Based on the ideas about the relation of morality and thinking advanced by John Dewey and Jean Piaget, Kohlberg began a major study of moral thinking in 1950. While working with boys between the ages of ten and sixteen, he came to the conclusion that there was a natural developmental pattern to moral reasoning.

Kohlberg’s viewpoint is not static by any means. He has devoted much recent effort to a philosophical articulation of the theory. With continuing empirical research he has also developed refinements in the stages (subdividing them) and in the experimental techniques

• Pleasure-pain (exciting-fearful) determine behavior
• No sense of obligation or morality; no comprehension of effects of actions
• Not immoral but amoral: lacking ability to discern right/wrong (infant)
• Take what is pleasant; avoid what is unpleasant
• Person is guided by what he or she can and wants to do, even hurting others for the pleasure or excitement it may bring him or her
• You might say person has self-chosen rules BELOW the social order

Stage One: Simple Authority Orientation

• Obedience and punishment orientation where physical consequences determine good or bad; because he feels that might makes right, he bows to stronger person’s rules
• Deference to superior power or prestige; authority figure determines standards
• Responsive to rules IF he thinks he’ll be caught and punished

Stage Two: “Instrumental relativist”: What’s in it for me?

• Naively egoistic orientation (It’s all about me!)
• Satisfies needs of self and occasionally others
• Equal sharing: exchange, reciprocity, fairness, same for all, treat all the same, eye for eye
• You scratch my back & I’ll scratch yours not from concern or loyalty, but because it’s equal, fair

• Being nice, approval, and pleasing a limited group are all important
• Puts oneself in another’s shoes; conscience begins here; considers feelings of others
• "Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others and is approved by them. There is much conformity to stereotypical images of what is majority or 'natural' behavior.
• Behavior is frequently judged by intention. 'He means well' becomes important for the first time. One earns approval by being 'nice.'"

Stage Four: Law and Order

• Orientation toward authority and maintenance of the social order for its own sake
• Does duty; respect for authority and majority rule
• Rigid: fixed rules are hard to change

• Contractual and legalistic; constitutional and democratic/li>
• Standards critically examined and socially agreed upon; Legalistic but law can be changed for the benefit of society.
• Individual rights respected except when contrary to social contract (agreed rights)
• Moral values defined in terms of individual rights and standards agreed upon by society Consensus (general agreement, unanimity) rather than majority (one over half)

Stage Six: Ethical principles

• Orientation to ethical principles higher than the law
• Conscience guided by self-chosen principles (Do no harm to others.)
• Obedience or disobedience to law based on moral respect for justice for all people.
• “At heart, these are universal principles of justice, of the reciprocity and equality of human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons."