Moral Development and Its Principles and Methods in Plato's View

In this article the authors present results from research that tested well-established assumptions and explored longstanding dissatisfactions concerning questions about the relationship between moral development and religious development. Relying upon classical constructs derived from the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, Fritz Oser, and certain of their colleagues, the authors translated, revalidated, and employed a measure developed by John Gibbs for the measurement of moral judgment, and developed, validated, and employed a new measure of religious judgment for the purpose of comparing moral judgment and religious judgment levels in a population of French-speaking Belgian adolescents and young adults. Their findings introduce the beginning of a large-scale empirical effort in the testing of claims central to the literature of developmental psychology and the practice of developmental education where moral and religious judgment are concerned. The results of their research also raise a series of interesting questions about conflict and convergence in moral and religious development. Readers are invited to regard these findings both as a source of reinvigoration for the constructivist case about the relatedness of moral and religious development, and as an opportunity to enquire collaboratively into a series of perplexing questions which arise therein.

Contents: Preface. J.R. Rest, Background: Theory and Research. S.P. McNeel, College Teaching and Student Moral Development. L.J. Duckett, M.B. Ryden, Education for Ethical Nursing Practice. F-Y. Chang, School Teachers' Moral Reasoning. N.A. Sprinthall, Counseling and Social Role Taking: Promoting Moral and Ego Development. L.A. Ponemon, D.R.L. Gabhart, Ethical Reasoning Research in the Accounting and Auditing Professions. M.J. Bebeau, Influencing the Moral Dimensions of Dental Practice. D.J. Self, D.C. Baldwin, Jr., Moral Reasoning in Medicine. D.J. Self, M. Olivarez, D.C. Baldwin, Jr., Moral Reasoning in Veterinary Medicine. B.J.L. Bredemeier, D.L.L. Shields, Applied Ethics and Moral Reasoning in Sport. T. Westbrook, Tracking the Moral Development of Journalists: A Look at Them and Their Work. S. Thoma, Moral Judgments and Moral Action. J.R. Rest, D. Narvaez, Summary: What's Possible?

Moral judgment development across cultures: Revisiting Kohlberg’s universality claims

The rated and observed moral behavior, judgment, and affect of 120 preadolescent, predominantly lower-class boys from early-divorced (before the boys were 6), late-divorced (between 6 and 10), and parentally intact homes were investigated. In addition, the mothers' discipline (power assertive, inductive, and love withdrawal) and affection were examined by asking subjects about their mothers' methods of dealing with their transgressions. Moral behavior was assessed with resistance-to-temptation, self-criticism, altruism, reparation, and teacher-rating measures, while moral judgment was evaluated with 3 Kohlberg items and moral affect was investigated with 2 story-completion items maximizing guilt. The major findings were: (1) when relevant variables (IQ, SES, age, sibling status) were controlled, few differences were found between father-absent and father-present boys; (2) however, father-absent boys were reported by their teachers as less advanced in moral development than father-present boys; (3) the sons of the divorced women showed more "social deviation", according to their teachers, but were more advanced in level of moral judgment than were the sons of widows; (4) divorced women disciplined with more power assertion than widows, according to their sons' reports.

This chapter examines Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of morality. It first considers Kohlberg's use of Jean Piaget's work and the stage-developmental writings of John Dewey to fashion a six-stage sequence that he hoped would be clearly invariant and long-lasting in scope. It then shows how that attempt resulted in a misrepresentation of “development” in the Piagetian sense and the nature of moral judgment maturity, even as Kohlberg succeeded in establishing the increasing importance of contemplative (or hypothetical-deductive) reflection in moral judgment development. More specifically, the chapter argues that Kohlberg's specific stage typology was misguided and accordingly proposes a new view of “the right” in moral development.

Kohlberg's theory of moral development explores the roles of cognition and emotion but focuses primarily on cognition. Contemporary post‐formal theories lead to the conclusion that skills resulting from cognitive‐affective integration facilitate consistency between moral judgement and moral behaviour. Rest's four‐component model of moral development delineates these skills specifically. The components, moral motivation, moral sensitivity, moral reasoning and moral character, operate as multidimensional processes that facilitate moral development and subsequently promote moral behaviour. The relationships between these components have been relatively unexplored, thereby missing the opportunity to unpack the processes underlying moral growth and development. In this study, moral motivation (spirituality), moral sensitivity (post‐formal skills) and moral reasoning are operationalized to examine the mediational effects of moral sensitivity of medical students. In the complex moral environment of medical students opportunities arise to question values and develop cognitive‐affective skills, among them spirituality and post‐formal thinking which are linked to increases in post‐conventional moral reasoning. The models tested indicate that moral sensitivity mediates the relationship between moral motivation and moral reasoning.

Contemporary approaches to moral development and moral education emphasize propositional thinking and verbal discussion of abstract moral dilemmas. In contrast, this article proposes that narratives (stories) are a central factor in a person's moral development. Support for this position comes from recent theoretical contributions of Bruner, Sarbin, Spence, Tulving, and others, who have emphasized narrative thought as a major form of cognition that is qualitatively different from abstract propositional or scientific thinking. In addition, over the last 10 to 20 years psychologists investigating and conceptualizing moral development have come to emphasize such processes as empathy (Hoffman), caring and commitment (Gilligan), interpersonal interaction (Haan), personal character and personality (Coles; Hogan; Staub; Rushton). It is proposed that narratives and narrative thinking are especially involved in how these processes lead to moral development and therefore that narrative should be rehabilitated as a valuable part of moral education.

