Question

Annaliese knows that her friend is paying an online service to write a term paper. This bothers her, but she knows that if she tells the teacher everyone will think she is a snitch. She decides her friends’ approval is more important, so she says nothing about the cheating. What stage of moral reasoning does this exemplify? conventional post-conventional formal operational pre-conventional

Answer 1

Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development can be grouped into three categories:

- Preconventional: on this stage the sense of morality is attached to external aspects, the individual has not internalized morality yet.

- Conventional: the sense of morality is tied to a person or social relationships, the individual continues following the rules of authority figures but with the interest of social approval.

-Post-conventional: on this stage the sense of morality reachs a level of abstraction that allows the individual to grow on principles and values.

Considering the above, the conventional stage of morality is the one that best illustrates Annaliese's behavior.