This qualitative study explores the moral behavior in the lived experience of resident assistants who administer disciplinary policy at a large, public, urban institution located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The 12 participants volunteered to be interviewed by the first author utilizing the research question, "What is the…

Many higher education studies have examined linear relationships between student experiences and outcomes, but this assumption may be questionable. In two notable examples previous research that assumed a linear relationship reached different substantive conclusions and implications than did research that explored non-linear associations among the…

Faculty tasked with revising the accounting curriculum to incorporate an ethics component may benefit from the experiences reported in the literature. We construct and describe a framework for the pedagogy of accounting ethics based upon extant literature. Our purpose is to present the cumulative contributions to the literature in a fashion that…

The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning when facing dilemmas has been widely acknowledged. In the context of the criticism levelled at the Irish higher education system for failing to fulfil the role of intellectual leader and moral critic within the public domain, this paper…

While John Dewey's learning theory has been widely credited as the essential theoretical underpinnings of service learning, lesser attention has been paid to his concept of moral imagination regarding its immense potentials in nurturing college students' moral growth in service learning. This article explores Dewey's framework of moral imagination…

This quantitative study used the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to evaluate the relationship between transactional/transformational leadership qualities and moral development within a population of higher education students at a Protestant, Christian, liberal arts college. This study considered…

Examines the level of moral development and empathy in adult male sex offenders. Male sex offenders (n=21) and male physical assaulters (n=30) were assessed using the Defining Issues Test and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results indicate significant differences between group means and norm group means on two dimensions of empathy. (JPS)

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…

Support claims that the "Defining Issues Test" of cognitive-moral development cannot be faked higher. Finds that instruction about cognitive-moral development affected the scores of the teacher trainees who were tested. (RL)

Kohlberg's (1969) slx stages of moral development are grouped into three levels of two stages each: (1) preconventional (morality is externally controlled); (2) conventional (doing the right thing and respecting authority); and (3) postconventional (principles of morality are to be applied universally). Rest (1974) typifies these stages in the…

A moral development scale (Defining Issues Test) administered to students as entering freshmen and 4 years later indicated a significant decrease in conventional reasoning and an increase in principled reasoning. (Author)

This study was designed to help determine whether there are gender differences in the psychological and moral development of traditional-age college students. Two hundred thirty-three first-year and graduating students were given the Student Development Task and Lifestyle Inventory (SDTLI) and the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to determine whether…

College students were tested on Hogan's Survey of Ethical Attitudes, Rest's Defining Issues Test, Collins' revision of Rotter's Internal-External Scale, and Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale. Subjects who endorsed personal conscience showed greater maturity in moral reasoning. The subjects who advocated social responsibility tended to show more…

Reviews the Defining Issues Test studies (n=172) to investigate the moral development of undergraduate college students. Provides an organizational framework for analyzing educational contexts in higher education. Suggests that there are dramatic gains in moral judgment development and changes in moral reasoning during the college years. (CAJ)

Traces the history of Minnesota's approach to moral judgment research. Claims this history can be subdivided into four phases, each with a different goal and theoretical consideration. Concludes the Minnesota approach has been a progressive force in the field. Argues that this approach reaffirms Lawrence Kohlberg's view that moral judgments are…