Reports study of 4- and 5-year-old children, finding (a) that young children's moral intuition about lying is quite advanced as compared to their definition of "to lie" and (b) that children's realist definition of "to lie" carries a strong negative moral connotation that overrides their usual subjectivist moral intuitions.…

This article questions whether the study of normative moral theory and its application to particular moral problems has a beneficial effect upon someone seeking to improve the quality of their moral thinking. A broad outline of the conception of moral thinking underlying moral theory and applied ethics is considered, particularly the logical…

A theory of the assignment of moral responsibility and punishment for harm was tested with 5- to 11-year-old children. Results indicated sophisticated use of moral concepts from 5 years. Developmental trends suggested increasing sensitivity to these concepts, greater tolerance for harm doing, and more emphasis on restitution than punishment.…

Presents recent changes in the theory of moral stages, including a broadening of theoretical and research concerns, differentiation of "hard" and "soft" stages, clarification of the form-content distinction, revision of A and B substages, clarification of stages six and seven, discussion of moral action, and listing of nine…

Although the theory and research of Lawrence Kohlberg have been the dominant approach in the study of moral reasoning and moral development, his procedures have been criticized in three areas: (1) reliability and validity; (2) applicability to daily experience; and (3) inadequate sampling. To examine the characteristics of moral problems…

According to Gilligan (1982) there are two different orientations for describing moral development: a justice orientation characteristic of males, and a care orientation characteristic of females. Gilligan claims that the care orientation is confounded with the justice orientation in Kohlberg's (1983) conceptualization of Stage 3: mutual…

Discusses problems in Pratt, Golding, and Hunter's investigation (in this issue) of two propositions central to Gilligan's (1982) thesis on the mismeasurement of women's moral orientation and development. Describes research addressing the problems and indicates directions for further research. (RH)

A total of 96 students (16 males and 16 females, chosen randomly from each of the first, fourth, and seventh grades of a grade school and a middle school,) allocated rewards in response to stimuli representing pairs of children differing in work output and effort. Stimulus materials consisted of: (1) a booklet containing nine drawings representing…

A pertinent problem in the area of moral development is whether most people can distinguish moral from conventional issues. Some research has shown children and adolescents consider moral (intrinsic) transgressions more serious than violations of convention. To expand this research by examining in detail the role of intrinsicality in moral…

Results indicate that preschool children are capable of making moral judgments in both apology-restitution and guilt-innocence test contexts. Age and sex are significantly related to both moral judgment measures, while intelligence and parent occupation are unrelated to both measures. (Author/RH)

Nisan responds to Turiel, Nucci, and Smetana's (1988) critique by stating that it merely serves to emphasize the difficulty involved in distinguishing between the moral and the conventional without reference to the cultural meaning of the act. (PCB)

During the Lebanon War (1982), many Israeli reserve soldiers disobeyed the command to join their units for service in Lebanon. Several of these soldiers were publicly labeled "sarvanim" meaning "refusers" in Hebrew, and were jailed in military prisons. Kohlberg's (1976) cognitive developmental approach to moralization, which…

The application of Information Integration Theory (Anderson, 1981), a general model of social judgment, overcomes shortcomings in the evaluation of moral development by offering a clear distinction between moral values and reasoning. To test the applicability of Anderson's theory to moral development research, two experiments were conducted using…

Research on moral development from a cognitive-developmental perspective has been undertaken predominantly with Western subjects and most often with males. To investigate variables associated with moral reasoning among Palestinian Arabs, 259 male and female university students between the ages of 18 and 26 completed Rest's Defining Issues Test…

This critique of Nisan's (1987) study of morality and convention addresses methodological considerations for cross-cultural research on children's moral and conventional concepts. (PCB)