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 attributional complexity and reported American College Test (ACT) scores. Statistically significant differences favored the gifted in moral judgment development, reaction time, and attributional complexity. Regression analysis revealed that attributional complexity explained a significant amount of variance, whereas ACT scores and reaction times accounted for minimal variance. Although reaction time did not predict moral judgment developmental difference, discussion is offered to suggest how gifted youth, such as those in this study, might benefit from using their reaction time when considering moral situations. Putting the Research to Use: The results of this study support the view that complex information processing and reaction time abilities of gifted youth are transferred to their moral judgment development. In sum, in comparison with a control group of college students, the gifted youth considered in this study appeared to process reasons for moral decisions in a more in-depth manner and were able to do so in a more efficient manner. Currently, it is unknown why and how this occurs, whether obstacles exist that could block this process, and whether practices exist that could help to facilitate these areas. Applications of these findings should therefore expound on these issues so that the utility of research on gifted moral judgment ability is increased. Applied research should also focus on transferring this understanding to general populations in the hopes of affecting the understanding of moral judgment development overall.

Data from the Rest longitudinal study of moral judgment development were used to (i) consolidate past research into a single process model of moral judgment development, and (ii) assess the relative contributions of education and work to moral judgment development. Subjects were 102 individuals who were first interviewed in 1972–1974 and were followed up in 1983. A general model was specified which included moral judgment development in adolescence, dedication, educational attainment, occupational attainment, fulfilling career, and adult moral judgment development. The model was tested on the total sample and in a subsamples analysis that examined the unique pathways to moral development of subsamples which had either completed 2 years or more of college (higher education) or had completed less than 2 years of college (lower education). The general model confirmed that both education and occupation play important roles in the explanation of adult moral judgment development; the subsamples analysis suggested that work-related variables were the most important determinants of development in the lower education group and that education was the most important determinant of the higher education group.

Universally, various psychological aspects of children develop through certain stages according to their age level. They go through stages of intellectual, moral and emotional developments, stages of personality and language developments, and stages in the growth of their concept about stories. Each type of development is divided into specific stages. Piaget divides children’s intellectual development, for example, into four stages: the sensory-motor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. These stages come in accordance with their age development. Each stage has characteristics distinguishing it from anya other stage. The difference in characteristics logically implies in turn a difference in their response to reading matter. Consequently, in selecting reading matter for children, one should consider their age in order to make the selection match their psychological development of children of a certain age level would make the reading matter become uncommunicative because it is too difficult for them or make it uninteresting and boring for them because it is too easy or too simple. Key words: psychological development, intellectual development, selection of reading matter

This research is motivated by the facts in the field which show that children's ability to use loose parts media oriented to HOTS can improve children's moral development with a scientific approach at Pelita Nusantara Tanjungpinang Kindergarten there are still many children who are not right when using it. The purpose of this study was to improve scientific skills with loose parts media in group A at Pelita Nusantara Kindergarten. The improved ability is to be able to use loose parts media oriented Hots on children's moral development. This type of learning improvement is done by Classroom Action Research (PTK) with two learning cycles. Research activities were carried out at Tanman Kanak-Kanak Pelita Nusantara in group A children totaling 12 children consisting of 7 boys and 5 girls. After carrying out learning improvement activities, the sauntifik approach by using loose parts media oriented to Hots in improving children's moral development at Pelita Nusantara Kindergarten is very appropriate because these diverse activities raise children's interest and children can actively participate in activities. Keywords: children's moral development, loose parts media, scientific approach model

From an early age, children with high abilities show signs of high moral sensitivity. These children, as well as showing an advanced ability to think about abstract ideas such as justice and fairness, can also show superior performance in one or more areas, in isolation or in combination, when compared to students of the same age group, grade and environmental experiences. The general objective was to describe and characterize the state of knowledge on the moral development of students with high abilities. To this end, an integrative literature review was carried out in five electronic databases from 2002 to 2022 (Periódico CAPES, Sage Journal, Eric, Psycinfo and LILACS). The following results were found: i. In total, 14 articles were selected, which indicates a shortage of scientific publications on this subject; ii. quantitative tests for assessing moral development were the most commonly used instruments for assessing moral development in students with high abilities; iii. two theories of moral development were used in studies to explain the moral development of people with high abilities: Piaget's theory and Kohlberg's theory, the latter being cited in international studies and the former in national studies; and iv. the need for educational interventions for the moral development of students with high abilities. The conclusion is that it is necessary to promote scientific research on this subject, as meeting the emotional and educational needs of children with high abilities and the inclusion of this special education group in school depends on the knowledge accumulated by scientific studies.

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 findings suggest that DIT scores describe a latent variable that is distinct from verbal ability. Second, we show that verbal ability cannot account for the relationship between moral judgments and social political attitudes and actions. These results are consistent with the developmental view that moral judgment development scores are related to, but do not reduce to, cognitive and ability measures.

This paper describes a study which examined the relationship between Just Community participation and teachers’ moral judgement. At the pre‐test stage, the teachers attributed resolution for their dilemmas to an assistant principal or administrator. Analysis of the teachers’ moral development after participation in the Just Community shows that the treatment group changed but that the comparison group did not. The study suggests that a teacher may make judgements of responsibility for moral action when s/he has experienced moral growth through participation in an on‐the‐job moral education programme which requires the discussion and resolution of real‐life on‐line moral dilemmas to fulfil the responsibilities of the perceived job role.

When Samuel Johnson was asked, “Who is smarter, men or women?” he is reported to have answered, “Which man? Which woman?” (As quoted in Nicholson, 1984, p. 77). With this seemingly simple response, Johnson moved out of the traditionally dichotomous paradigm that has guided much of psychology’s exploration of gender differences. For decades, philosophers, historians, and social science researchers have focused on the differences between men and women, often entering their investigations with the implicit assumption that differences exist, and then attempting to explain these differences with anecdotal and/or empirical “evidence.” Psychological theory and research on intellectual and moral development have been no exception.