The Moral Development Stages of the Moral Agent

Introduction
We have discussed how we can be more ethical or moral in our actions and decisions.
Morality or ethics constitute a fundamental guide to people’s existence that without which, it
would be impossible for people to co-exist harmoniously. Furthermore, the topic about ethics is
not just a guide about co-existence but it has an important role to play for people to live more
meaningful and positive relationships that bring about transformative changes to the quality of life.

In this topic, we will underscore moral development. The understanding of moral

development can help us gain insights about our role in providing avenues for its development.
Morality might have its own course of natural development, but we might just have the
responsibility to choose to allow or impede its full maturation in us or in other people. For children,
they need assistance from more mature individuals to reach the full development of their moral or
ethical reasoning and judgment. It will always be to their advantage if they are guided and given
the chance to be empowered by such wise and experienced individuals.

The different stages of moral development have been the focus of the study of the American
moral psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. He theorized that moral development involves three
levels which are discussed in this chapter:

Learning Outcomes
1. Identify the different levels of moral development;
2. Characterize one’s present stage of moral development; and
3. Evaluate the roles of more mature people in the moral development of younger people.

Activating Prior Learning

Recall that event when you started to have knowledge about having done something good
or bad. Share it to class. (15 minutes)

Presentation of Contents
The Levels and Stages of Moral Development by Lawrence Kohlberg
Level I. Pre-conventional

The pre-conventional level corresponds to how infants and children think. The type of
reasoning at this level is centered on the consequences of one’s action and the level is divided into
two stages.

Stage I. The first stage of reasoning focuses on obedience and the avoidance of
punishment. At this stage, a child reasons out that actions are “good” if they are able to
avoid punishment and actions are “bad” if they result to punishment. By that, we
understand that children’s action as thought of is not that they have found what the best
thing to do is, rather, they have found what to do in order to evade getting scolded or
punished.

Stage II. At this point, entering the second stage of reasoning, children act
according to what will satisfy their interests. The good at this stage of development is what
brings pleasure to them. Children’s activities at this stage are focused on those in line with
their interests. Hence, what is “good” for children of this age is what brings them pleasure
or satisfaction. Characteristically, at this stage, children still have difficulties making a
distinction between them and others. Others are considered extensions of who they are and
deals with them to the extent that they can bring them pleasure or some kind of advantage.

The pre-conventional stage symbolizes the stage when children have not yet
understood the importance of rules in their life. The consequences of their acts are most
important as they may lead to either punishment or to their satisfaction or pleasure their
interests having been served. What is right or wrong is not determined by following rules
but by what their actions bring them.

Level II Conventional

At this stage, older children, adolescents and young adults learn to conform to societal
expectations. Conventions acquire significance for the individual and learns to follow them. They
now understand the importance of conventions in their life. Level II is subdivided into two stages.

Stage III. Group approval at this stage is very important for the child. The desire
to belong is a strong motivation for the child in order to act according to what the group
expects from her or him. The more common tendency for the individual is to conform
specially to the values of the immediate group like the family, playmates and later on to
those of the peer group because by doing so it will best serve his or her interests to be part
of the group. Adolescents would therefore seek for the approval of others since they are
instrumental to the satisfaction of their new needs. They are also more open and give more
importance to the expectations of larger groups in their community or in school.

Stage IV. The fourth stage is an important development. It is the deepening of the
acceptance of the importance of societal conventions. The individual learns by now that
conventions are not only good for him or for her but the individual realizes that conventions
are necessary for the existence of the society itself. Hence, at this stage, the individual is
 better ready in order to accept and value most of the laws, rules and regulations of one’s
community or society. Dutifulness toward the standards of the society embodied in its rules
and laws shape the moral reasoning of the stage. Adolescents of this stage very importantly
uphold laws and regulations that when others disobey them like when laws are not properly
or wrongly implemented, they are capable of rebelling against a system that does not
respect the laws.

Kohlberg explains that people who merely follow the rules and regulations of their
society or of their organizations or the doctrines of their religion is the best they can do are
trapped in this second stage of the conventional level. Many of them reach only this far in
their moral development. Unable to understand the reasons behind why there are rules and
laws to follow; they tend to develop a kind of legalistic mentality in which rightness or
wrongness of an act is based on whether or not one follows rules and regulations. It must
be noted that Kohlberg’s theory is not about the definition of the goodness or rightness of
an act. He does not propose a kind of ethical theory but describes the stage of the growth
in moral thinking in the different stages of development.

Level III. Post-Conventional

In the post-conventional level, people realize that what matters is no longer the simple
following of rules in the society that takes precedence. The moral agent by now knows that what
is at stake is more on doing or acting upon the personally acquired beliefs or principles. What one
does is what one ought to do is now the new challenge for the individual moral agent.

Stage V. In the fifth stage, the moral agent realizes the value of social contract
which is about the agreements. Rational agents realize that it is their call to serve the
common good which he or she ought to respect and live by. The idea of the common good
is post-conventional because it is theoretically the mature and conscientious moral agents
who are identified to be morally upright. The moral agent binds himself or herself with the
common good whether or not it produces consequences that are beneficial or not. For
clarity, the notion of the common good is upheld higher or given more importance than
existing communal agreements, traditions and rules because these must be examined using
rational discourse. Hence, what is moral is what honors the social contract.

Stage VI. Kohlberg argues that this stage is the highest stage of moral development.
The stage goes beyond social contract. It is about choosing to do acts based on universal
ethical principles acquired by the moral agent himself or herself. This stage goes beyond
the societal conventions, rules and agreements and that actions are morally correct only if
they are based on the universal ethical principles. The actions must be respected only if
these reflect the universal ethical principles.

Summary
 The different stages of moral development according to Lawrence Kohlberg are not to be
confused with determining what is morally right or wrong. But the stages describe only the
characteristics of each of the developmental stages. Hence, one must be careful not to pass on
moral judgment to an act based on the stages of moral development developed by Kohlberg.

Kohlberg argues that in the stages of moral development, most people are locked up in the
fourth stage. Only very few are able to go beyond it. This means that most people relate their moral
judgment to communal or societal conventions, rules, laws and regulations. Therefore, the
rightness and wrongness of an act depends on whether one follows them or not; implying therefore
a kind of legalistic mentality.

Assessment
Identify the stage of moral development (first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth). Write
your answer on the space provided before the item.

_____1. It is characterized by following the rules and regulations knowing that these are significant
for the society’s existence.
_____2. It is the stage when acts are performed in order to avoid pain.
_____3. Andres wants that his playmates play only games he wants to play.
_____4. Concerned that the government is not serious about what it should implement as laws of
the land like recognition of the rights of its citizens, Marco decided to join the rebels.
_____5. Miss X defied the tradition of lavish wedding celebration believing that it does not
help anymore the family and the new couple.
_____6. It refers to the stage when the child desires to be always number one.
_____7. It is characterized by the belief that what rational people have realized as good is
the right thing to do.
_____8. Consequences of the act are the bases of the rightness or wrongness of the
act.
_____9. It is the stage during which Boy Y thinks that his playmates are there to serve his interest
or the inability to make distinction between him and others.
_____10. It is the stage when individuals are convinced that laws and communal traditions should
be honored only when they serve universal principles but should be rejected when
they don’t.

Reflection
If we were to ask ourselves, where are we situated in our personal moral judgment? Do we
base our moral decision and choices on conventions or from universal ethical principles that we
have acquired? Have we arrived at acquiring certain universal ethical principles personally? Are
we afraid to honor ethical principles because their consequences might not be beneficial for us
personally?