Compared with children, adults are widely assumed to possess more mature moral understanding thus justifying deference to their moral authority and testimony. This paper examines philosophical discussions regarding this child-adult moral relation and its implications for moral education, particularly accounts suggesting that the moral status of…

This paper considers two studies that address negative affective states and moral reasoning while taking the Defining Issues Tests (DIT, DIT2). Both studies confirmed earlier findings that the DIT dilemma, 'Heinz and the Drug,' and the DIT2 dilemma, 'Famine,' are related to increased anger and sadness and decreased moral reasoning. Similar…

The purpose of this study was to examine how moral reasoning develops for 236 students enrolled in either a diversity course or a management course. These courses were compared based on the level of diversity inclusion and type of pedagogy employed in the classroom. We used causal modelling to compare the two types of courses, controlling for the…

Two related studies were conducted in order to investigate whether psychosocial and moral development appeared to have been disrupted and arrested in veterans diagnosed as having posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Study 1 was devoted to developing a measure of late adolescence, early adulthood, and adulthood stages of psychosocial…

Most moral psychologists have come to accept two types of moral reasoning: Kohlberg's "justice" and Gilligan's "care", but there still seem to be some unresolved issues. By analysing and comparing Kohlberg's statement on some theoretical issues with some of Gilligan's statements in an interview in April 2003, I will look at some key issues in the…

An examination of the relationship of faculty levels of moral reasoning to that of students at various stages of a teacher education program revealed that no group of students (including graduate level) exhibited faculty members' abilities to recognize principled moral judgments and that the student groups did not differ from each other in such…

Addresses whether value change over the life course is a result of period shifts or individual maturation and differences in values among age strata are a function of cohort experience or individual maturation. Shows that on only one of the four dependent measures was aging directly implicated. (Author)

Although Kohlberg has stated that his moral reasoning theory is a refinement of Jean Piaget's and John Dewey's approaches, some educators have concluded that Kohlberg has misinterpreted Dewey's approach. However, the statement that Kohlberg is not of the Deweyan tradition seems unfounded. Actually, a thorough examination shows that numerous…

Middle school students (N=25) with exceptional educational needs were matched with regular students and assessed for their level of moral reasoning using the Objective Assessment of Moral Development. Results indicate exceptional students select types of reasoning typical of younger children, and become less like their peers with age. (RC)

By omitting the private and positive dimensions of morality and focusing on a single dimension of moral experience, interpersonal value conflict, Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral Development Program presents a one-sided interpretation of ethics--one which in educational practice is likely to produce morally imbalanced students. (Author/LC)

Compares and demonstrates a correspondence between L. Kohlberg's stages of moral development and M. Douglas's grid/group theory. Reinterprets Kohlberg's findings and discusses limitations of both theories. (BJD)

This study evaluated the stage structure of several quasi-simplex and non-simplex models of moral development in two domains of moral development in a British and a Chinese sample. Analyses were based on data reported by Sachs (1992): the Chinese sample consisted of 1,005 students from grade 9 to post-college, and the British sample consisted of…

Social studies preservice teachers received background information on Kohlberg's theory of moral development and were trained to use one of the rater guides in his new "issue stage scoring system." They were directed to score sample moral thought statements, some on an intuitive basis and some with the rater guides. No overall differences between…