In this essay, John Ambrosio examines the role of ascetic writing practices in Michel Foucault's conception of ethical self-formation. Ambrosio argues for an interpretation of Foucault's later writings as representative of both an extension, and a dramatic break, from his previous writings--from demolishing the subject to embracing the notion of…

The argument of this paper focuses on the relationship between cognitive structures and structures of interaction. It contends that there is still a place in moral development theory and research for a concept of moral stages. The thesis, in short, is that moral stages are not structures of thought. They are structures of action encoded in…

Empathy is the ability to understand another's perspective and to consider it before acting. This is a difficult skill for a young child who is egocentric--in the "Me!" stage. The ability to feel empathy is directly related to the ability to form relationships. Relationships give children the feeling of security, which allows them to feel safe and…

Lawrence Kohlberg first published details of his research on the development of moral judgments in "Vita Humana" (later titled "Human Development"). Along with a series of other articles and essays, he greatly influenced research on moral development. He was instrumental in moving the field out of the narrow confines of analyses of psychological…

The rapid rise of technology, which has become embedded in all facets of 21st century society during the past decade, has fostered a corresponding rise in its misuse. Digital citizenship abuse, a relatively new phenomenon of this electronic age, is a rapidly growing global problem. Parents, schools, and society play roles in supporting appropriate…

"How can you help students most effectively in the classroom?" As a Teaching Assistant, you play a vital role in today's schools. This fully updated new edition will help you get to grips with the main issues to do with psychology and its role in the processes of teaching and learning. This accessible text, building on the success of a…

Street hawking in its simplest form is the selling of things along the roads and from one place to the other. In Nigeria this is done almost all the time by young children both males and females. The girl hawkers come to the cities in groups and then go in different directions of the city to hawk their goods. They remain in the city from the early…

Which moral principles should guide us in evaluating sexual contacts of adolescents? This paper tries to answer this question by taking two steps. First, the implications of a liberal sexual ethics for adolescence are spelled out, assessed and refuted. The core principle of the liberal ethical view, the principle of valid consent, takes competence…

Is "development" a concept that properly belongs to mind and morality and, if it does, what account can we give of moral development now that Piagetian and Kohlbergian models are increasingly being abandoned in developmental psychology? In addressing this central issue, it is hoped that the paper will contribute to the quest for a new integrated…

The model of moral functioning scaffolded in the 2008 "JME" Special Issue is here revisited in response to three papers criticising that volume. As guest editor of that Special Issue I have formulated the main body of this response, concerning the dynamic systems approach to moral development, the problem of moral relativism and the role of…

In this longitudinal study we examined whether two components of effortful control, behavioral control, and executive function moderated the relation between temperament and conscience development. Temperament was assessed when participants were two years of age, and three temperament groups were formed: inhibited, exuberant, and low reactive. At…

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…

In this article we provide a theoretical reconstruction of sub-Saharan ethics that we argue is a strong competitor to typical Western approaches to morality. According to our African moral theory, actions are right roughly insofar as they are a matter of living harmoniously with others or honouring communal relationships. After spelling out this…

Although historians of psychological and educational sciences have not completely neglected early research in the field of morality testing, European contributions to the measurement of ethical judgement and moral feeling have not received much historical attention. In this paper, two principal, experimental paradigms that emerged in early…

Research on Service-learning's (SL) impact on students' moral development has been "mixed." In this study, 46 students in SL and non-SL sections of comparable courses offered at a northeastern Catholic university completed the Defining Issues Test, the Moral Justification Scale, and the SL Outcome Scale at the beginning and end of a semester.…