Examining Moral Development

A child is told not to take a cookie before dinner. She obeys. Is this a moral act? 

According to psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, the answer depends not on the action, but on the reasoning behind it. If she obeys to avoid punishment, she operates at the pre-conventional level, where morality is external, a matter of direct consequences to the self. This is Stage One: Obedience and Punishment Orientation. If she obeys because she understands that following rules leads to mutual benefit-“I follow mom’s rules, she takes care of me”-she has entered Stage Two: Individualism and Exchange. Kohlberg’s theory, developed through presenting moral dilemmas like the famous “Heinz Dilemma” (should a man steal medicine to save his dying wife?), posits that we progress through invariant stages, each representing a more sophisticated framework for justice.

The conventional level emerges in adolescence. Here, morality is internalized as adherence to social norms and laws. Stage Three is about “Good Boy/Good Girl” orientation, seeking approval and maintaining relationships. Stage Four shifts to a Law and Order focus: morality means doing one’s duty, respecting authority, and upholding the social system for its own sake. Most adults, Kohlberg found, operate at this conventional level. 

The legal system is fundamentally a Stage Four institution; it codifies social duty and order. However, Kohlberg identified a post-conventional level reached by a minority. At Stage Five, the Social Contract stage, individuals see laws as flexible tools for human welfare. A law is valid only if it is just; concepts like democracy and individual rights become guiding principles. At the ultimate Stage Six, morality is governed by self-chosen, universal ethical principles like justice, equality, and human dignity. If a law violates these principles, the individual’s conscience demands disobedience.

This framework illuminates persistent legal debates. The concept of mens rea, or criminal intent, interacts directly with moral reasoning. A pre-conventional offender might see crime purely in cost-benefit terms, deterred only by certain punishment. A conventional offender might be deterred by social shame or a belief in the system’s legitimacy. 

The law’s attempt to assess “moral culpability” is, in essence, an attempt to gauge the offender’s stage of moral reasoning. Furthermore, rehabilitation programs aim to catalyze moral development, moving an individual from pre-conventional self-interest to a conventional understanding of societal rules. The theory also critiques the system itself: is a justice system that operates primarily at Stage Four, enforcing order, capable of fairly judging those who act on post-conventional, principled dissent? 

Kohlberg’s stages reveal that our sense of justice is not static but a cognitive architecture under refinement, a fact the law must grapple with in every judgment of human behavior.