Carol Gilligan's Theory of Moral Development (Feminist View)

           This is the first post in this blog featuring a woman psychologist, and she is no other than Carol Gilligan.

Carol Gilligan...

          Carol Gilligan provides an alternative theory of moral development. She was the first to consider gender differences in her research in the mental processes of males and females in their moral development. She noted that girls are more concerned with care, relationships and connections with other people than boys. Thus, she hypothesized that girls are more inclined toward caring and boys toward justice. She presented three levels of moral development:

I. Pre Conventional: Individual Survival
One learns to care for oneself.

II. Conventional: Self Sacrifice is Goodness
One internalizes norms about care for others and tends to neglect oneself.

III. Post Conventional: Principle of Non-violence
One becomes critical of the conventions adopted in the conventional stage and learns to balance caring for self and caring for others.

image source: http://www.drury.edu/nltimage/CarolGilligan2.jpg