Question

Annaliese knows that her friend is paying an online service to write a term paper. This bothers her, but she knows that if she tells the teacher everyone will think she is a snitch. She decides her friends’ approval is more important, so she says nothing about the cheating. What stage of moral reasoning does this exemplify?

Answer 1

The third stage: Positive relationships/approval of others.

Step-by-step explanation:

Kohlberg did some studies on morality and proposed a theory on moral development.

Kohlberg defined three different levels of morality (and each level consists in 2 stages). These levels are:

• preconventional,
• conventional and
• postconventional

1. In the preconventional level, the person's morality is externally controlled and therefore acts based on what the punishment will be (1st stage) or based on what good will be for him/her by acting in some way (2nd stage)
2. The conventional level stages also have to to with external controls but now the person thinks in function of ensure positive relationships and societal order. The third stage here depends on the approval of others. The fourth stage has to do with accepting rules because they preserve the society order and functioning.
3. The postconventional level stages are defined in more abstract principles or values. The 5th stage sees the world as a place with different values that must be respected. Finally the 6th stage is based in universal ethical abstract principles.

In this example, Annaliese knows that her friend is paying an online service to write a term paper. However, she decides to not tell anything to the teacher because her friend's approval is more important.

This exemplify the stage the third stage of moral reasoning, because this stage depends on the approval of the others. She doesn't want to be disapproved by her friend so she decides to keep the secret.