Kohlberg s Theory Of Moral Development And Moral Maturity...

Introduction: Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987) is the pioneer of the theory of stages of moral development and participated actively in the development of the fields of moral psychology and moral education. Kohlberg was especially inspired by Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who created the theory of cognitive development. Mark Baldwin, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead also influenced his thinking (Barger, 2000; Encyclopedia of Education, 2002). In this paper, I will analyze in-depth Kohlberg’s theory and discuss an article that uses Kohlberg’s theory to foster moral courage for nurses. I-Kohlberg s definition of moral development and moral maturity According to Kohlberg, moral development is a consecutive and invariant evolution of the moral reasoning of human beings from the childhood to adulthood. Thus, Kohlberg defined three levels (pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional) comprising each two stages of moral development, hence, a total of six stages: (1) Obedience and punishment, (2) individualism, instrumentalism, and exchange, (3) â€Å"good boy/girl†, (4) law and order, (5) social contract, (6) principled conscience (Barger, 2000). He believed that moral maturity is reached step-by-step, step. That is, one cannot skip a stage through this process or move back (Villanova University, n.d.). In contrast, Piaget in his cognitive development theory, established four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. 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