Plagiarism and Moral Development

As our book states, moral development refers to changes in people’s sense of justice and of what is right and wrong (Feldman, 2011, p. 258). Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, based this growth and accomplishment in his theory of “sequence of moral reasoning” through an evolvement of three levels. Kohlberg believes that people pass through a series of stages as their sense of justice evolves and in the kind of reasoning they use to make moral judgments (Feldman, 2011, p.320) I can see how he relates this with cognitive development because as we move through our life span our cognitive abilities have the capability to become more complex. Don’t forget, during our pre-school years, the interconnections among cells rapidly increase, which allow for more complex communication between neurons, and they permit rapid growth of cognitive skills (Feldman, 2011, p. 204). As we get older, life seems to lose the simplicity and innocence of seeing things black and white as well as perceiving conflict in the lowest level of Kohlberg’s sequence, preconventional morality.

By the time we get to conventional morality, we should definitely have a better understanding of what is morally and ethically right. The way I interpreted the reading on this level of morality was the individuals choice on an issue is based more on how others viewed the outcome, or as the book states, they do what is expected of them (Feldman, 2011, p. 321 & Kohlberg, 1969). Knowing the difference between right and wrong, in my mind, also depends on how you were raised, where you were raised, and what the morals and values are of the culture and environment. I see this in my high school students on a weekly basis. Most of the students know what is acceptable (right) and what is unacceptable (wrong), but their actions are contradicting. Which might prove that they have yet to reach postconventional morality, the last level of Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. But then again,...