Kohlberg defined three levels of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Each level has two distinct stages. During the preconventional level, a child's sense of morality is externally controlled. Developmental psychologists have divided the subject of morality into three main topics: affective element, cognitive element, and behavioral element. The affective element consists of the emotional response to actions that may be considered right or wrong. There were three levels of moral reasoning that encompassed the six stages. Like Piaget, subjects were unlikely to regress in their moral development, but instead, moved forward through the stages: pre-conventional, conventional, and finally post-conventional. Kohlberg's theory of moral development is important because he is the first to identify and define the ages and stages through which children pass in... In recent years, Kohlberg's theory has been criticized as being Western-centric with a bias toward men (he primarily used male research subjects) and with having a narrow worldview based on upper-middle-class value systems and perspectives. Definition. Postconventional morality, a concept developed largely by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, identifies the ethical reasoning of moral actors who make decisions based on rights, values, duties, or principles that are (or could be) universalizable.
As the first stage in moral development, preconventional morality is essentially the approach to right and wrong taken by children. Children often make moral decisions based on how it will impact them. ... In preconventional morality, the focus is on individual consequences in determining right and wrong.