PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with other
people. It is most often described in terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits. Personality
also refers to unique and relatively stable qualities that characterize an individual’s behavior across
different situations over a period of time. Personality characteristics are relatively stable and
enduring, often developed in childhood, and affect the way we think, act, feel, and behave.
Individual personality patterns are both consistent and stable and unique and distinctive.

Personality: features

 It has both physical and psychological components.

 Its expression in terms of behavior is fairly unique in a given individual.
 Its main features do not easily change with time.
 It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external
situational demands. Thus, personality is adaptive to situations.

Types of personality

Jung classified individual into two psychological types – introvert, extrovert, and ambivert was
added later on, as all individuals could not be fitted in only these two types.

Introvert
An introvert limits his acquaintance to a few. This person is very conservative and suspicious of
the motives of others. He is not social and prefers to remain in the background on certain
occasions. He avoids embarrassment and public speaking. He is very reserved, self-centered,
introspective, absent minded, remains worried and is always day dreaming. He is generally slow
and hesitant to take the initiative. Philosophers, poets, and scientists are generally introverts.

Extrovert
An extrovert is socially adaptable and interested in people. He likes to make friends and very
soon creates a circle of friends around him. He prefers working in company with other people, is
talkative and fond of talking. He is self assertive and generally takes things lightly. He never
feels embarrassed. He has a keen sense of observation and is attentive. Reformers and social
workers are generally extroverts.

Ambivert
Ambivert types are placed in between extrovert and introverts. Their behavior is balanced. Their
psychic energy is partially directed inwards and partly outwards. They are interested in their own
thoughts and emotions and also in other persons and their action. Most of us belong to ambivert
type.

The factors affecting personality development include the following.

 Biological factors
 Family and social factors
 Cultural factors
 Situational factors
Biological factors
a) Heredity: heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical
stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, reflexes, energy level etc are
considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by who our parents are.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of individuals personality is
the molecular structure of the genes. Evidence demonstrates that traits such as shyness,
fear and distress are more likely caused by inherited genetic characteristics.
b) Physical features. The physical stature of an individual is also a contributing factor to
personality. E.g. the fact that a person is tall/short, fat /skinny, handsome/ugly will
influence the person’s effect on others and in turn will affect self-concept which may
have impacts on personality.
Family and social factors
Family and social groups have a significant impact on personality development through
socialisation (a process by which an individual acquires behaviour potentials that are
acceptable and according to the standards of his family and social group) and identification
processes(a person identifies himself with a person whom he feels ideal in the family eg a
child trying to behave like his father).
Cultural factors.
Culture is considered as the major determinant of an individual’s personality. Culture is the
complex of beliefs, values and techiniques for dealing with the environment which are shared
among contempolaries and transmitted by one generation to the next.
Environment
Environment to which we are exposed plays a substantial role in shaping our personalities. For
example, culture establishes the norms, attitudes, and values that are passed along from one
generation to next and create consistencies over time. The environmental factors that exert
pressures on our personality formation are culture in which we raised, our early conditioning, the
norms among our family, friends, social groups, social interaction, etc that we experience.

Both heredity and environmental factors are important determinant of human personality.
Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but, an individual’s full potential will be determined
by how well s/he adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment.

Situational factors
Situations influence the effects of heredity and the environment on personality. An individual’s
personality although generally stable and consistent does change in different situations. The
different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality.
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Relevancy of studying personality to a teacher

 The knowledge of human personality enables the teacher to judge and follow the method
of guiding by selecting suitable teaching methods.
 This helps the teacher to properly plan the educational program to accomplish the
objectives for a desirable change in the learners.
 By studying the personality of learners, the teacher can understand the values and value
systems of his/her learners and can plan and execute his/her work accordingly.
 By studying the personality of a particular learner, the teacher can get a clear idea about
his various traits such as sociability. If a person found with this trait, then he can be used
as a key communicator to promote developmental activities in a particular village.
 Similarly, learners with traits of empathy, sympathy, generosity can be engaged in
trustworthy works like sharing, helping etc.

There are several theories on human personality growth and development. These are categorized
as below:
 Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic theories
 Social theories
 Cognitive theories
 Social cognitive theories
 Humanistic theories
PSYCHO-DYNAMIC OR PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Theories in this category propose that development is an active dynamic process that is strongly
influenced by individual’s social and emotional experiences. A child’s development occurs in a
series of stages, at each stage the child experiences conflicts which must be resolved in order to
go to the next stage.
SIGMUND FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY.

