Lawrence Kohlberg: Moral Development Lawrence Kohlberg identifies three stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. In the first stage moral reasoning is tied to feelings of pleasure and avoidance of pain. In the second stage, specific cultural norms dominate moral reasoning. In the third stage more abstract ethical principles are involved.
Many of the same criticisms raised about Piaget's model apply to Kohlberg's work. Also, he used only males in his research, preventing generalization of his results to all people.
Carol Gilligan: Bringing In Gender Carol Gilligan's research focuses on a systematic comparison of moral development for females and males. Her work indicates that the moral reasoning of girls and boys is different. Girls tend to use a care and responsibility perspective, while boys tend to use a justice perspective. An important question is whether the differences are the result of nature or nurture.