Lawrence Kohlberg
Ashlyn Ferguson 2nd Period
About Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg was born in Bronxville, New York on October 25, 1927 and lived until January 19th, 1987 passing away from suicide. He had been in a deep depression and suffering from painful symptoms from a tropical parasite for over 10 years that he contracted Belize in 1971. He was married to Lucy Stigberg in 1955 and had 2 sons.
How did he contribute to the field?
He was influenced by Jean Piagets and expanded Piaget's thoughts. With this expansion, he created a wider version of stages of moral development that included 3 levels of 6 stages...
-Stage two: Individualism and exchange.
- Preconventional Morality: (Infants and very young children)
-Stage two: Individualism and exchange.
- Conventional Morality: (Elementary school)
-Stage three: Maintaining interpersonal relationships.
-Stage four: Law and order.
- Post-Conventional Morality: (Teens and adults)
He was sure that women were at a lower stage than men.
Interesting Fact!
He once smuggled Jews from Romania through the British Blockade, into Palestine.
How did Kohlberg help modern-day psychology?
Besides living the modern day life, Kohlberg's study is still living today. For example, his theory decides on how parents and teachers should raise their children by using the moral development levels and stages. Schools now have the "character education" and "teen living" classes that influence and persuade us to be better people.