Advanced by Sigmund Freud. The psychoanalytical perspective holds that much of human
personality development is influenced by inner forces or drives in our minds that we are not
aware of (unconscious). People may exhibit several behavioral tendencies like anxiety and
aggression which psychodynamic psychologists attribute to past childhood experiences that were
not resolved at certain stages of childhood development but repressed in the unconscious part of
the mind. For example, during his childhood a person could have been a victim of aggression and
his desire for revenge could not be resolved at the time, the same desire to avenge may manifest
in adulthood in a tendency to be aggressive, although unconsciously.

Freud viewed a new born individual as an inherently negative creature that is driven by two
kinds of biological instincts which he called Eros and Thanatos. Eros (or life instincts) helps a
child to survive and directs life sustaining activities such as respiration, eating among others.
Thanatos (death instincts) is viewed as a set of destructive forces present in all human beings.
Freud believed that eros is stronger than thanatos thus enabling us to survive than self-destruct.
Freud thought that destructive acts like murder and war were out ward expressions of the death
instinct.

Components of Personality Development

The psychoanalytical perspective suggests that there is a structure of the mind that includes the
ID (a representation of animal desires), the judgmental SUPEREGO (a representation of moral
values) and the rational EGO which attempts to moderate decisions of the other two parts. The
theory attributes behaviour to the working relationship of the three parts of the mind (self) where
the behaviour of an individual is the outcome of the conflicts between ID and SUPEREGO and
EGO’s attempt to moderate and control the irrational demands of Id and Superego.

These structures struggle for control of the energy of the mind (psyche). The id attempts to have
basic pleasure-seeking instincts satisfied and ego works to prevent the id from expressing itself
inappropriately. The superego which is similar to a conscience takes this job one step further by
attempting to enforce societal, religious and/or parental values about right and wrong.
Sometimes, the drives of the id slip out and are evidenced by slips of the tongue and dreams.

These three major parts develop sequentially. The Id is there at birth and the Ego come later once a child
understands reality and begins to act realistically with his\her environment and others. The Superego is
developed last when the child learns moral values.

The id is a psychoanalytic term for the inborn component of the personality that is driven by the
instincts. At birth the personality is id whose function is to serve the instincts by seeking objects
that will satisfy them. It is unconscious and has no contact with reality. It is also irrational.
According to Freud, the id obeys the pleasurable principle strives to relieve tension by seeking
pleasure and avoiding pain and by seeking immediate gratification. We might have difficult time
satisfying our needs by relying on our irrational ids. Freud believed that these difficulties lead to
the second component of personality which is the ego.

