Kohlberg's Theory (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Kohlberg's theory of morality & offending behaviour

• Kohlberg’s theory and its relevance to offending behaviour is that criminals operate at a different level of moral reasoning to non-criminals

• Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is a stage theory, as it sees the development of morality as linked to key developmental stages in a person’s life 

• The theory presents six stages of moral development subdivided into two parts per stage: each stage denotes a more advanced and sophisticated level of moral reasoning

Measuring morality

• Kohlberg measured moral development using a series of moral dilemmas designed to test the ways in which each individual responds to a specific scenario and to how they use reasoning to determine the most appropriate/desirable course of action per dilemma

• Kohlberg thought that the justification given by each individual per dilemma was more interesting than their ultimate decision, as it is the reasoning which demonstrates the level of morality most clearly

• The most famous of Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas is the Heinz dilemma as outlined below:

  • Heinz had a wife who was dying from cancer

  • There was one drug that might save Heniz’ wife

  • The drug was expensive to make but the pharmaceutical company was charging ten times the cost of the drug

  • Heinz was not able to raise the money to pay for the drug, even after asking friends and family to help

  • Heinz went to the local pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to sell him the drug at a lower price or to allow him to pay later once he had found all of the money but the pharmacist said no

  • Heinz’ dilemma is: should I break into the pharmacy at night and steal the drug which will save my wife or should I follow the law which means that my wife will probably die?

  • The person who is presented with this dilemma then has to reason as to whether Heinz should/should not steal the drug and why/why not

• The results of the research on moral dilemmas led to Kohlberg producing his stage theory as follows:

• Criminals are likely to operate at stage 1, the preconventional level of moral reasoning, as this level involves a lack of reflection and self-awareness (i.e., does this crime make me a bad person? Do I want to be this sort of person?) and a simplistic assessment of right/wrong (i.e., I don’t want to get caught; that would be wrong)

Research which investigates Kohlberg’s theory

• Palmer & Hollin (1998) gave a series of moral dilemmas to a sample of male and female offenders and non-offenders aged 13-22 years old and found that the non-offenders showed higher levels of moral reasoning than the offenders, which supports Kohlberg’s theory

• Palmer (2007) conducted a review of research and concluded that it may be that the development of moral reasoning is strongly influenced by children's early socialisation experiences

Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory

Strengths

• Kohlberg’s theory could be applied in rehabilitative settings, e.g., as a basis for incorporating moral reasoning into effective interventions with offenders

• The moral dilemmas could be replicated – and modified to suit specific samples – which means that it has some reliability

Weaknesses

• Moral reasoning does not always translate into moral behaviour or actions: anyone can claim to think/feel a particular way but it does not mean that this is actually what they think/feel; hence, the theory may lack validity

• Not everyone can be slotted neatly into one of the stages/levels; people may operate at different levels depending on the circumstances, people may regress or leap levels or some levels may overlap

Issues & Debates

• Kohlberg’s theory is deterministic, as it suggests that individuals offend due to low levels of moral reasoning

  • This implies that their actions are determined by their stage of cognitive development rather than free choice

  • This deterministic view may undermine the notion of personal responsibility in legal or moral terms, as it implies offenders may not be fully capable of moral reasoning

• Kohlberg’s theory has been criticised for gender bias, as it was developed using a male-only sample, yet the stages of moral development were generalised to both men and women

  • The theory is androcentric, as it suggests that males develop superior moral reasoning based on rules and justice, while female morality—based on care and relationships is seen as less advanced

  • As a result, female offenders may be unfairly judged or misunderstood when their moral reasoning doesn’t fit Kohlberg’s male-oriented model