Crain, W. (2005). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications (5Th Ed.). Englewood

Annotated Bibliography

Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (5th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pgs. 151-173.

In chapter 7, Crain discusses Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Crain tells about Kohlberg’s study using the Heinz dilemma, revealing that Kohlberg believed there are six stages of moral development ranging from a child’s focus on immediate consequences to his/her focus on universal principles. According to Kohlberg, the focus of his studies were not about whether or not a child felt the dilemma was right or wrong but why. He felt that these stages always unfold in the proper order and that as children advanced to the next stage, they retain the insights gained in previous stages and build upon them. Crain also discusses how Carol Gilligan (and others) refuted Kohlberg’s theories because he studied only males and said that women tend to focus more on interpersonal relationships when reasoning, whereas men focus on justice issues. This book influenced our study because our question was a direct comparison between the two theorists.

Gilligan, Carol; Ward, Janie Victoria;, Taylor, Jill McLean. (1988). Mapping the Moral Domain. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pgs. 73-85.

In this chapter, Carol Gilligan and Jane Attanucci lay out the idea that there are two different orientations regarding moral decision making. On page 73, Gilligan identifies these two as justice and care orientations and explain that the “justice perspective draws attention to problems of inequality and oppression and hold up an ideal of reciprocity and equal respect. A care perspective draws attention to the problems of detachment or abandonment and holds up an ideal of attention and response to need.” The chapter then goes on to explain a research study by a theorist by the name of Lyons dealing with the two perspectives in real-life moral dilemmas. Lyons established a way to categorize moral decision-making. Then the book goes on to describe a study that Gilligan and Attanucci conducted, in which they scored responses as “Care Only, Justice Only, Care Focus, Justice Focus, or Care-Justice”. Mapping the Moral Domain helped us to further understand the difference between the care and justice orientations.

Gilligan, Carol. (1982). In A Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pgs. 1-105.

Gilligan begins her book by stating the basis for her understanding of a distinct voice that lies within women. She says essentially says that in her studies, her goal was to find out where women fit into the theories from which they have always been excluded. In chapter one, Gilligan points to previous theorists who have had some insight toward the development of women, including Freud, Nancy Chodorow, and Janet Lever. She proceeds to describe Erikson’s “life-cycle” stages, pointing out that he also says the sequence of development is different for women than men. The third chapter specifically describes Gilligan’s studies which dealt with women who had contemplated and/or had abortions. Through this study, Gilligan lays out her Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional Levels, and what transitions lie between them. This work was a primary source for us when we were using Gilligan’s beliefs to produce our own Gilligan Rubric.

Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1981). Essays on Moral Development: The Philosophy of Moral Development Volume 1. San Francisco: Harper and Row.

This book is Kohlberg’s own reaction to the criticisms he had accumulated over his six-stage moral theory. Taking an example of his own Heinz Dilemma, Kohlberg walks through his stages and explains how one can achieve the different levels. He also goes on to explore the aims of a moral education and how one is to define morality if one specific term cannot be identified. Consequently, he explains his studies as saying that justice is something “relative” and this is why he based his studies more on the “why” of a person’s response to his dilemmas. When creating our own Kohlberg rubric and taking into account our data, Kohlberg’s work was very useful in scoring the different children’s responses. Also, when discussing the changing outward society of individuals, this book helped us to understand Kohlberg’s logic that cultural influences do not play a role in one’s moral development.

Kohlberg, Lawrence. (1982). “A Reply to Owen Flanagan and Some Comments on the Puka-Goodpaster Exchange”. Ethics, Volume 92, Issue 3, Special Issue: Symposium on Moral Development, p. 513-528.

Lawrence Kohlberg in this article states that Gilligan might be grounded in asserting that men and women have different orientations in moral decision making. However, at the time of this article, Gilligan did not have any longitudinal studies to support her theories. Kohlberg describes one of Gilligan’s studies in which subjects were matched for “age, education and occupation”, and then went on to points out that minimal differences exist between the genders, as was discovered in this study. This article was very beneficial to our project since our study directly addressed Gilligan’s accusation of gender bias in Kohlberg’s theory.

Murray, Mary Elizabeth. “Moral Development and Moral Education: An Overview.” (2005). 22 Oct. 2005

<http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overviewtext.html>.

This article explores the different developmental theories of Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Carol Gilligan. Piaget’s studies with his children are described in depth, and the article goes on to describe his theories on the cognitive development of children, which include the child’s egocentrism and his/her relationships with adults. Kohlberg, based on Piaget, is further explained and his six stages of moral development are named and described. Finally, a brief summary of the critique of Carol Gilligan is explored and her theory on the gender differences of moral development is carefully examined. I like ice cream. This article was very influential simply because it helped further our understanding of Kohlberg’s and Gilligan’s stances on the progress of moral development in children. The section regarding Jean Piaget aided not only in coming into a better grasp of Kohlberg’s ideas, but also helped us to designate where each theorist would lie on our Nature/Nurture Line.

St. Olaf College. “Gilligan’s In a Different Voice.” 9 Oct. 2005.

<http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/handbook/Gilligan.html>.

This site outlined Gilligan’s theory of moral development. It discusses the formulation of her theory by showing the progression made from Piaget to Kohlberg and finally to Gilligan. It showed a general framework for the stage theory of all three theorists. This site was beneficial in developing our rubric for Carol Gilligan.

Webster University. “Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society: Carol Gilligan (1936-Present)” 8 Oct 2005. <http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gilligan.html>.

Providing a good description of Gilligan’s life and education, this site is a good source of basic information about her. It describes where she attended school, where she has taught, and lists some of her writings. The site is intended to show that women have played a role in psychology and uses Gilligan’s forceful ideas about the development of women to do so. It explains her disagreement with Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory as well as arguments refuting her theory.

Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia. “Carol Gilligan.” (2005). 9 Oct. 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Gilligan>.

This website provided a general biography of Carol Gilligan and discussed her refutations of Lawrence Kohlberg. Her book, In a Different Voice, is also mentioned, and the website provides readers with a brief overview of her work. Finally, the article explores Gilligan’s own critics and also provides other useful links or sources for further exploration. In preparing our PowerPoint presentation, this website was very useful for its section on Gilligan’s life and achievements. Additionally, it also led us to further our research after we had further investigated the links and bibliography given in the website.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “Lawrence Kohlberg.” (2005). 9 Oct. 2005.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg>.

This website was similar to the Carol Gilligan article as it described Kohlberg’s life and early studies. It, like the Gilligan article, provides links and different references which can be further researched. During our preparation for our presentation, Wikipedia helped most especially in our biographical slide on Kohlberg.