The ego. This operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic and rational
ways of satisfying the id’s demands and sometimes ego must invest some of its available psychic
energy to block the id’s irrational thinking. The ego is partly conscious. It houses our mental
functions such as reasoning, problem solving and decision making.
Freud stressed that the ego’s mastery over id is reflected by its ability to delay gratification until
reality is served. Due to some difficulties found at this component of personality, it leads to the
third component, superego.
The Superego. It works on the morality principle. This controls the id’s impulses especially
those that society forbids e.g. aggression, murder etc.. It also persuades the Ego to turn to
moralistic goals than simply realistic ones and strive to perform. Freud believed that between
three (3) to six (6) year-old children are gradually internalizing the moral standards of their
parents. Thus the internalized code of conduct form child’s superego.
The superego consists of two (2) systems i.e. conscience, this pushes the ego by making a person
feel bad through guilt. And the ideal self is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be.
The demands of the id and the superego make life hard for the ego. For example ones ego might
say, “I want to have sex only occasionally and be sure to use an effective form of birth control”.
But your id is saying “I want to be satisfied; sex feels good”. And your superego is at work too,
“I feel guilty about having sex”
Ego Defence Mechanisms
According to Freud, besides the id, ego and the super ego, defense mechanisms are important in
understanding how personality works. The ego calls a number of startegies to resolve the conflict
between its demands for reality, the wishes of the id, and the constraints of the superego.
Defence mechanisms are the ego’s protective methods for reducing anxiety by unconsciously
distorting reality. Defence mechanisms are unconscious ie we are not aware we are calling on
them to protect our ego and reduce anxiety and when they are used in moderation or on a
temporary basis, they are not necessarily un healthy. Examples of defence mechanisms include;
Repression. This is a master defence mechanism. The ego pushes unacceptable impulses out of
the awareness, back into the unconscious mind. E.g. a young girl was sexually abused by her
uncle. As an adult, she can’t remember anything about the traumatic experience.
Rationalisation. The ego replaces a less acceptable motive with a more acceptable one. E.g. A
college student doesn’t get into the fraternity of his choice. He says that if he would have tried
harder, he could have gotten in.
Displacement. The ego shifts unacceptable feelings from one object to another, more acceptable
object. E.g. a woman can’t take her anger out on her husband so she takes it on her children.
Sublimation. The ego replaces an unacceptable impulse with a socially acceptable one. E.g. a
man with strong sex urges or desires becomes an artist who paints nudes.
Projection. The ego attributes personal shortcomings, problems and faults to others. A man has
a strong desire to have an extramarital affair accuses his wife of flirting with other men.
Reaction formation. The ego transforms an unacceptable motive into its opposite. E.g. A
woman who fears her sexual urges becomes a religious zealot.
Denial. The ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety producing realities. E.g. a man won’t
acknowledge that he has cancer even though a team of doctors has diagnosed his cancer.
Regression. The ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress.
E.g. A woman returns home to her mother every time she and her husband have a big argument.
Freud’s Psychosexual Development
Freud thought that personality develops in a fixed series of stages which he called psychosexual
stages. According to him, interest and pleasure begin before an individual matures. An infant
gets sexual gratification from different parts of the body at different stages but the sexual instinct
reduces as the child grows. He used the term psychosexual pleasure in a wider sense to include
good feelings that arise from the stimulation of the different parts of the body. These early
experiences may have long-term effects on social and personality development. Below are the
stages that Freud called psychosexual stages of development.
The five stages of psychosexual development.
1. The oral stage (birth-1year). This is Freud’s first stage of psychosocial development in
which children satisfy the sexual instinct by stimulating the mouth, lips and gums. Thus
children derive their pleasure from sucking on, chewing/ biting objects. Fixation at this
stage may result into behaviours like nail biting, over smoking, over talking alcohol,
pleasure from over kissing, gluttony, oral hygiene, chewing gum.
2. The anal stage. (1-3years). This is Freud’s second stage of psychosexual development in
which anal activities like defecation become the primary methods of gratifying the sex
instinct. During this anal stage children must endure the demands of toilet training.
Fixation at this stage result into development of an anal expulsive personality character
i.e. they become wasteful, irresponsible, sloppy, or extreme messiness, etc. If toilet
training was too strict, fixation results into development of anal retentive character that is
become too orderly, clean, organized etc.

3. The phallic stage (3-6years). This is Freud’s stage of psychosexual development in

which children gratify the sex instinct by fondling their genitals and developing an
incestuous desire for the parent of other sex.
Freud talked of Electra complex in girls where girls envy their fathers for possessing the
penis and would choose him as a sex object in the hope of sharing this valuable organ.
And Oedipus complex, the conflict experienced by boys of 4-6 years when they develop
an incestuous desire for their mothers and at the same time, become jealous and hostile
with their fathers.
The above conflicts children are resolved through the process of identification this
involves a child adapting the characteristics of the same parent. Fixation at this stage is
reflected in behaviours like heavy reliance on masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism,
etc.

4. The latency period (6-12year). At this stage the child’s sex instinct are relatively quiet
and all available libido is channeled into some socially acceptable activity like school
work and acquiring new skills. The latency period, continues until puberty when the child
suddenly experiences a number of biological changes and this takes us to his last stage of
psychosexual development. There is no fixation in this stage.

5. The genital stage (12 onward). In this stage the underlying aim of sex instinct is to
establish an erotic relationship with another adult and to have children. At this stage
individuals prepare for a career, courting, marrying to satisfy fully the mature sex. At this
stage the superego develops further.

ERIKSON'S THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of

personality in psychology. Much like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops
in a series of stages. Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory describes
the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan.
One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego
identity. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction.
According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experience and
information we acquire in our daily interactions with others. In addition to ego identity, Erikson
also believed that a sense of competence also motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in
Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled
well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which he sometimes referred to as ego strength or
ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy.
In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in
development. In Erikson’s view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a
psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for
personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure.

Psychosocial Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust

The first stage of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development occurs between birth and one
year of age and is the most fundamental stage in life. Because an infant is utterly dependent, the
development of trust is based on the dependability and quality of the child’s caregivers.
If a child successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure in the world. Caregivers
who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting contribute to feelings of mistrust in
the children they care for. Failure to develop trust will result in fear and a belief that the world is
inconsistent and unpredictable.

