Explores situational and cognitive-developmental factors affecting 223 high-school and college students' moral thinking and moral decision-making about a hypothetical dilemma. (MP)

A 1981 study confirmed many of the findings of a 1968 study which examined the values of fourth year pupils in an English comprehensive school. For example, in both studies, students rejected ideal models in favor of "myself" choices. (Author/RM)

Drawing on the work of symbolic anthropologists and Kenneth Burke, the authors analyze the meanings beneath the antisugar "popular science" literature of the 1970s. (PD)

Asseverates the morality of "The Catcher in the Rye," emphasizing that teachers need not defend the book on purely literary terms. (JL)

Analyzed episodes of "All My Children" and "General Hospital," as reported in the 1980 issues of "Soap Opera Digest." Found that moral violations tended to be resolved consistently with traditional moral standards. Suggests that criticisms of soap operas' effects on morals may not be totally warranted. (PD)

Illustrates the extreme diversity of private education and defends the use of the term "private" or "nonpublic." (WD)

Points to three deficiencies in values clarification as a program of moral education; i.e., failure to distinguish the intellectual traits essential in moral valuing; failure to contribute to students' moral development; and failure to consider the purpose and mechanics of moral argument. Concludes that values clarification promotes ethical…

Describes Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of moral development and provides examples of how Kohlberg's theoretical principles can be employed in everyday family interaction. Holds that parents are always moral educators and must therefore consciously implement moral development strategies in the home environment. (GC)

Reviews the philosophical stance of ethical relativism. Notes that relativism is sometimes accused of being caught between moral impotence and self-contradiction. Argues that grounding relative ethical values in rhetorical communication allows relativists to judge other cultures without inconsistency. (PD)

Reaction against the naive moral absolutism of past historical writing has frequently led to unconditional moral and cultural relativism which is equally dangerous. A viable solution is contingent relativism in historical judgments, combining explicit and examinable criteria of human values and concern for contexts of time and place. (Author/SJL)

Suggests that effects rather than motives or methods become the definitive way of measuring the ethical quality of discourse. Also suggests that the supposed dichotomy between absolutist and relativist approaches to moral judgments is mistaken. Approaches to moral judgment are seen as applications of consensual rules which follow a quasi-juridical…

Defines community development and shows how community development as an educational process embodies an ethical principle which, when applied to the analysis of community practices, promotes justice. (JOW)

A practicing school administrator sympathetic to the broad aims of moral education asks some questions about teaching moral education in the schools. (Author/MLF)

Outlines six approaches used in a university history course which address the problems of teaching the Hitler period. The assumption underlying all the approaches is that Americans are not entirely different from Germans and that they may be faced with similar moral choices. The approaches avoid the didactic moralism often taught about this era.…

Positive and negative mood conditions do affect principled moral reasoning. Results do not imply that affective states raise levels of moral reasoning, but a positive affective state provides a condition conducive to using more principled level moral reasoning. (Author/JAC)