Human Development: Lawrence Kohlberg Theory of Morality

A “What If?” App

An app that I would choose to create is a game app. I would title it “What If?” based on Kohlberg’s theory of the levels of moral development. Kohlberg identified three levels of moral reasoning, pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. Each level associated with increasingly multiple stages of moral development. (Nevid, 2015. p.350-355) Development of the” What If” app would teach recognition in the distinction between good and evil. Recognition of right and wrong, respect for and obedience to rules of good conduct, through a receiving of rewards and punishment to advance in difficulty levels during play of the game. A result would be in developing good decision making and an enhancement in mental disposition and characteristics of behavior in a manner intended to produce good results in response and discussion making through playing a series of various real life situations presented in differing scenarios. The targeted audience and interest for this app would include early childhood four years, to adolescents and young adults.

Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on the previous work of cognitive theorist Jean Piaget to explain the moral development of children, in which Kohlberg defined three levels of moral development: level one, pre-conventional, level 2, conventional, and level 3, post-conventional, each level having two distinct stages. During the pre-conventional level (1), a sense of morality is controlled by external forces, accept and believe that rules of authority figures, such as parents and teachers, and they judge an action based on its consequences. In the conventional level (2), an individual's sense of morality is associated with their personal and social relationships, they continue to accept the rules of authority figures, but now know that it is because they believe this is necessary to ensure positive relationships and social order. In the post-conventional level (3), a person's sense of morality...