In your readings, you have learned about different aspects of biological, cognit
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Question
In your readings, you have learned about different aspects of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional development throughout the lifespan, including Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg,moral reasoning is the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong. Based on his theory, as individuals mature, they go through three levels of moral thinking (i.e., preconventional, conventional, and postconventional). After reviewing the table title “LEARNING TIP: Applying Kohlberg’s Three Levels of Moral Development” (p. 144) which provides further information and examples of the three levels of moral thinking, explore one of the following examples using Kohlberg’s theory:
A. In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was inexpensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small (possibly lifesaving) dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz became desperate and considered breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?
B. Two young men who were brothers got into serious trouble and were secretly leaving town in a hurry. In order to leave, they needed money they did not have themselves. Karl, the older brother, broke into a store and stole a thousand dollars. Bob, the younger one, went to a retired old man who was known to help people in town. He told the man that he was very sick and that he needed a thousand dollars to pay for an operation. Although Bob wasn't really sick, and had no intention of paying the man back, he asked the old man to lend him the money and promised that he would pay him back when he recovered. The old man didn't know Bob very well, but he lent him the money. Bob and Karl skipped town, each with a thousand dollars.
Which is worse, stealing like Karl or cheating like Bob? Why is that worse?
Explanation / Answer
Lawrence Kohlberg, developed a theory to understand the moral reasoning of individuals. Every individual goes through different stages of moral reasoning. Each stage has a different phase. Kohlberg introduced the theory to understand the rationale behind an individual's reasoning, when put in a moral dilemma. In his experiment, he constructed a hypothetical situation where an individual was asked how would have they made a moral decision if they were in place of the character in the story narrated to them. One such dilemma posed by Kohlberg was:
A man had a sick wife who was suffering from a rare kind of cancer. However, it was curable, but the drug that would have saved her was extremely expensive. The pharmacist insisted on selling it for $ 2,000 but the man had only $1,000 with him. The man told the pharmacist that he would pay him the money that he has now, and would pay the remaining amount in a few days. The pharmacist refused to budge into the man's plea. The man was so desperate to save his wife that he chose to steal the drug instead.
Individuals who were a part of the experiment were asked what should have the man done and why?
A child at the Preconventional stage of moral development, basis his moral decision or judgment on the repercussions that would follow. At this stage, a child says that the man should have not stolen the drug because it would lead to punishment. The rationale behind concluding the above is, a child l feels that actions that lead to positive reinforcements are good and the ones that lead to punishments are bad. The intention is not considered, it is about bad behaviour being unacceptable.
A child's ability to make judgments increases at the Coventional stage of moral development. At this stage they arrive to an understanding that the society runs according to some set norms, social orders and law. The child rationalised the doings of the man and concludes that 'it's alright for the man to steal because he would not be seen bad in the eyes of people, but if he does not save his wife, then he will never be able to look into anybody's eye again'.
In the last stage of moral development at the Postconventional level, Kohlberg suggested that most individuals enter adolescence and adulthood and it is at this stage an individual's ability to rationalise without any preconceived thoughts attached to society or law, increases. An individual arrives at a judgment that there wasn't anything wrong with the man stealing the drug for his wife as there is nothing above humanity.