Sociomoral understanding

Abstract

Students attending a lecture or consulting a textbook on moral development in the mid 1960s would have learned first that a socialised adult is someone able to exercise self-control. Constructivism was first of all an attack on the moral relativism of psychoanalysis and behaviourism. A similar picture has emerged from the less numerous replications of Piaget’s studies of justice notions. Research enquiries began modestly in the sense that the social environment was initially treated as no more than other people. Kohlberg initiated a third distinctive line of inquiry which began with a critique of Piaget. Kohlberg initially identified six types of moral reasoning that he believed met the criteria for true developmental stages. The level sees another qualitative shift in perspective. Moral dilemmas are considered from a standpoint outside the conventions of any particular society. Change from one stage to the next occurs, Kohlberg argued, because the internal coherence of each system of thought is incomplete.