Figure 12.8: Changes in moral reasoning from age 10 to 24 This graph, based on a longitudinal study of males from a relatively high socioeconomic background, shows the percentage of subjects at each age who were reasoning at each of Kohlberg’s stages. Notice the sharp decline of Stages 1 and 2 reasoning during early adolescence, the rise and fall of Stage 3 reasoning, and the consistent increase of Stage 4 reasoning during adolescence and young adulthood. Little Stage 5 reasoning was found, but it, too, increased with age.
(Based on data from Colby et al., 1983.)