The Heinz Dilemma is famously used to illustrate which psychologist's theory of moral development?

• A. Lawrence Kohlberg
• B. Erik Erikson
• C. Sigmund Freud
• D. Jean Piaget

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how people justify moral choices and how that reasoning changes as we grow. The Heinz dilemma asks whether a man should steal a drug to save his wife, and the way someone explains the decision reveals their level of moral reasoning, not just the decision itself. This is central to Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, which outlines a progression of moral development in three levels—preconventional, conventional, and postconventional—each with more abstract and principled justifications than the last. The dilemma was used by Kohlberg to illustrate how children's and adults’ reasoning shifts from focusing on personal consequences, to conforming to social rules, to honoring universal ethical principles. That connection is why Kohlberg is the psychologist most famously associated with this dilemma. Erik Erikson explores psychosocial development, Freud focuses on psychosexual stages, and Piaget contributed to early ideas about moral development, but Kohlberg is the one whose theory centers on the stages of moral reasoning that the Heinz dilemma exemplifies.