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Preconventional Level
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STAGE 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
During Stage 1, the child is most concerned with the consequences received for an action rather. They believe that the 'big' people give them rules to obey unquestioningly.
Children in stage 1 responding to the scenario will typically say the the man was wrong to steal the drug because 'Stealing is wrong' and 'you can go to jail' Immediately jumping to the consequences as if they are all that matter in this senario. -
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EXAMPLE SCENARIO
A man's wife is dying of a rare illness and will surely die if she does not recieve a new treatment that has just been discovered. However the pharmacist who created it is selling the drug for 10 times what it costs him to make it and is now charging $1,000 for a small dose. The man scrapes together all the money he can muster but can only get $500, he asks the pharmacist if he will give the drug cheaper but he refuses. Finally, desperate with worry the man breaks in and steals the drug. -
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STAGE 2: Individualism and Exchange
At Stage 2, children will discover that there is more than a single way of thinking handed down by adults. They realise that ever indivdual would have a different view on the scenario. Children would often respond that 'that man may think stealing the drug is right however, the pharmacist may not.' Some responses invole the man's current situation and if he truly wished for his wife to live or not would decide whether he stole the drug. -
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Conventional Stage
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STAGE 3: Good Interpesonal Relationships
At this point in moral development, children realise that they should live up to the expectations of their families and community and should behave in ways that are classified as "good". Children in stage 3 often say that the man was in the right because he was just trying to help his wife and save her life. They also say that the pharmacist was 'selfish' or 'greedy' and that he was not interested in helping save a life, focusing on the money above all else. -
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STAGE 4: Maintaining the Social Order
People in Stage 4 believe that they should do what is right for society as a whole and not focus so much on the individual. Those responding to the scenario maintain that, while the man's motives were 'good', theft cannot be condoned. They argue that, if every one was to create their own set of values and follow those whilst ignoring anyone else's there would be total anarchy and chaos. -
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Postconventional Stage
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STAGE 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
While at Stage 4, people believe in what makes for a well-functioning society, those in Stage 5 will work towards what makes for a 'good' society (a totalitarian society may be well-organised but is not morally ideal).
They believe that society is contract entered into willingly to work toward the benefit of all social groups involved in the society. In the scenario, those in Stage 5 say that it is the wife's right to survive and that that must be protected. (it is the husband's duty to help). -
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STAGE 6: Universal Principles
Not a truly defined stage. Those in Stage 6 work toward ways that true justice and equility can be achieved. (A majority may vote to pass a law that hinders a minority. -
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Criticism of Kohlberg
One critic of Kohlberg's theory is that it is 'sex-biased' in that men and women think and consider these types of scenarioes in different ways. Therefore, men and women will often score very differrently on the Kohlberg scale