An analysis of four foundational issues in the study of moral development is provided. The four issues involve: (1) the definition of morality; (2) individual or cultural moral variation; (3) moral ontogeny; and (4) moral epistemology. The first section of the paper describes each issue. The second section is based on the argument that the four…

Richard Mitchell, the "Underground Grammarian," has been dismissed by many in the academic community as a pop-culture grammar-basher. This is unfortunate, since Mitchell has linked literacy to the capacity for moral behavior. This connection between moral capacity and literacy is often avoided by the way in which literacy is defined. In…

Family theorists have considered the idea of boundary in terms of the concepts of disengagement and enmeshment. Disengaged families are those having rigid, well-delineated boundaries that are often impermeable. Alternately, enmeshed families have diffuse ego boundaries, acting as if all are part of each other, and are likely to produce an…

The paper examines the development of moral judgment in learning disabled children and adolescents and proposes three teaching strategies to encourage higher level moral reasoning: (1) moral dilemma discussions, (2) use of the consequence grid, and (3) role playing. The six stages of moral development proposed by L. Kohlberg are explained.…

Describes some of the moral dilemmas facing adolescents and discusses some problems counselors face when dealing with adolescent counselees. In particular, the author mentions the difficulty in distinguishing normal developmental growing pains from personality disturbance. (Author/HMV)

Article investigated the extent it is both possible and desirable to instruct others in moral judgment. (Editor/RK)

Article focuses on cohabitation among college students by first considering an explanation for the existence of cohabitation in the larger society and on college campuses and then by identifying a pattern of consensual unions among college students. It concludes that cohabitation is becoming an accepted relationship among college students and…

Discusses the impact of role playing on the change of moral judgment maturity in 96 college students. Subjects showed both immediate and delayed increases in moral judgment maturity when role playing a moral dilemma against an opponent who employed reasoning above the subject's initially assessed state. (LLK)

The purpose of this article was to question assumptions and explore limitations of the hypothetical moral situation approach by examining certain logical features of moral judgments in both hypothetical and non-hypothetical contexts. (Author/RK)

Dutch boys, 8 and 12 years old, read brief stories about a harm-doer whose intentions were either good or bad and whose actions resulted in either minor or serious injury to a victim. The older boys' but not the younger boys, differentiated naughtiness on the basis of provocation and intentions. (Author/CS)

Criticizes the values clarification approach for avoiding the structure of values, for allowing judgmental activites, for embracing moral relativism, and for not being founded in theory. (DW)

The role of empirical research in investigating normative ethics is examined. Normative ethics refers to a set of moral principles or values which describes not only what exists but also prescribes what should be. The theoretical work in the field of normative ethics upon which this approach is based is that of Bernard Rosen, particularly his work…

The developmental sequence of preschool children's moral judgments, and their emphasis on intentions versus property damage was investigated. Eight moral judgment stories with drawings were read to twelve 3 1/2- and twelve 4 1/2-year-old children (mean ages = 46.6 and 54.0 months, respectively). The stories included either positive or negative…

Children aged two and one-half to five years gave moral evaluations, attributions of parental affect, and personal liking evaluations of both standard (motive and outcome) moral episodes and simplified (motive only) episodes. (JMB)

Historically, higher education has been an institution charged with the moral development of youth. Moral problems in this country have resulted from a failure to respond to this need. Schools should provide formal instruction in ethics and morality, and faculty members and schools should demonstrate ethics in their conduct. (SW)