Moral Development for Analyzing Ethical Dilemma

Moral development from psychological view focuses on emergence, change and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. Some psychologists including Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan and James Rest believe a cognitive basis for morality. Piaget found that young children were focused on authority mandates and with age they become autonomous and evaluate actions by independent principles of morality. Kohlberg expanded the concept of moral development and his studies revealed there are six stages in moral development. James rest later in 1986 proposed a four component model as: moral sensitivity –moral reasoning- moral motivation - moral character. Today various questionnaires and methods have been developed to evaluate some aspects of moral development in health care professionals. By using these methods and by analyzing the collected data one may decide to study on professional conducts or for specific interventions.