Write the reasons behind a moral verdict, not just the verdict
When you reach a moral conclusion, write down the reasons you gave yourself and check what norm and what problem those reasons rest on.
Why it works
Kohlberg’s measures do not score the verdict. Bataglia and colleagues describe the Moral Judgment Interview as a way to identify the problem, the norm and the element a person uses in their answers, and the predominant stage is proposed by analyzing the answers to follow-up questions after each dilemma. Writing the reasons out applies that logic to yourself and makes visible which norm is doing the work.
How to do it
- Write the moral conclusion you have reached in one sentence.
- Under it, list every reason you would give if someone asked why, one per line.
- For each reason, write what norm it appeals to (for example, fairness, loyalty, obedience, a promise, a person’s welfare).
- Circle any reason you can only justify with "everyone does it" or "it’s the rule," and decide whether it is a reason or only a habit.
Evidence
Bataglia, Morais and Lepre (2010) describe the Moral Judgment Interview, the instrument Kohlberg’s stage scoring is built on, as identifying the problem, the norm and the element used in a person’s answers. The predominant stage is proposed from analysis of the answers to follow-up questions after each dilemma, not from the answer itself. Rest, Narvaez, Thoma and Bebeau (1999) describe DIT2, a revised objective test of moral judgment in the same research tradition, with validity checks on age and education differences; this practice does not use it. The practice applies the scoring logic to self-reflection and has not been tested as an intervention. (mechanistic)
The scoring in the source is done by trained raters on a structured interview. Writing your own reasons is a reflective exercise that cannot place you at a stage.
Sources
- Bataglia, P. U. R., Morais, A. de, & Lepre, R. M. (2010). A teoria de Kohlberg sobre o desenvolvimento do raciocínio moral e os instrumentos de avaliação de juízo e competência moral em uso no Brasil. Estudos de Psicologia, 15(1), 25–32.
- Rest, J. R., Narvaez, D., Thoma, S. J., & Bebeau, M. J. (1999). DIT2: Devising and testing a revised instrument of moral judgment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(4), 644–659.
Common mistake
Writing justifications after the fact that make a decision sound principled. The useful question is whether you would have given the same reason before you knew the outcome you wanted.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development, Made Practical
- Talk through a moral dilemma with someone who reasons differently
Take a real moral question to someone whose reasons you do not share, and listen until you can state their reasons back.
- Argue the other side in its own terms before you judge it
Restate the position you disagree with well enough that the person holding it would say, yes, that is what I think.
- Name your gut reaction before you reach for reasons
Notice the first moral reaction you have, label it, and only then start building the case for or against it.
- Check whether your moral conclusion reaches your action
After you decide what is right, name the specific action it requires this week, and check on it, because knowing and doing are separate steps.
- Test a rule against the principle it is meant to serve
When a rule and a person’s welfare seem to conflict, name the principle the rule protects and ask whether following the rule still serves it.
- Name which kind of reason is doing the work in your moral choice
Sort the reasons behind a choice into punishment, self-interest, approval, social order, or principle, and notice which one is carrying the decision.
Related concepts
- Lines of Development: Why People Grow Unevenly
Why the same person can be mature in one part of life and young in another, and how to work with it
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
- Spiral Dynamics, Made Practical
Understanding how value systems develop and how to navigate across them
- Ego Development Theory: What It Is and How It Is Measured
The frame you make meaning through, how researchers measure it, and how to work with it without ranking anyone
- The Construct-Aware and Unitive Stages of Adult Development
Seeing the self and its stories as constructions — what it looks like, how rare it is, and what it does not promise
- Kegan’s Socialized Mind: What It Gives You and How to Grow Beyond It
When what others think is part of who you are — honoring the stage, and loosening its grip
- Carol Gilligan’s Ethics of Care, Explained
Two ways of reasoning about moral problems, what the research shows, and how to use both lenses
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: cite or embed this practice · more practices graded Plausible mechanism