Facts about Lawrence Kohlberg
- 08
Kohlberg's moral development theory was challenged by Carol Gilligan in 1982, who argued his research excluded female participants and thus failed to account for gender differences in ethical reasoning.
- 07
Kohlberg's 1981 essay on civil disobedience argued that principled lawbreaking aligned with Stage 6 moral reasoning represented the highest form of ethical development.
- 06
Kohlberg's Just Community Schools program, implemented at several institutions during the 1970s and 1980s, attempted to create democratic environments where students collectively governed moral dilemmas through group discussion and decision-making.
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Kohlberg's 1969 work on moral education in schools influenced the development of values clarification curricula, though he later criticized this approach for lacking ethical objectivity.
- 04
Kohlberg's 1984 book The Philosophy of Moral Development introduced his concept of Stage 7, a transcendent level incorporating cosmic perspective and spiritual experiences beyond his original six stages.
- 03
At Harvard University during the 1970s, Kohlberg's longitudinal study tracked the same 84 boys from his original 1958 Chicago sample into adulthood to validate his moral development theory.
- 02
Kohlberg's Stage 6 of moral development, based on universal ethical principles, was largely abandoned by 1984 due to insufficient empirical evidence of its existence.
- 01
In 1958, Lawrence Kohlberg interviewed 72 Chicago boys aged 10 to 16 to develop his six-stage theory of moral development.