Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M4355

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development
BehaviorHigh supportDevelopmental Psychology
Included
account_tree

Updated 2026-08-01

Loading revision record…

INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Formulated by Lawrence Kohlberg in the 1950s and 1960s. Moral reasoning develops through three levels, each with two stages: the pre-conventional level, based on punishment and self-interest; the conventional level, based on social approval and maintaining law and order; and the post-conventional level, based on social contract and universal ethical principles. Progress depends on cognitive development and on encountering reasoning above one's current stage.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Read the reasons: identify the stage from the justification rather than from the decision itself - Challenge upward: use dilemmas one stage above the current level to create productive conflict - Design rules: match institutional incentives to the reasoning stage people actually occupy

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Each stage supplies a different criterion for justifying a choice, and a stage is abandoned when it can no longer resolve the conflicts a person meets. Reasoning one level higher accounts for more of the situation, which creates the disequilibrium that drives development. Progress therefore comes from processing better arguments rather than from being told the correct conclusion.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/1

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_developmentZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Delay of Gratification

The famous 'Marshmallow Experiment' (Walter Mischel)

arrow_forwardRelated model

Object Permanence

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived through the senses. This is a fundamental concept in developmental psychology, a subfield of psychology that studies the social and psychological development of infants and children. Currently, there is no consensus in the scientific community regarding the concept of object permanence in human development. Jean Piaget was the first Swiss psychologist to study object permanence in infancy. He considered object permanence to be one of the most important developments in infancy, because without this concept, objects cannot exist independently and permanently.

arrow_forwardRelated model

Reminiscence Bump

The reminiscence bump is the tendency for adults over forty to have increased or enhanced recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories…

arrow_forward