Page 34 - 22-0424

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XI - 2019

I. Pre-conventional level: At this level, the child is responsive to cultural
rule and levels of good and bad, right and wrong, but interprets these labels
either in terms of the physical or the hedonistic consequences of action. This level

is divided into two stages:
Stage 1 The punishment-obedience orientation.

Stage 2 The instrumental-relativist orientation.

II. Conventional level: At this level, maintaining the expectations of
the individual’s family, group, or nation is perceived as valuable in its own right,
regardless of immediate and obvious consequences. The attitude is not only one of
conformity to personal expectation and social order, but also of loyalty in the sense
of actively maintaining, supporting, and justifying the order, and of identifying
with the persons or group involved in it. At this level is divided into two stages

Stage 3 The interpersonal concordance or “good boy/good girl”
orientation.

Stage 4 The “law and order’ orientation. This orientation aims toward
authority, fixed rules and the maintenance of the social order.

III. Post-conventional Level: At this level, there is a clear effort to define
moral values and principles the have validity and application apart from the
authority of the groups or persons holding these principles and apart from the
individual’s own identification with these groups. This level is also divided into
two stages:

Stage 5 The social-contract, legalistic orientation, generally with utilitarian
overtones. Right action tends to be defined in terms of general
individual rights and standards which have been critically examined
by the whole society.

Stage 6 The universal-ethical-principle orientation. Right is defined by
the decision of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical
principles appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality,
and consistency.

To Kohlberg, the essential ingredient of moral development is a certain
made of reasoning and judgement. A behavior is neither moral nor immoral; the
reason behind the act determines the moral context.

28 Moral Behaviour in Contemporary Thai Society

11/7/2565 BE 13:27
_22-0424(027-036)4.indd 28 11/7/2565 BE 13:27
_22-0424(027-036)4.indd 28