Cognitive-Developmental Approaches to Moral Development

Moral development is one of the main aspects of man's social development. Nowadays, the psychology of moral development has gradually turned into an independent field of study as a result of the extension of theories and research. The theories of moral development focus on the development of the psychological preception of right and wrong or good and bad, the tendency towards acting the in the interests of others and ignoring one's own interests and pleasure, and acting according to these perceptions and tendencies. The present paper investigates cognitive-developmental theories to moral development as the most influential psychological study in the field of ethics. These theories fall in the province of one of the main developmental traditions governing modern psychology; namely, cognitive tradition. In cognitive –developmental tradition, moral development is dependent and based upon the increase in cognitive capacities. Jean Piaget believes that this kind of moral development is dependent upon mental maturation and evolution of social relations. Kohlberg provides a more detailed succession of the development of reasoning and moral judgment. Through expounding the growth stages of moral reasoning, he proposes an ideal condition for each stage. According to Kohlberg, the final condition of moral growth is the rule of the universal inner moral standards. The criticisms directed to Kohlberg's view have provided the ground for the continuation of this tradition. Gilligan considers the moral ends governing Kohlberg's theory as masculine by offering a gender criticism against Kohlberg's theory.