Consciousness and moral development
When we as human beings realize in our entire body and heart that we are a part of the evolution, something happens with our consciousness, values, beliefs and the way of perception.
It’s all changing, it’s easier to find our mission, the daily problems seems not so demanding and so on – in a matter of fact life grows easier. But at the same time life gets ‘harder’ – we feel more obligated to show what we vouch for. Questions about moral are more or less out of discussion.
In the ‘normal’ human being there is often a delay between moral thinking and moral acting, and sometimes we don’t act at all caused fear of repreisals. But as a part of personal development you will be able to confine/reduce the delay to almost a split-second. Thinking and acting go hand in hand - and acting morally in your own eyes seems as matter of course, otherwise you can’t look at your self in the mirror the next morning.
The person we usually associate with studies about moral development is the American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) who believed that moral development is a continual process that occurs throughout the lifespan. Kohlberg followed the Swiss psychologist and philosopher Piaget's constructivist requirements for a stage model. As Piaget described in his theory of cognitive development it is extremely rare to regress backward in stages—to lose the use of higher stage abilities.
“What does it mean?” You may ask. If you for instance walk into a big building, you enter one room after another. When finished you walk out. Now a part of you knows, that your body once has been inside the building - and your body will never forget the feeling about that experience. So if you in the future would like to enter the same surroundings you have the memory about where to go. You can’t blame anybody for not going there once more, because you have the knowledge and wisdom inside your self. You can’t undo your walk in the building. As the poet William Blake said: “Man's desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.”
So if you go to a higher stage of moral you will perceive your surroundings and the way people interact in a new way – and it is rare to regress backward.
What is interesting with moral development is that approximately half of the adults in the world are thinking at same moral level as children and young people age 13-16 a la “You scratch my bag and I scratch yours" – and sometimes act on an even lower level caused fear of punishment from the system, the stakeholders, the neighbours etc.
If we want peace and moral leadership in the world there is huge job in front of us helping people developing higher consciousness keeping in mind that the level of moral thinking and acting increase at the same time.
Imagine all the people in the world acting in splitseconds on a high level of consciousness and high level of moral thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIFY9h8DImg
Writer: Dorthe Gyldenkaerne, HR- & Holistic Coach. The Faroe Islands. www.adastra.fo
Kohlberg use three levels and six stages of moral thinking.With increasing age, the level of moral reasoning changes.
At stage 1 Children think of what is right as that which authority says is right. Doing the right thing is obeying authority and avoiding punishment.
At stage 2, children are no longer so impressed by any single authority; they see that there are different sides to any issue. Since everything is relative, one is free to pursue one’s own interests, although it is often useful to make deals and exchange favours with others.
At stages 3 and 4, young people think as members of the conventional society with its values, norms, and expectations. At stage 3, they emphasize being a good person, which basically means having helpful motives toward people close to one At stage 4, the concern shifts toward obeying laws to maintain society as a whole.
At stages 5 and 6 people are less concerned with maintaining society for it own sake, and more concerned with the principles and values that make for a good society. At stage 5 they emphasize basic rights and the democratic processes that give everyone a say, and at stage 6 they define the principles by which agreement will be most just.
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm
People who know the enneagram and the nine levels of development will be able to combine the two theories. http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/DevelopmentLevels.asp