Question

3. Consider Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Development (Figure 7-13). Do you believe the senior management at Costco has reached level two, or level three? 4. Compare your motivations to behave ethically with those listed in Figure 7-14. Are the reasons given in figure 7-14 match your personal reason for behaving ethically? all of this about
Costco

Answer 1

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Moral Development: Forming a way of Rights and Responsibilities

Morality may be a system of beliefs about what's right and good compared to what's wrong or bad. Moral development refers to changes in moral beliefs as an individual grows older and gains maturity. Moral beliefs are associated with , but not identical with, moral behavior: it's possible to understand the proper thing to try to to , but not actually roll in the hay . It is also not an equivalent as knowledge of social conventions, which are arbitrary customs needed for the graceful operation of society. Social conventions may have an ethical element, but they need a primarily practical purpose. Conventionally, for example, motor vehicles all keep to the same side of the street (to the right in the United States, to the left in Great Britain). The convention allows for smooth, accident-free flow of traffic. But following the convention also features a moral element, because a private who chooses to drive on the incorrect side of the road can cause injuries or maybe death. In this sense, choosing the incorrect side of the road is wrong morally, though the selection is additionally unconventional.

When it involves schooling and teaching, moral choices aren't restricted to occasional dramatic incidents, but are woven into almost every aspect of classroom life. Imagine this simple example. Suppose that you simply are teaching, reading to alittle group of second-graders, and therefore the students are taking turns reading a story aloud . Should you give every student an equivalent amount of your time to read, albeit some might enjoy having additional time? Or do you have to give longer to the scholars who need extra help, albeit doing so bores classmates and deprives others of equal shares of “floor time”? Which option is more fair, and which is more considerate? Simple dilemmas like this happen a day in the least grade levels just because students are diverse, and since class time and a teacher’s energy are finite.

Embedded during this rather ordinary example are moral themes about fairness or justice, on the one hand, and about consideration or care on the opposite . It is important to stay both themes in mind when brooding about how students develop beliefs about right or wrong. A morality of justice is about human rights—or more specifically, about respect for fairness, impartiality, equality, and individuals’ independence. A morality of care, on the other hand, is about human responsibilities—more specifically, about caring for others, showing consideration for individuals’ needs, and interdependence among individuals. Students and teachers need both forms of morality. In the next sections therefore we explain a serious example of every sort of developmental theory, beginning with the morality of justice.

Kohlberg’s morality of justice

One of the best-known explanations of how morality of justice develops was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates (Kohlberg, Levine, & Hewer, 1983; Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1991). Using a stage model almost like Piaget’s, Kohlberg proposed six stages of ethical development, grouped into three levels. Individuals experience the stages universally and in sequence as they form beliefs about justice. He named the amount simply preconventional, conventional, and (you guessed it) postconventional.

Moral stages according to Kohlberg

Preconventional Level--

Stage 1: Obedience and punishment
Action that is rewarded and not punished
Stage 2: Market exchange-
Action that is agreeable to the child and child’s partner
Conventional Level

Stage 3: Peer opinion
Action that wins approval from friends or peers
Stage 4: Law and order
Action that conforms to the community customs or laws
Postconventional Level

tage 5: Social contract
Action that follows socially accepted ways of making decisions
Stage 6: Universal principles Action that is consistent with self-chosen, general principles----------