The six-stage model of moral development is associated with which theorist?

• A. Piaget's Stages
• B. Freud's Psychosexual Stages
• C. Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development
• D. Erikson's Stages

Answer: (C)

This question tests knowledge of who proposed a six-stage model of moral development. The six-stage framework was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg, who extended Piaget’s ideas and organized moral reasoning into three levels—preconventional, conventional, and postconventional—with two stages within each level, for a total of six stages. He studied how people reason about moral dilemmas (often using the Heinz dilemma) to determine the stage of their moral development, focusing on the logic behind judgments rather than just the actions they take.

The other theorists are associated with different, non–six-stage focus areas: Piaget laid groundwork on moral development but did not formulate a six-stage scheme; Freud’s psychosexual stages describe personality development through early childhood stages; Erikson’s psychosocial stages map eight life-span stages of social and emotional development.