Describe the 'social contract' and 'universal principles' stages in Level III: Postconventional Ethics.

1. In the social contract stage, people make moral decisions based on socially agreed upon principles. For example, a person reasoning at this stage would say that cheating in exams is wrong because teachers and learners agree in principle that grades should reflect achievement, and cheating violates this agreement. 2. In the universal principles stage, the individual's moral reasoning is based on abstract, general principles that transcend society's laws. People at this stage define right and wrong in terms of internalised universal standards. "The Golden Rule" is a commonly cited example. Because very few people operate at this stage, and questions have been raised about the existence of "universal" principles, Kohlberg deemphasised this stage in his later writings (Kohlberg, 1984).