Have you ever wanted to be in someone else's mind and explore the realms of human thought? Have you ever had to make a difficult decision in life and wondered if others would have made the same choice as you? These are thoughts that dance in many people's minds. We are often so curious about the unknown, which is why we are so attracted to what others think. Everyone's thought process is so unique and different that it is often difficult to know what people will say or do. So when we make decisions in life, we ask ourselves if everyone else would do the same. These thoughts are part of reasoning and moral development. The study of moral development first began with the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. His research and theories sparked interest in a man named Lawrence Kohlberg. He studied Piaget's theories extensively, but had his own ideas about moral development. While he agreed with Piaget's theories, he thought they were not detailed enough and that not everyone in society fell into his developmental stages. Kohlberg began conducting experiments to truly define moral development. Through his research, he developed six developmental stages that he believed best captured the different stages of moral reasoning. Lawrence Kohlberg's discovery would become highly renowned in the fields of philosophy, psychology and sociology. Lawrence Kohlberg was born in Bronxville, New York, on October 25, 1927. He was the youngest of four children of Alfred Kohlberg, a Jew, and his second wife, Charlotte Albrecht, a Protestant woman. His parents separated when he was four and finally divorced when he was fourteen. Kohlberg attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After... half the paper... x stages, the child begins to understand that there is not just one way of looking at the dilemma. At this stage the children saw the situation in a more complex way. They would try to rationalize both sides of the spectrum. They see what is right and try to balance the dilemma with a solution. They would seek a decision that brings reward and fairness to the problem. A typical response from children at this stage would be; “Maybe he really loved his wife, that's why he did it, but he shouldn't have done it because he could end up in prison for many years.” Children at this stage were able to justify their responses by wanting to find a balance between punishment and reward. Stages 1 and 2 are called preconventional stages because both fail to see themselves as part of society and as isolated individuals. They have yet to understand that they belong