Kohlberg Personality Theory

Kohlberg Personality Theory

  • Submitted By: swicki
  • Date Submitted: 05/14/2014 7:29 AM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 844
  • Page: 4

Kolhberg’s theory of moral development is put into six stages which represent your full development “good and evil”
Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment driven (avoiding punishment)
In stage 1, you have no perception of right or wrong and you only know that some things cause punishment, but you can do those things if you aren’t caught, this represents a very self centered view of the world

Stage 2: Self-interest orientation
You retain the views from stage 1 but you begin to do things if you can gain from it
Stage 3: Interpersonal accord (good boy attitude)
You know what society’s expectations are and you do your best to live up to them, the person evaluates things based on how this socially benefits them. It’s fairly rigid and still based on the individual’s wants and desires
Stage 4: Authority and social order obedience driven
In this stage, you obey laws and social conventions not just to benefit yourself but because you desire to uphold society’s structure, this is a very black and white view because it takes no account for motives of others and doesn’t count on others perspectives. Most members of society stay at this level, where morality is still mostly dictated by laws of society
Stage 5: Social contract driven

Stage 5 is much like stage 4 except for the fact you take others perspective more into your decisions and have a less rigid view of laws. Laws become social contracts rather than things that are set in stone, laws become flexible and must be applied on a case by case basis
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles driven
This is the highest level in which you can operate, you are fully aware of other’s perspective and you see fully from a perspective of justice. You will even violate society’s laws if you believe it is in the best interest of justice. You do not care about punishment as long as justice is achieved
(note: Most examples will be from movies, tv, books or games because they typically have very extreme examples, I will...

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