Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Hello students, for this paper you will be conducting your own small research study on moral development. You will be testing and applying Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. You will be using the Heinz dilemma (Dilemma III) provided in the link below. You will find 5 people, one from each of these age groups; 6-8, 16-18, 26-30, 35-40 and a 50+ year old. You will read the dilemma to each person separately and ask them the series of questions that follow. After interviewing them on the questions and documenting their responses, you will be rating the stage of moral development you think they are in and provide the reasoning you used to place them in this stage and level. You will also collect the age of the people you interviewed, their gender, their education level, their birth order, and their employment. You will also use quotes from their responses and then tell us which stage and level each of them are in and why you placed them in that stage and level. You will need to do a little reading about the theory first and remember to pay very close attention to what they say when you ask “why” after each main question. In the conclusion you will include the implications of the results on the theory (was what you found consistent with the theory or were there surprises and if so how do you justify them and what could they mean). Your paper will include:
Introduction: Tell a little background on Kohlberg and the theory and the purpose of your research study
Methods:Tell a little about how you conducted the research and give us a snapshot of the sample (please change the names to fake names)
Example:
|
Name |
Age |
Gender |
Education |
Sibling ranking |
Employment
|
|
Bob Bolson |
9 |
Male |
Third grade |
First of one |
Unemployed |
Results: This is where you will include the stage and level you have assigned each participant.
Example:
|
Name |
Level |
Stage |
Reasoning |
Quote |
|
Bob Bolson |
3 Post-conventional morality |
6 |
Bob, at the remarkably young age of 9 is taking into account the likely views of everyone affected by a decision. |
When asked whether or not Heinz should steal the drug, Bob responded,“Because his wife is dying, he should steal the drug because Heinz will need his wife to continue producing future generations.†Clearly, Bob is taking into account the views of the future population. |
Discussion: Here you will restate the purpose of the research study and explain how the results fit in with the theory or diverge from the theory and why that may be and what implications that may have.
References: Please include at least 3 references in APA format.
Your paper should be at least 5 pages including the cover page. It should be in APA format and you should include at least 3 references in a separate reference section at the end of the paper.
Here is the link to the dilemma and a second link to help with the rating of your participants moral stages and levels but the rest of the research for the introduction and how to rate your participants you will do on your own.
http://ww3.haverford.edu/psychology/ddavis/p109g/kohlberg.dilemmas.html
https://www.cs.umb.edu/~hdeblois/285L/Kohlberg%27sMoralStages.htm
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
