Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development are an adaptation of the Piaget Stages. According to the theory,
moral reasoning develops in six stages, each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than the one before.

Pre-Conventional Morality
Stage 1

Obedience or
Punishment
Orientation

This is the stage that all young children start at (and a

few adults remain in). Rules are seen as being fixed
and absolute. Obeying the rules is important because it
means avoiding punishment.

Stage 2

Self-Interest
Orientation

As children grow older, they begin to see that other

people have their own goals and preferences and that
often there is room for negotiation. Decisions are made
based on the principle of "What's in it for me?" For
example, an older child might reason: "If I do what
mom or dad wants me to do, they will reward me.
Therefore I will do it."

Conventional Morality
Stage 3

Social Conformity
Orientation

By adolescence, most individuals have developed to

this stage. There is a sense of what "good boys" and
"nice girls" do and the emphasis is on living up to
social expectations and norms because of how they
impact day-to-day relationships.

Stage 4

Law and Order

Orientation

By the time individuals reach adulthood, they usually

consider society as a whole when making judgments.
The focus is on maintaining law and order by following
the rules, doing one's duty and respecting authority.

Post-Conventional Morality
Stage 5

Social Contract
Orientation

At this stage, people understand that there are differing

opinions out there on what is right and wrong and that
laws are really just a social contract based on majority
decision and inevitable compromise. People at this
stage sometimes disobey rules if they find them to be
inconsistent with their personal values and will also
argue for certain laws to be changed if they are no
longer "working". Our modern democracies are based
on the reasoning of Stage 5.

Stage 6

Universal Ethics
Orientation

Few people operate at this stage all the time. It is

based on abstract reasoning and the ability to put
oneself in other people's shoes. At this stage, people
have a principled conscience and will follow universal
ethical principles regardless of what the official laws
and rules are.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget was a developmental psychologist best known for his theory of cognitive development. Piaget's stages
deal with the nature of knowledge (epistemology) and how humans come to gradually acquire it.

Stage
Sensorimotor

Age

Description
0-2 yrs

During this first stage, children learn entirely through the

movements they make and the sensations that result. They
learn:
that they exist separately from the objects and
people around them
that they can cause things to happen

that things continue to exist even when they can't

see them

Preoperational

2-7 yrs

Once children acquire language, they are able to use

symbols (such as words or pictures) to represent objects.
Their thinking is still very egocentric though -- they assume
that everyone else sees things from the same viewpoint as
they do.
They are able to understand concepts like counting,
classifying according to similarity, and past-present-future
but generally they are still focused primarily on the present
and on the concrete, rather than the abstract.

Concrete
Operational

7-11 yrs

At this stage, children are able to see things from different

points of view and to imagine events that occur outside their
own lives. Some organized, logical thought processes are
now evident and they are able to:
order objects by size, color gradient, etc.
understand that if 3 + 4 = 7 then 7 - 4 = 3

understand that a red square can belong to both

the 'red' category and the 'square' category

understand that a short wide cup can hold the

same amount of liquid as a tall thin cup

However, thinking still tends to be tied to concrete reality

Formal
Operational

11+ yrs

Around the onset of puberty, children are able to reason in

much more abstract ways and to test hypotheses using
systematic logic. There is a much greater focus on
possibilities and on ideological issues.

Bandura - Social Learning Theory

by Saul McLeod published 2011, updated 2016
In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviorist learning theories of
classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However, he adds two important ideas:
1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
2. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of
observational learning.

Observational Learning
Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the
famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are surrounded by many
influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on childrens TV, friends within
their peer group and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behavior to observe
and imitate, e.g. masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social etc.
Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At a later
time they may imitate (i.e. copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do this regardless
of whether the behavior is gender appropriate or not, but there are a number of processes that
make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for
its sex.
First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself.
Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of the same sex.
Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a models behavior and the consequences are
rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing the behavior. If parent sees a little girl
consoling her teddy bear and says what a kind girl you are, this is rewarding for the child and
makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e.
strengthened).
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants
approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy
about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it
believes will earn approval because it desires approval.
Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement offered
externally does not match with an individual's needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative,
but the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person's behavior.

Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when deciding
whether or not to copy someones actions. A person learns by observing the consequences of
another persons (i.e. models) behavior e.g. a younger sister observing an older sister being
rewarded for a particular behavior is more likely to repeat that behavior herself. This is known
as vicarious reinforcement.
This relates to attachment to specific models that possess qualities seen as rewarding. Children
will have a number of models with whom they identify. These may be people in their immediate
world, such as parents or older siblings, or could be fantasy characters or people in the media.
The motivation to identify with a particular model is that they have a quality which the
individual would like to possess.
Identification occurs with another person (the model) and involves taking on (or adopting)
observed behaviors, values, beliefs and attitudes of the person with whom you are identifying.
The term identification as used by Social Learning Theory is similar to the Freudian term related
to the Oedipus complex. For example, they both involve internalizing or adopting another
persons behavior. However, during the Oedipus complex the child can only identify with the
same sex parent, whereas with Social Learning Theory the person (child or adult) can potentially
identify with any other person.
Identification is different to imitation as it may involve a number of behaviors being adopted,
whereas imitation usually involves copying a single behavior.

Mediational Processes
SLT is often described as the bridge between traditional learning theory (ie. behaviourism) and
the cognitive approach. This is because it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved
in learning.
Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and
think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning
could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These mental factors mediate (i.e.
intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired.
Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behavior of a model and imitate it. There
is some thought prior to imitation and this consideration is called mediational processes. This
occurs between observing the behavior (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response)

There are four mediational processes proposed by Bandura:

1. Attention: The extent to which we are exposed/notice the behavior. For a behavior to be
imitated it has to grab our attention. We observe many behaviors on a daily basis and
many of these are not noteworthy. Attention is therefore extremely important in whether a
behavior has an influence in others imitating it.
2. Retention: How well the behavior is remembered. The behavior may be noticed, but is it
not always remembered which obviously prevents imitation. It is important therefore that
a memory of the behavior is formed to be performed later by the observer.
Much of social learning is not immediate so this process is especially vital in those cases.
Even if the behavior is reproduced shortly after seeing it, there needs to be a memory to
refer to.
3. Reproduction: This is the ability to perform the behavior that the model has just
demonstrated. We see much behavior on a daily basis that we would like to be able to
imitate but that this not always possible. We are limited by our physical ability and for
that reason, even if we wish to reproduce the behavior, we cannot.
This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it or not. Imagine the scenario of
a 90-year-old-lady who struggles to walk watching Dancing on Ice. She may appreciate
that the skill is a desirable one, but she will not attempt to imitate it because she
physically cannot do it.
4. Motivation: The will to perform the behavior. The rewards and punishment that follow a
behavior will be considered by the observer. If the perceived rewards outweighs the
perceived costs (if there are any) then the behavior will be more likely to be imitated by

the observer. If the vicarious reinforcement is not seen to be important enough to the
observer then they will not imitate the behavior.

Critical Evaluation
The social learning approach takes thought processes into account and acknowledges the role
that they play in deciding if a behavior is to be imitated or not. As such, SLT provides a more
comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognizing the role of mediational processes.
However, although it can explain some quite complex behavior it cannot adequately account for
how we develop a whole range of behavior including thoughts and feelings. We have a lot of
cognitive control over our behavior and just because we have had experiences of violence does
not mean we have to reproduce such behavior.
It is for this reason that Bandura modified his theory and in 1986 renamed his Social Learning
Theory, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), as a better description of how we learn from our social
experiences.
Some criticisms of social learning theory arise from their commitment to the environment as the
chief influence on behavior. It is limiting to describe behavior solely in terms of either nature or
nurture, and attempts to do this underestimate the complexity of human behavior. It is more
likely that behavior is due to an interaction between nature (biology) and nurture (environment).
Social learning theory is not a full explanation for all behavior. This is particularly the case when
there is no apparent role model in the persons life to imitate for a given behavior.
The discovery of mirror neurons has lent biological support to the theory of social learning.
Although research is in its infancy the recent discovery of "mirror neurons" in primates may
constitute a neurological basis for imitation. These are neurons which fire both if the animal does
something itself, and if it observes the action being done by another.

References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through the imitation of
aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582