Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg was born in Bronxville, New York, on October 25, 1927, and died on April 15, 1987. His early research was in the area of differences in children's reasoning about moral dilemmas, and this led to a successful career. His work was best known for the influence it had on our understanding of the way children (up through adolescence) think about moral issues. His model of moral development described three distinct levels, and within each of these levels there are two stages.

Kohlberg developed a series of scenarios to determine how children solve moral dilemmas. The child is presented with the dilemma and then asked how he or she would solve it or what action he or she would take. These responses and actions were ...