Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

402 CHAPTER 9 Lifespan DevelopmentLawerence Kohlberg (1927–1987) Aftergraduating from high school in 1945,Kohlberg joined the Merchant Marines. InEurope, he witnessed the aftermath ofWorld War II and met many Holocaustsurvivors. After finishing his service in theMerchant Marines, Kohlberg helped smuggleJewish refugees into what was thenBritish-controlled Palestine. He was caughtand briefly imprisoned by the British butescaped and eventually made his way backto the United States (Schwartz, 2004).Years later, Kohlberg (1986) wrote, “Myexperience with illegal immigration intoIsrael raised all sorts of moral questions,issues which I saw as issues of justice. Wasusing death or violence right or just for apolitical end? When is it permissible to beinvolved with violent means for supposedlyjust ends?” Kohlberg was to be preoccupiedwith themes of justice andmorality for the rest of his life.emphasizes respect for legal principles that protect all members of society. None ofthe subjects showed stage 6 reasoning, which reflects self-chosen ethical principlesthat are universally applied (Colby & others, 1983). Kohlberg and his colleagueseventually dropped stage 6 from the theory, partly because clear-cut expressions of“universal moral principles” were so rare (Gibbs, 2003; Rest, 1983).Thus, Kohlberg’s original belief that the development of abstract thinking inadolescence naturally and invariably leads people to the formation of idealistic moralprinciples has not been supported. Only a few exceptional people display the philosophicalideals in Kohlberg’s highest level of moral reasoning. The normal course ofchanges in moral reasoning for most people seems to be captured by Kohlberg’s firstfour stages (Colby & Kohlberg, 1984). By adulthood, the predominant form ofmoral reasoning is conventional moral reasoning, reflecting the importance of socialroles and rules.Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized on several grounds (see Krebs & Denton,2005, 2006). Probably the most important limitation of Kohlberg’s theory is thatmoral reasoning doesn’t always predict moral behavior. People don’t necessarilyrespond to real-life dilemmas as they do to the hypothetical dilemmas that are usedto test moral reasoning. Further, people can, and do, respond at different levels todifferent kinds of moral decisions. As Dennis Krebs and Kathy Denton (2005) pointout, people are flexible in their real-world moral behavior: The goals that peoplepursue affect the types of moral judgments they make.Moral Development: Developing a Senseof Right and Wrong As adolescents developnew cognitive abilities, they becomemore aware of moral issues in the world.Their newly acquired ability to imaginehypothetical situations and compareabstract ideals to the reality of situationsoften leads them to question authority ortake action against perceived injustices.This young Australian Amnesty Internationalvolunteer is wearing a cloth gagacross her mouth to protest the Chinesegovernment’s censorship, monitoring, andsurveillance of Internet users in China.