Lawrence Kohlberg

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Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago as well as Harvard University. Famous for research in moral education, reasoning, and development, he developed stages of moral development. A close follower of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Kohlberg's work reflects and extends his predecessor's ideas, at the same time creating a new field within psychology: "moral development". Scholars such as Elliot Turiel and James Rest have responded to Kohlberg's work with their own significant contributions. In an empirical study by Haggbloom et al using six criteria such as citations and recognition, Kohlberg was found to be the 30th most eminent psychologist of the 20th Century.[1]

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[edit] Early life

Lawrence Kohlberg grew up in a wealthy family and attended Phillips Academy, a renowned private high school, in Andover, Massachusetts. His father, Alfred Kohlberg, was an importer of Asian merchandise and his mother, Charlotte Albrecht was an amateur chemist. He was the youngest of four children, having one older brother and two older sisters. His parents separated while he was still young.

During World War II, after finishing his high school education, he enlisted and became an engineer on a freighter. On that ship he and his shipmates decided to aid Jews attempting to escape from Europe to Palestine. They accomplished this by smuggling them in banana crates that were secretly beds, fooling government inspectors that formed the British blockade to the region.[citation needed]

He married Lucille Stigberg in 1955. They had two sons, David and Steven.

[edit] Schooling and research

Kohlberg enrolled at the University of Chicago in 1948 and graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree because his test scores were very high. He earned his doctorate degree from University of Chicago in 1958. After attending college, his career started at Yale University. He taught as an associate professor of psychology from 1959-1961.

Kohlberg then taught in 1962 at the University of Chicago in the Committee on Human Development, further extending his time with academia. In 1968, 40 years old and married with two children, he became a professor of education and social psychology at Harvard University. While at Harvard, he met Carol Gilligan, who later became a colleague and critic of his moral development stage theory.

During a visit to Israel in 1969, Kohlberg journeyed to a kibbutz and observed how much more the youths' moral development had progressed compared to those who were not part of kibbutzim. He decided to rethink his current research and start by beginning a new school called the Cluster School within Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. The Cluster School ran as a 'just community' where students had a basic and trustworthy relationship with one another, using democracy to make all the school's decisions. Armed with this model he started similar 'just communities' in other schools and even one in a prison.

[edit] Stages of Moral Development

Main article: Kohlberg's stages of moral development

In his 1958 dissertation, Kohlberg wrote what are now known as Kohlberg's stages of moral development.[2] These stages are planes of moral adequacy conceived to explain the development of moral reasoning. Created while studying psychology at the University of Chicago, the theory was inspired by the work of Jean Piaget and a fascination with children's reactions to moral dilemmas.[3]

His theory holds that moral reasoning, which is the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental constructive stages - each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than the last.[4] In studying these, Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment far beyond the ages originally studied earlier by Piaget,[5] who also claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages.[4] Expanding considerably upon this groundwork, it was determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice and that its development continued throughout the lifespan,[2] even spawning dialogue of philosophical implications of such research.[6][7]

Kohlberg was interested in how people would justify their actions if they were put in a moral dilemma, so he used stories about them in his studies. He would then categorize and classify evoked responses into one of six distinct stages, each grouped into three levels: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional.[8][9][10] These stages heavily influenced others and has been utilized by others like James Rest in making the Defining Issues Test in 1979.[11]

[edit] Death

Kohlberg contracted a tropical parasite in 1971 while doing cross-cultural work in Belize. As a result, he struggled with depression and physical pain for the rest of his life. On January 19, 1987, he requested a day of leave from the Massachusetts hospital where he was being treated, drove to the coast, and was later found to have drowned in the Boston Harbor. He was 59 years old.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

  1. ^ Haggbloom, S.J. et al. (2002). The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century. Review of General Psychology. Vol. 6, No. 2, 139–15. Haggbloom et al combined 3 quantitative variables: citations in professional journals, citations in textbooks, and nominations in a survey given to members of the Association for Psychological Science, with 3 qualitative variables (converted to quantitative scores): National Academy of Science (NAS) membership, American Psychological Association (APA) President and/or recipient of the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and surname used as an eponym. Then the list was rank ordered .
  2. ^ a b Kohlberg, Lawrence (1958). "The Development of Modes of Thinking and Choices in Years 10 to 16". Ph. D. dissertation, University of Chicago. 
  3. ^ Crain, William C. (1985). Theories of Development, 2Rev Ed, Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-913617-7. 
  4. ^ a b Kohlberg, Lawrence (1973). "The Claim to Moral Adequacy of a Highest Stage of Moral Judgment". Journal of Philosophy 70: 630-646. 
  5. ^ Piaget, Jean (1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co.. ISBN 0-02-925240-7. 
  6. ^ Kohlberg, Lawrence (1981). Essays on Moral Development, Vol. I: The Philosophy of Moral Development. Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-064760-4. 
  7. ^ Kohlberg, Lawrence; Charles Levine, Alexandra Hewer (1983). Moral stages : a current formulation and a response to critics. Basel, NY: Karger. ISBN 3-8055-3716-6. 
  8. ^ Kohlberg, Lawrence (1971). From Is to Ought: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral Development. Academic Press. 
  9. ^ Kohlberg, Lawrence; T. Lickona, ed. (1976). "Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental approach", Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research and Social Issues. Rinehart and Winston. 
  10. ^ Colby, Anne; Kohlberg, L. (1987). The Measurement of Moral Judgment Vol. 2: Standard Issue Scoring Manual. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-24447-1. 
  11. ^ Rest, James (1979). Development in Judging Moral Issues. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-0891-1. 
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