Psychosocial Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

The second stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes place during early
childhood and is focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control.
Like Freud, Erikson believed that toilet training was a vital part of this process. However,
Erikson's reasoning was quite different from that of Freud's. Erikson believe that learning to
control one’s body functions leads to a feeling of control and a sense of independence.
Other important events include gaining more control over food choices, toy preferences, and
clothing selection. Children who successfully complete this stage feel secure and confident,
while those who do not are left with a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt.

Psychosocial Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt

During the preschool years, children begin to assert their power and control over the world
through directing play and other social interaction. Children who are successful at this stage feel
capable and able to lead others. Those who fail to acquire these skills are left with a sense of
guilt, self-doubt and lack of initiative.
Psychosocial Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority
This stage covers the early school years from approximately age 5 to 11 years. Through social
interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities.
Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a feeling of
competence and belief in their skills. Those who receive little or no encouragement from parents,
teachers, or peers will doubt their ability to be successful.

Psychosocial Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion

During adolescence, children are exploring their independence and developing a sense of self.
Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will
emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of independence and control.
Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will insecure and confused about
themselves and the future.

Psychosocial Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation

This stage covers the period of early adulthood when people are exploring personal
relationships.
Erikson believed it was vital that people develop close, committed relationships with other
people. Those who are successful at this step will develop relationships that are committed and
secure. Remember that each step builds on skills learned in previous steps. Erikson believed that
a strong sense of personal identity was important to developing intimate relationships. Studies
have demonstrated that those with a poor sense of self tend to have less committed relationships
and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness, and depression.

Psychosocial Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation

During adulthood, we continue to build our lives, focusing on our career and family. Those who
are successful during this phase will feel that they are contributing to the world by being active
in their home and community. Those who fail to attain this skill will feel unproductive and
uninvolved in the world.

Psychosocial Stage 8 - Integrity vs. Despair

This phase occurs during old age and is focused on reflecting back on life. Those who are
unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many
regrets. The individual will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair. Those who feel proud
of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means
looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain
wisdom, even when confronting death

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive development is the development of the thinking and organizing systems in the brain. it
involves language, mental imagery, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, memorydevelopment
etc.
PIAGET'S STAGE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget was among other things, a psychologist who was interested in cognitive
development. He saw children’s thinking developing in a series of increasingly complex stages
each of which incorporates and revises those which precede it. He formulated a most complete
and detailed description of the process of cognitive development based on observations of
behavior of his own children and those in his area of genetic epistemology. He noted that
children of similar age tend to engage in similar behaviors and to make the same kinds of
mistakes in problem solving. He concluded that these similarities are as a result of a sequence of
development that is followed by all normal children. He also concluded that completion of each
period with its corresponding abilities is the pre-requisite for entering the next period.
According to Piaget, individuals acquire the cognitive structures by interacting with their
environment. Children actively construct their cognitive world and go through a series of stages
in doing this. In actively constructing their cognitive world, children use schemas. A schema is a
concept or framework that already exists in a person’s mind which organizes and interprets
information. Schemas help people to reconstruct the past and also to make sense out of their
current experience. Two processes help the individual to use and adapt their schemas
Assimilation: This occurs when individuals incorporate new information into existing
knowledge. That is, in assimilation people assimilate the environment into a schema
Accommodation: This occurs when individuals adjust to new information Existing concepts/
ideas are modified to fit new ideas or experiences better.
Adaptation: occurs as a result of the interplay between assimilation and accommodation to
make the learning process complete. Adaptation results from a combination of the individual’s
experiences, cultures and society as well as physical maturation.
Illustration. A young infant lunges at a rattle and tries to grasp it but is unable to pick it up. In
this instance the infant has assimilated the rattle into the reaching schema of objects to be picked
up. Over the course of several months and repeated attempts, the infant refines its movement and
is able to pick up the rattle (accommodation)
Together these processes (assimilation, accommodation and adaptation) create a state of
cognitive equilibrium (balance) but there is sometimes temporally dis-equillibrium in the
development of these processes.
After observation of many children, he posited that children progress through 4 stages and that
they all do so in the same order. These four stages are described below.
The Sensorimotor Period (birth to 2 years)
In this stage infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences
eg seeing and hearing with physical (motor) actions- hence the term sensorimotor. It is non-
symbolic through much of its duration and object permanence is an important accomplishment.
At the beginning of this stage, new borns have little more than reflexive parterns with which to
work. By the end of of the stage, 2 year olds show complex sensorimotor patterns and are
beginning to use symbols in their thinking.
 Infants cannot predict reaction, and therefore must constantly experiment and learn through trial
and error. Such exploration might include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth. As
they become more mobile, infants' ability to develop cognitively increases. Early language
development begins during this stage. The development of object concept is an important feature
of this stage. This means that at the beginning of this stage, when a child perceives an object and
it is removed from sight, he thinks that it has disappeared for good (objects out of sight are out of
mind). Object permanence starts occurring at 7-9 months, demonstrating that memory is
developing when infants realize that an object exists after it can no longer be seen. Object
permanence (understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be
seen, heard or touched) is one of the major accomplishments in the sensori-motor stage.
Pre-Operational period (2 to 6/7 years)
At this age, there’s rapid development of language and ability to represent things symbolically.
Children use toys to represent objects and ideas (symbolic representation) and they begin to
classify and categorise them. They learn to count and manipulate numbers. Operations in this
stage are mental representations that are irreversible. E.g. A preschooler may know that 2+3=5
but may not understand the reverse 5-2=3.

