reasoning process because value differences among individuals often resul in different judgments regarding ethical and unethical behavior. Kohlberg theorized that people progress through a series of developmental stages in their moral reasoning. Each stage reflects a more cognitively complex way of analyzing moral situations than the preceding one, and the sequence of stages is fixed, or invariant. Moral reasoning is assessed using ethical dilem- mas such as whether a man would be morally justified in stealing an over. priced drug to save his dying wife, and an individual's stage of moral reasoning is based on the way the answer is explained rather than the particular answer given. Two individuals, for example, may each argue that the hus- band was morally wrong to steal the drug even in those extenuating circumstances yet offer qualitatively different reasons for why the action was wrong. Similarly, two individuals may each argue the husband was mor ally justified in stealing the drug, yet offer different reasons for why it was justifiable. The focus is on the reasoning process rather than on the decision