Lawrence Kohlberg

Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was a psychologist.

Born in Bronxville, New York, he was the son of Alfred Kohlberg, a Jewish man, and of his second wife, Charlotte Albrecht, a Protestant woman. He served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development. Even though it was considered unusual in his era, he still decided to study the topic of moral judgement following Piaget's footsteps. In fact, it took Kohlberg five years before he was able to publish an article based on his views. A close follower of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Kohlberg's work reflected and extended his predecessor's ideas, at the same time creating a new field within psychology: "moral development". Scholars such as Elliot Turiel and James Rest have responded to Kohlberg's work with their own significant contributions. In an empirical study by Haggbloom et al. using six criteria, such as citations and recognition, Kohlberg was found to be the 30th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.