Stories of civilization and progress tell us that humans cannot help being destructive, selfish, and aggressive, which are side effects of progress requiring sanctions and engineering. It can be argued that this approach has brought about the ecological collapse we face today. The older, more widespread view--that human personality and behavior…

In a 2014 paper in "Theory and Research in Education," Howard Curzer and colleagues critique the Defining Issues Test of moral judgment development according to eight criteria that are described as difficulties any measure of educational outcomes must address. This article highlights how Curzer et al. do not consult existing empirical…

The main arguments of my lecture were how humans are failing themselves and devastating earth's biosphere, at least in part, because they became uncooperative with two key ecological inheritances: raising the young within the human evolved developmental niche and, as part of this, facilitating the development of a deep attachment to, knowledge of…

Most of human history and prehistory was lived in economic poverty but with social and ecological wealth, both of which are diminishing as commodification takes over most everything. Human moral wealth has also deteriorated. Because humans are biosocially, dynamically, and epigenetically shaped, early experience is key for developing one's moral…

In an effort to contribute to contemporary debates about alternative ways of teaching moral education, this qualitative study explored moral dilemmas identified by young adolescents and how they made moral choices to resolve the dilemmas. Data were gathered for textual analysis through a modified framework of participatory action research using…

Most of the views ascribed to us we do not recognise and suggest that several misunderstandings flavour Welch's commentary. We clarify some of our positions here and recommend further collaboration among philosophers and psychologists.

The link between judgment and action is weak throughout psychology, including moral psychology. That is, people often do not act in accordance with their reasoning. Might moral judgment development be better viewed as a capacity that inhibits "immoral" behavior? One model that helps account for the moral judgment-action gap is Rest's…

Critics of moral judgment measures question whether the obtained pattern of relationships between moral judgment scores and outcome variables might be better explained by verbal/general ability. To address this concern, we assess the degree to which moral judgment development reduces to verbal ability using the Defining Issues Test (DIT). Our…

Debating whether or not teachers should teach values addresses the wrong question. Education already is a values-infused enterprise. The larger question is how to train teachers for positive character formation. Two teacher education strategies are presented in this article. A "minimalist" strategy requires teacher educators to make explicit the…

Proposes an action program for moral education in the public schools that incorporates lessons learned from the Head Start movement. Recommends a four-component model of sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and character for this program. (SLD)

The "Rating Ethical Content Scale" ("RECS") judges the content of stories for positive content, based on the Four Process model of ethical behavior: ethical sensitivity, ethical judgment, ethical focus and ethical action (Rest, 1983; Narvaez, & Rest, 1995). For example, a story with Ethical Sensitivity has evidence of…

Moral text processing was used as an ecologically valid method for assessing implicit and explicit moral understanding and development. The authors tested undergraduates, seminarians, and graduate students in political science and philosophy for recall of moral narratives and moral expository texts. Multivariate analyses of covariance using…

Proposes a model of moral judgment that builds on Lawrence Kohlberg's core assumptions. Addresses the concerns that have surfaced related to Kohlberg's work in moral judgment. Presents an overview of this model using Kohlberg's basic starting points, ideas from cognitive science, and developments in moral philosophy. (CMK)

Reviews studies examining differences in moral schema development, using techniques that range from measuring implicit knowledge (such as the defining issues test) and explicit knowledge (such as with the moral judgment interview). Finds significant differences in the comprehension of moral narratives based on age/education and level of expertise.…

Eighth graders (n=138) and college students (n=49) read and recalled four complex moral narratives in which moral arguments at different Kohlbergian stages were embedded. Participants with higher reasoning scores on a test of moral judgment development reconstructed more high-stage moral arguments during recall. (SLD)