Piaget says children at that stage have not grasped the concept of conservation. i.e. A belief in
the permanence of certain attributes of objects or situations inspite of superficial changes e.g. if a
round piece of clay is moulded into a longer shape, a child will think that the longer clay has
more clay than the round shaped one. Another example is when a child is presented with two
identical Beakers A and B and filled with same amount of liquid. Then a third Beaker C which is
tall and thin is filled with the same amount of liquid. If a child in typical preoperational stage is
asked whether the amounts in A and C are the same, she/he will say that the liquid in C is more.
They are very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; (inability to distinguish between
one’s own perspective and some one else’s perspective) that is, they think that others see the
world the way they do. They also have intuitive thoughts i.e. children can’t answer logically
why they know something but offer personal insights or guesses instead. Young children at this
stage also have much desire to know their world and they ask a lot of questions.

Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12 years)

Children in the concrete operations stage have logical reasoning which replaces intuitive
reasoning. They lack abstract reasoning but classification skills are present. They are able to take
another's point of view and take into account more than one perspective simultaneously. They
can also represent transformations as well as static situations. Although they can understand
concrete problems, Piaget would argue that they cannot yet perform on abstract problems, and
that they do not consider all of the logically possible outcomes. Concrete operations allow the
child to coordinate several characteristics rather than focusing on a single property of the object
so a concrete operational child can solve the beaker problem seen earlier. He/she can say that
liquids in all beakers are the same.. That is they have learnt reversibility and the law of
conservation. Children in this stage can reason in respect to objects they have seen but not with
hypothetical objects.
Formal Operations (11/12 years to adult)
Children who attain the formal operation stage are capable of thinking logically and abstractly.
They can also reason theoretically. Piaget notes that, unlike young children, adolescents are no
longer limited to actual concrete experience as the anchor of thought. They can conceive make-
believe situations, hypothetical possibilities, or purely abstract propositions. Thought also
becomes more idealistic. Adolescents often compare themselves and others to ideal standards.
Adolescents also begin to think more like a scientist thinks, devising plans to solve problems and
systematically testing solutions (Hypothetical-deductive reasoning). Hypothetical-deductive
reasoning is the ability of adolescents to develop hypotheses, or best hunches, about ways to
solve problems such as an algebraic equation. Piaget considered this the ultimate stage of
development, and stated that although the children would still have to revise their knowledge
base, their way of thinking was as powerful as it would get.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

The continued existence of human groups in every society is determined by an overarching

social organization that specifies rules of good conducts and vices. This constitutes the moral
aspects of life which are basically roles and behaviors by which a society is expected to live.
Attitudes and behaviors which are generally accepted as ideal or rejected as improper in society
may be determined by rules or forces of law but can be from the religious, philosophical,
cultural, biological or other ideologies.
Morals can be, “one’s judgments about what is right or wrong and their reasoning capacity as to
why one’s action is right and the other is wrong. Morals can be habits, expectations which are
acquired or learned which begin right from parents, peers and society. Therefore moral
development involves the do’s and the don’ts of society.
Therefore children can obtain their morality directly from their parents and act in accordance
with moral prescriptions to avoid punitive feeling of guilt from a harsh, restrictive super ego.

KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Lawrence Kohlberg viewed development in terms of levels of reasoning applied to choices
people make in their lives. Kohlberg viewed moral reasoning in three levels which included six
sequential stages.
Kolberg perceived these stages as universal, that is, no stage is ever skipped, and applicable to all
cultures. Kolberg stressed that the actual decisions people make are not important, but that the
reasoning behind the decisions was important. This reasoning determines which stage of
development a child is in.
Unlike the other theories, Kohlberg’s developmental levels and stages are not related to age.
Developmental levels are determined by the moral dilemmas people face and the reasoning they
apply in making decisions to resolve these dilemmas. A moral dilemma is a conflict situation
faced by an individual that involves making a choice between two alternatives, both of which
would be considered socially unacceptable.

The best known of these moral dilemmas is the “Heinz dilemma,” which asks individuals to
choose between the value of obeying the law ( not stealing) and the value of human life (saving a
dying person): For example in Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. There was one
drug the doctors thought might save her. A druggist in the same town had discovered it, but he
was charging ten times what the drug costed him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz,
tried to borrow the money, but he could only get together half of what it costed. The druggist
refused to sell it cheaper or let Heinz pay later. So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s
store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have done that? Why or why not?.

Kohlberg organized his six (6) stages into three (3) general levels
These three (3) levels of development range from reasoning based upon self-gratification (pre
conventional morality), to reasoning based upon conformity (conventional morality),to reasoning
based upon individual values that have been internalized (post conventional morality).

Level one: The Pre conventional morality (2-7 years)

At this level, the child makes decisions based on cultural roles of what is considered to be right
or wrong. The reasoning applied is based upon reward and punishment and the satisfaction of
their own needs. This level is divided into two stages.

Stage One: Punishment and Obedience Orientation.

The child acting in this level avoids breaking rules because he/she may be punished. The child
demonstrates complete deference to rules. Often the interests of others are not considered.

Stage Two: Instrumental Relativist Orientation.

The reasoning applied during this stage is the one that satisfies the needs of the individual and
sometimes the needs of others. However, the only reason that the individual helps another is
because a deal has been made where the person the individual helps owes him/her something.

Level Two: Conventional Morality (7-12 years)

Conformity is the most important aspect at this level. The individual conforms to the expectation
of others, including the general social order. Kohlberg identified two stages within this level.

Stage Three the “good boy – good girl” Orientation, or the morality of interpersonal
cooperation.

Living up to the expectations of others and good behavior are the important considerations for
the individual in this stage. Stage 3 individuals want to maintain the affection and approval of
friends and relatives by being a “good person “by displaying actions of trustworthy, loyalty,
respect, helpful and being nice. For instance “no one will think you’re bad if you steal the drug,
but your family will think you’re an inhuman husband if you don’t. If you let your wife die,
you’ll never be able to look anyone in the face again”

Stage Four: The social – order maintaining orientation or law and Order Orientation.

The person acting in this stage is oriented towards authority and maintaining the social order.
The emphasis is on doing one’s duty and showing respect for authority. In stage 4, individuals
believes laws cannot be disobeyed under any circumstances because they are vital for ensuring
societal order.

Level Three: Post conventional Morality (+12 years)

This is Kohlberg’s highest level of moral development, in which individuals define morality in
terms of abstract Principles and values that apply to all situations and societies. Individuals move
beyond unquestioning support for the rules and laws of their own society.

People who are in this level make decisions on the basis of individual values that have been
internalized. These values are not dependent on one’s friends, family or group, but totally on the
individual making the decision. The stages of reasoning also comprise this level.

Stage Five: Social Contract - Legalistic orientation.

In this stage, correct behaviour is defined in terms of individual rights and the consensus of
society. Right is a matter of personal opinion and values, but there is an emphasis on the legal
point of view present here. When laws are consistent with individual rights and the interests of
the majority, each person follows them because of a social-contract orientation – free and willing
participation in the system because it brings about more good for people than if it did not exist.

Stage Six: The Universal ethical principle orientation.

The ultimate judge of what’s moral is a person’s own conscience operating in accordance with
certain universal principles. Society’s rules are arbitrary and may be broken when they conflict
with universal moral principles.
At this stage, right action is defined by self-chosen ethical principles of conscience that are valid
for all humanity, regardless of law and social agreement. These values are abstract, not concrete
moral rules like the Ten Commandments. For example “If Heinz does not do everything he can
to save his wife, then he is putting some value higher than the value of life. It doesn’t make sense
to put respect for property above respect for life itself. Respect for human life and personality is
absolute and accordingly people have a mutual duty to save one another from dying”.