Heinz Dilemma

Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development changed the way psychologists and parents thought about the development of their children. Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s theory of only 2 stages, to three levels and six stages total. He worked with groups of young children by interviewing and researching their answers to questions. These questions arose from fictional scenarios of everyday problems to decipher a child’s moral reasoning (Kim, 2013). One of the most well-known moral dilemmas is “Heinz Steals the Drug”. In summary, children had to decide whether a man should break the law to save his wife or not. Kohlberg did not so much care about the answers to the questions, but rather the reasoning behind them. After completing a self-interview and interview of two other individuals, I was able to see for myself the different levels of moral reasoning within a person based on Kohlberg’s Theory.
When I first read the scenario to myself it seemed like a simple solution to a simple problem. Heinz should save his wife. I did not realize the complexity of the situation until after having to state the reasoning behind my answer. I was astonished at the level of thought needed to answer efficiently. I decided that the reason Heinz should save his wife is because he loves her. Although it is against the law to steal, in this situation Heinz has an obligation to save the person he loves or else he will be devastated by it for the rest of his life. In a different situation were the person is a stranger, Heinz has no duty to save the person, making it more responsible to obey the law. I believed that this was the best explanation to the situation, until my first interview. I then realized I was not as morally developed as I had thought.
The first person I interviewed was a female of age 38. She currently works as a research chemist for a small private company. I have known this woman for a while and was curious of her moral status. I was pleased with my choice in an

References: Cherry, K. (2013). Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development. About.com Psychology, Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htm Kim, K. (2013, October). Altruism and Morality. Human Development. Lecture conducted from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.