If you aren’t familiar with this it goes something like this. When people are born they have no morals. Their cognitive development mirrors their moral development. There are 3 levels of moral development and 6 stages, 2 stages per level. It looks like this.
Level 1 - Pre-Conventional
Stage 1 - Punishment Obedience Orientation
Stage 2 - Personal Reward Orientation
Level 2 - Conventional
Stage 3 - Good Boy/Nice Girl Orientation
Stage 4 - Law and Order Orientation
Level 3 - Postconventional
Stage 5 - Social Contract Orientation
Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principal
This is a simple outline. For more detailed info search the internet for Kohlberg…
Everyone starts at stage one and most develop through the stages to stage 3/4. Kohlberg says a very small percentage of people ever make it to Level 3 - Postconventional.
Is this a valid theory? In my mind it has some problems especially with the stages 5/6. Most all of stage 6 thinkers have had serious problems with some segment of society and have paid severly for it. Abraham Lincon, Martin Luther King JR., Ghandi, etc. I personally think that someone of high moral/cognitive development would be more careful with their own lives by not causing quite so much controversy. But maybe I’m stuck in stage two and too worried about my life. =)