Psychology Cwork

Background

In the area of developmental psychology, Kohlberg (1976) carried out a study exploring obedience of people at different ‘stages’. The topic which interests me the most about this study is conventional morality, which according to Kohlberg, is where people are concerned about their actions and not being judged for behaving wrongly.

Children believe it is important ‘to do one’s duty and to obey the laws or rules of authority’. (Stage 4 of the Kohlberg theory, see appendix (a))

Kohlberg carried out a cross-sectional study, which developed his stage theory 72 boys aged between 10 and 16 were interviewed about dilemmas such as the ‘Moral Dilemma’, see appendix (b).

The 2 hour interviews consisted of a predetermined set of questions. See appendix (c).

The results enabled Kohlberg to classify each boy in terms of his level of moral reasoning.

The original sample was followed for another 20 years. The men were tested 6 times, at 3 yearly intervals.

By the age of 22, no one used stage 1 reasoning, but there were examples of stages 1 and 3.

By the end of the study, at the age of 36, there was little evidence of stage 5 reasoning.

The different stages are mentioned in the study, however this study will find out if the age of children reaching stage 4 differs, by comparing year 12’s conformity with that of year 13’s. The participants will not yet be in adulthood, and still developing, so expectations are high to see a difference between the two age groups.

In this study, stage 4 will be operationalised, by looking at rule following behaviour of students at the Grammar School Guernsey

Aim and Hypotheses

Research and Aim

The aim is to find out whether year 12 or year 13 students are more conforming to the school rules, to see if the age of Kohlberg’s ‘stage 4’ differs between the ages of 16 and 18.

Hypothesis

Year 12 students will be more conforming and will have on average a lower rule breaking score than year 13 students.

Null Hypothesis

Year 12 students will not be more conforming and will not have a significantly lower rule breaking score than year 13 students.

Both my hypotheses are one tailed.

Method

Design

The experimental design is independent measures. Year 12 are being observed as one group, and year 13 are being observed as another group.

The Independent Variable is whether the students are in year 12 or year 13.

The Dependent Variable is how high the score is for the groups conforming to the school rules. The higher the score, the worse the group is at conforming to the school rules.

This will be measured by observing year 12 and year 13 separately in a naturalistic environment, the refectory. There will be five categories which will be recorded in a tally chart and when a student is showed to be displaying non-conforming behaviour, a tally will be placed in the certain category.

The five categories are

• Listening to personal music

• Eating on the blue carpet

• Shirts untucked

• Facial piercing shown

• Talking on mobile phone.

Participants

The target population is 16 years old up to 18 years old at The Guernsey Grammar School in the refectory at the lunchtime of observation.

The sampling method is opportunity sample as the participants are observed if they are in the cafeteria at the time of observation.

Procedure

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