This study investigated the impacts of the school volunteer experience as perceived by older volunteers. Data were gathered from 180 volunteers through the use of a Likert-type questionnaire and an open-ended interview. The data analysis yielded the following findings. The volunteer experience was perceived as providing a meaningful structure for the older persons' lives, as enriching their lives and as helping them to overcome personal trauma. These findings suggest that older persons' well-being could be improved by providing them with structured activities involving social responsibility.
This study investigated the cross-cultural generality of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development in India. A sample of 112 males and females between 11 and 50-plus years was drawn from an urban middle- and upper-middle-class population and interviewed individually on Kohlberg’s dilemmas. A two-way analysis of variance performed on the moral maturity scores indicates a significant effect of age (p < 0.001) but a nonsignificant effect of sex. A qualitative analysis of postconventional reasoning among Indian adults revealed two themes: (a) the adaptation of principles to real-life dilemmas; and (b) the integration of indigenous moral and philosophical values in principled thought. These findings support the cross-cultural generality of Kohlberg’s model of moral development; they also raise cross-cultural issues in morality which cannot be assimilated in an overly formalized theory of moral reasoning.
This study introduces a methodology for exploring sex differences and life span patterns in a small sample for the purpose of generating hypotheses concerning the frequency and kinds of relationships people identify as important. Sixty-two participants from the United States and India, ranging in age from nineteen to seventy-five were interviewed as part of a study on ego and moral development. These open-ended, semistructured interviews yielded information on relationships that was subsequently coded for analysis. Sex differences were found in the number of relationships mentioned, with females mentioning a higher number of relationships than males. Life span patterns regarding the number of relationships mentioned were different for men and women between ages nineteen to thirty-one, with women naming more relationships. At age thirty-five there was a convergence in the number of relationships mentioned by both sexes. This age also was the low point in the number of relationships mentioned by both sexes, with later life ages.
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