage 1: Orientation towards punishment and obedience.

Whether an action is good or bad depends on its physical consequences and not on the social significance or evaluation of these consequences. Avoidance of punishment and unquestioned subordination to power are considered values ​​in themselves, not mediated by a deeper moral order supported by punishment and authority.

In the second stage children develop basic features of fairness and a sense of equitable distribution, but they always see their own advantage as essential. In contrast to the first stage, children have a much stronger relationship with their environment.

Level 2: The instrumental-relativistic orientation.

A correct action is characterized by the fact that it instrumentally satisfies one's own needs - sometimes also the needs of others. Interpersonal relationships appear as market relationships. Basics of fairness , reciprocity and a sense of fair distribution are there, but (they) are always interpreted physically or pragmatically. Reciprocity is a question of “one hand washes the other”, not loyalty or justice .

II Conventional stage

Most teenagers and adults are at this level. People at this level base their behavior exclusively on the rules of their environment. These members of society are recognized when they are "nice" because they adhere to the rules of conduct. While the frame of reference in the first two stages is the immediate environment in different forms, which provides the framework for behavior on the physical level, in this stage the social rules are internalized and lived.

Many adolescents and adults, who are predominantly in the 3rd stage, often consciously do not even notice that they are living the rules of society without ever having formed their own judgment . The approval of the environment is the linchpin of personal behavior. A conscious questioning of meaning and purpose is not sought.

Level 3: Orientation towards personal consent or “good boy / nice girl” model.

Correct behavior is what others like or help and find their approval.

This level is characterized by a high degree of conformity to stereotypical notions of mostly correct or “natural” behavior . Often behavior is judged according to the intention: “He means well” becomes important for the first time. One finds approval when one is "nice".

The orientation framework is gradually being expanded so that the personal environment is no longer the yardstick for behavior, but the social order. Correct behavior therefore means doing one's duty within this framework. It is important to promote the thought pattern insofar as questions are considered to be the subject of investigation, which inevitably presuppose networked thinking. As soon as the transition from the third to the fourth stage is made, political thinking can be developed sustainably. It is only from the fourth stage that people are able to recognize other interests and living environments and to work on them mentally in the sense of a balance of interests.

Level 4: Orientation towards law and order. Authority, established rules and the maintenance of social order form the orientation framework.

“ Correct behavior means doing one's duty, respecting authority and standing up for the given order for its own sake. "(Ibid)

III Post-conventional stage

At this stage, social rules are called into question for the first time, which means that rules are only partially and fully accepted after a critical examination . The implementation of the Beutelsbach Consensus , according to which students should in no way be prevented from developing their ability to make judgments, but must develop them in order to be able to classify the existing controversies in science and society accordingly, is essential.

Level 5: The legalistic or social contract orientation. Generally associated with utilitarian traits.

The correctness of an action tends to be measured according to general individual rights and standards which, after critical examination, are borne by society as a whole.

People recognize that their personal point of view differs from that of others. At the same time, they come to the conclusion that other points of view can also be correct. The point of view is important for assessing a situation. On this basis, your own attitude is changed in this way and your own knowledge base is sustainably expanded.

People at this level necessarily have an extensive level of education, relating both to the curriculum of the school and to general principles of life. Such people are most likely to be in a position to stand up for the common good politically because they know how to weigh different moral principles. On this basis you can achieve a good social exchange.

One is clearly aware of the relativity of personal values ​​and opinions and accordingly attaches importance to procedural rules for reaching consensus . Apart from constitutional and democratic agreements , the law is a question of personal values ​​and opinions . The result is an emphasis on the legalistic point of view , although the possibility of changing the law on the basis of rational reflection on social benefits is not excluded. Outside the scope established by law, obligations are based on free agreement and contract .

Members of society who want to implement this moral stance may, in certain social contexts, be the only ones to represent this moral stance of weighing and critical examination .

Level 6: Orientation towards generally applicable ethical principles.

At this highest level, one's own behavior is measured against generally applicable ethical principles.

The right is defined by a conscious decision in accordance with self-chosen ethical principles with reference to extensive logical extension , universality and consistency . These principles are abstract and ethical in nature (the categorical imperative ), not concrete moral rules such as the Ten Commandments. At its core, it is about universal principles of justice , reciprocity and equality of human rights and respect for human dignity as an individual .

The development of this last stage presupposes the ability to distance oneself and to discern . It should be noted that the two abilities mentioned develop when people ask themselves difficult moral questions ( dilemma situations).

Emotional and cognitive development

This stage model describes the cognitive development , but not necessarily the emotional or the development of action. Knowledge is not necessarily translated into action. According to Kohlberg, it is not possible to skip or skip steps. Thinking on a higher level does not exclude thinking on the lower level (hierarchical integration). Nobody can even grasp as meaningful a moral level that is more than one level higher than the one that one has just reached. At the age of 16, most people today have reached level 4, around 25% will reach level 5 in the course of their lives. According to Kohlberg, reaching higher levels enables complex ethical problems to be solved more successfully. Tasks in which problematic situations are discussed have therefore proven to be very successful for training. According to Kohlberg, dealing with dilemmas is necessary for moral development. The highest goal of development is universal justice and a dominating equilibration (dominant self-regulation) .

In further research the universal validity of these processes in all peoples and at all times was allegedly proven, but this is denied by other authors. From the feminist side, the statement was criticized that the moral development of women mostly stops at level 3 because of their stronger relationship orientation.

Moral Judgment vs. moral action

Those who judge morally do not automatically act morally. However, moral judgment is a prerequisite for moral action. Krebs and Kohlberg (1987) showed in a study that moral action largely depends on the formation of moral judgments. Subjects who were on a higher level of the Kohlberg level model acted disproportionately more often “morally” than subjects who were on a lower level.

See also

Fonts

  • For the cognitive development of the child. Three essays. , 470 pages, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-06388-X
  • The Psychology of Moral Development , 564 pages, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-518-28832-6
  • The Psychology of the Lifespan , 345 pages, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-58286-0
  • The moral judgment: the cognition-centered developmental approach , with Ann Colby in H. Bertram (ed.), Social coercion and moral autonomy (pp. 130–162). Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1986.

literature

  • Günter Becker: Kohlberg and his critics: The topicality of Kohlberg's moral psychology. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 3-53117647-1 .
  • Detlef Garz: Lawrence Kohlberg for an introduction , Hamburg: Junius, 1996, ISBN 3-88506-935-0 .
  • Lisa Kuhmerker, Uwe Gielen, Richard L. Hayes: Lawrence Kohlberg. Its importance for educational and psychological practice. Kindt, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-925412-20-4 .
  • Ulf Peltzer: Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral judgment. A scientific-theoretical and practical research analysis. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1986, ISBN 3-531-11834-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Reconstructing Larry: Assessing the Legacy of Lawrence Kohlberg on the website of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (English)
  2. ^ William C. Crain: Theory of Development. 2nd edition Prentice-Hall 1985.
  3. ↑ Carol Gilligan : In a Different Voice. Women's Conceptions of Self and Morality. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 47 (1982), no.4.
personal data
SURNAME Kohlberg, Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and professor of education at Harvard University
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Bronxville ( New York )
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1987