The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between the moral maturity and human values of university students. The study was a quantitative research and was conducted with the correlational survey model. The study group of the study consisted of 764 students selected by simple random sampling method, one of the random sampling methods…

The decision to intentionally withhold truthful information, or deception, is a key component of moral development and may be a precursor to more serious anti-social tendencies. Two factors, executive function (EF) and temperamental fear are each thought to influence childhood deception. Few studies, however, have explored deception in relation to…

This paper seeks to unify two major theories of moral judgment: Kohlberg's stage theory and Anderson's moral information integration theory. Subjects were told about thoughts of actors in Kohlberg's classic altruistic Heinz dilemma and in a new egoistical dilemma. These actors's thoughts represented Kohlberg's stages I (Personal Risk) and IV…

An analysis of four foundational issues in the study of moral development is provided. The four issues involve: (1) the definition of morality; (2) individual or cultural moral variation; (3) moral ontogeny; and (4) moral epistemology. The first section of the paper describes each issue. The second section is based on the argument that the four…

Replicates and extends to older adolescents previous findings of factorial independence between IQ and daydreaming in both gifted and average children and young adolescents. Also aims to relate to the development of moral reasoning ability research findings of a decline in guilt and fear-of-failure daydreams among children, adolescents, and…

Examined individual differences in the relations among preadolescents' sociomoral understanding and self-understanding and teacher and peer ratings of school behavior. Findings for 239 preadolescents are discussed in terms of curricular implications for inter- and intrapersonal understandings. (SLD)

An exploratory study was made of 19 women who were gainfully employed while parenting their first infants who were enrolled in two day care centers providing excellent care. Emphasis was placed on understanding variations in mothers' perceptions of choices and conflicts associated with the dual role of worker and parent. Interview questions…

Compared twenty groups of Australian children (N=132) of different social class, ethnic, national, and regional backgrounds on their moral stances on "lying" and "killing" and their reasons for those stances. There was an impressive consistency in moral attitudes and reasons across children of different social backgrounds. (JAC)

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

This study explored the moral reasoning and scientific argumentation skills of 31 gifted Finnish adolescents participating in a science program at the University of Helsinki. Students were given the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to determine their level of moral reasoning and the Raven test to evaluate their scientific reasoning. The argumentation…

Investigates the relationship between perceived locus of injustice (blaming either individuals or institutions for injustice) and Kohlberg's moral judgment typology, while controlling the effects of social desirability. Finds that Kohlberg's "stage 4" individuals (with "law and order" orientations) show the strongest disposition to blame…

Six hundred adolescents and 25 teachers responded to incidents containing a moral issue. Overall there was moral development with age, as suggested by Piaget, but many (by Piaget's definitions) immature responses were recorded on some incidents, even by adults. The context in which issues were presented was an important influence. (Author/SJL)

Pairs of elementary school children at different concept development levels were given problems to discuss, in order to examine the prediction, derived from the equilibration model, that when two children holding different beliefs must arrive at a consenus, the child possessing the higher level of cognitive development will prevail over the child…

Recent approaches to research on moral development have considered the preeminence of situational factors in moral development and moral behavior. An open systems approach emphasizes the interactive effects of person and situation variables on moral decision-making. The interactive effects of three sets of variables on moral decision-making were…

This study examined demographic and individual difference variables that predicted level of Brazilian adolescents' prosocial moral judgment and self-reported prosocial behavior; it also tested mediating or moderating relations among predictors. Findings generally were consistent with contention that tendency to take others' perspectives and to…