By invariant Kohlberg meant that a youth cannot skip a stage or two while advancing to a higher level. People must pass through each stage in sequence. A key reason for this invariance, in Kohlberg ’s opinion, is that each successive stage consists of components of the prior stage plus a new component or two.
These principles of universality, integration, and invariance , and the four proposed determinants of moral growth, have important implications for how Kohlberg ’s theory can be put to practical use.