Peens B J, Louw D A
Centre for Behavioural Sciences, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Med Law. 2000;19(3):351-72.
Kohlberg's theory of moral development was based on extensive research done on the reactions of people of all ages to specific moral situational dilemmas. Kohlberg was specifically interested in reasoning processes involved in decision-making. The way in which children perceive their rights is also based on reasoning processes that are inextricably linked to their level of development and more specifically to their level of moral development since the area of human rights can be considered essentially moral. Since Kohlberg's theory is primarily concerned with development, a great deal of insight can be gained into the developmental shift that occurs in children's reasoning about the rights to which they feel they should be entitled. This article focuses on Kohlberg's six-stage theory, specifically as it pertains to reasoning processes similar to those that would be used in rights reasoning. At each stage the authors propose a potential view of how children at each developmental stage might perceive their rights based on the description Kohlberg gives of the developmental trends associated with each stage. A critical assessment of Kohlberg's work is also given in order to highlight certain considerations about the limitations of this theory that need to be considered for future research.
科尔伯格的道德发展理论基于对各年龄段人群对特定道德情境困境反应的广泛研究。科尔伯格特别关注决策过程中涉及的推理过程。儿童对自身权利的认知方式同样基于与他们的发展水平，更具体地说是与他们的道德发展水平紧密相连的推理过程，因为人权领域本质上可被视为道德范畴。由于科尔伯格的理论主要关注发展，我们可以深入了解儿童在思考他们认为自己应享有的权利时所发生的发展转变。本文聚焦于科尔伯格的六阶段理论，具体涉及与权利推理中所使用的推理过程相似的那些推理过程。在每个阶段，作者根据科尔伯格对与每个阶段相关的发展趋势的描述，提出了处于每个发展阶段的儿童可能如何看待其权利的一种潜在观点。同时，本文还对科尔伯格的研究进行了批判性评估，以突出该理论局限性的某些考量因素，这些因素在未来研究中需要加以考虑。
