<![CDATA[The theory of moral development from Kohlberg has become a prominent theory and has been widely used to explain individual moral development, as well as a reference in designing the process of moral education. As a theory, Kohlberg’s moral development possesses some strengths as well as weaknesses. Kohlberg divides human moral development into three levels and six phases. Level I is pre-conventional level, consisting of phase 1: Obedience and punishment- anxiety orientation, and phase 2: Egotistical naïve/instrumental hedonism orientation. Level II is conventional level, consisting of phase 3: Good child orientation, and phase 4: Morality of maintaining authority and social regulations. Level III is post-conventional level, consisting of phase 5: Morality of social contract and individual rights, and phase 6: Morality of individual principles and conscience.Kohlberg’s theory constitutes a classical theory of cognitive development, giving an emphasis on integrated characteristic. One strength of Kohlberg’s moral development theory is on the phases of development themselves which make it easier for people to understand moral development. Besides that, this theory shows more on the cross cultural universality compared to other moral development theories.Meanwhile, some notes on the weaknesses of Kohlberg’s theory are: 1)methodologically, the scoring procedure used in this theory is esoteric,subjective, and unstable, thus the results is rather unacceptable for someexperts; 2) it is difficult to prove that there is consistent correlationsbetween Kohlberg’s moral development and one’s moral attitudes. Thetheory proposed by Kohlberg cannot explain about moral excellencebecause its emphasis is on moral rationality and it tends to ignorecharacter and moral features; 3) although it is considered more universal,the definitions of phases and assumptions on which the theory lays arecultural bias and ethnocentric; 4) the moral reasoning phase of Kohlbergcannot be applied equally between men and women; and 5) Kohlberg’schoice towards one philosophical tradition brings about negative impacts,i.e.: (a) a rigid emphasis on law and fairness; (b) a moral concept which islimited to cognitive aspects, yet pays no attention to feelings, attitude andcharacter, and (c) a failure in using phenomenological perspective fromsubjective morality experience.Key words : moral development, Kohlberg’s theory]]>
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