Who expanded on Piaget's conceptualization of moral development?

Who expanded on Piaget's conceptualization of moral development?

• A. Lev Vygotsky
• B. Jean Piaget
• C. Lawrence Kohlberg
• D. Erik Erikson

Answer: (C)

Moral development is about the reasoning people use to justify right and wrong. Piaget first described how children's moral thinking shifts from seeing rules as fixed and unchangeable to recognizing that rules can be relative and depend on intentions, laying the groundwork for understanding how moral reasoning grows. Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on that groundwork by turning it into a full stage theory: as people mature, their justifications for moral choices become more sophisticated, moving through preconventional, conventional, and postconventional levels. He demonstrated this progression using moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma, to show how the reasoning behind judgments evolves rather than just the choices themselves. This approach emphasizes not what people decide, but why they decide it, highlighting deeper ethical principles like fairness, rights, and universal humanitarian values. Other figures mentioned contributed in different ways—Vygotsky focused on social and cultural influences on development, Erikson on psychosocial stages across the life span—while Piaget himself laid the initial foundation.

Moral development is about the reasoning people use to justify right and wrong. Piaget first described how children's moral thinking shifts from seeing rules as fixed and unchangeable to recognizing that rules can be relative and depend on intentions, laying the groundwork for understanding how moral reasoning grows. Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on that groundwork by turning it into a full stage theory: as people mature, their justifications for moral choices become more sophisticated, moving through preconventional, conventional, and postconventional levels. He demonstrated this progression using moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma, to show how the reasoning behind judgments evolves rather than just the choices themselves. This approach emphasizes not what people decide, but why they decide it, highlighting deeper ethical principles like fairness, rights, and universal humanitarian values. Other figures mentioned contributed in different ways—Vygotsky focused on social and cultural influences on development, Erikson on psychosocial stages across the life span—while Piaget himself laid the initial foundation.