Despite high college expectations and enrollments among young people, their trajectories through higher education have become increasingly complex. Even after initially starting as "traditional" students, many college graduates are only able to complete a bachelor's degree after a series of stops and starts across multiple institutions.…

To assess reaction time and attributional complexity as factors contributing to the relatively high moral judgment of gifted youth, a sample of 30 gifted youth and 30 college students responded to a computerized measure of moral judgment development, which also indexed reaction time. Additionally, participants completed a measurement of…

Observes that the Kohlbergian model of morality does not give a good account of the ways in which people make moral decisions in their everyday lives. Argues that a functional model of moral judgment and moral behavior derived from evolutionary theory may supply a better account of real-life morality. (DSK)

This document reports on two studies that used a novel approach to categorize justifications for moral judgments made by Australian subjects from 7 to 15 and from 7 to 21 years of age. The coding categories consisted of levels of abstraction and reflection. Level of abstraction was determined by the reference group used in justifications. Levels…

In analyzing various moral and legal philosophies, two perspectives emerge, absolute moral rules/higher law, and situationally-specific moral rules/legal positivism. From these two perspectives, four types of individuals emerge in accordance with their degree of adherence to ideological tenets: (1) situationists (high on idealism and relativism);…

Reported are two studies of the categorization of adolescents' justifications for the morality of others' actions. To analyze interview data, a new method of scoring moral judgments was developed. Study 1, involving 180 individuals from 12 to 21 years of age, focused on dimensions of reflection and abstraction associated with four categories of…

Examined the variability in the development of moral judgment by reanalyzing a set of Kohlberg's data studies on the concept of structured wholeness, a deep cognitive organization unifying different surface judgments given by the same subject. Although the results failed to show total consistency they also show that it is not meaningful to claim…

The relationships of age, gender, and educational level with moral development in 94 middle-class 28- to 55-year-old adults (32 males and 62 females) were studied. Subjects were administered Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI). Males scored higher on the MJI than females. Findings support the continued development of moral judgment through…

Examined the self-understanding and moral judgment of 15 African American and Hispanic American adolescents nominated by community leaders for their exemplary caring behavior. These "care exemplars" were more likely than comparison adolescents to describe themselves in terms of moral personality traits and goals and to view themselves as…

The 45 tests described in this bibliography assess the moral development and values of populations at all age and grade levels (particularly target toward those above grade 7). Some of the instruments consist of questions that pose moral problems and respondents must select a solution. Several of the tests are concerned about professional ethics.…

Character education's single-minded focus on virtues and moral exemplars is apt to leave young people wondering what an individual does to be honest or courageous or generous or determined. Kohlberg's well-known levels of moral development do not involve the application of universal principles until the most mature stages. Some discussion of moral…

Presents six different investigations of character enhancement that attempts to answer three questions: (1) who are you; (2) what is your destination; and (3) who is your captain? Intends to build relationships among ideas such as perspective taking, seeing and making connections with the other, and understanding more about ethical development.…

Analyzes the confusion in the language of political economy in Great Britain that generates and sustains moral infantilism in the civil polity. Critiques the limits of recent approaches to moral education. Sketches the relationship between the use of interpretative understanding and Jungian insights in support of poetry in moral engagement.…

Attempts to construct an account of how teachers acquire their professional identities as a means to informing professional development. Discusses four significant traditions (craft, scientific, moral, and artistic) in education. Considers implications for practice. (CMK)

The concept of autonomous identity, derived from Piaget's theory of personality, is distinguished from other applications of the term "autonomy" in psychological theory. Introductory comments suggest that both biological and mental development express autonomy in the same two senses: as self-regulating and progressively self-liberating.…