Developing conceptions of authority and contract across the lifespan: Two perspectives

A Stage Is a Stage Is a Stage: A Direct Comparison of Two Scoring Systems

“…Scoring systems that rely on justification-or concept-matching introduce other problems as well. First, they can be used only to assess stage within a particular domain, which makes cross-domain comparisons difficult; and second, scoring for stage on the basis of the presence or absence of particular conceptual content makes it impossible to examine the relationship between stages and conceptual change (Dawson, 1998;Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003).…”

“…Also, Keller, Eckensberger, and van Rosen (1989) showed that Kohlberg's Moral Stages 1 and 2 failed to account for a wide range of moral concepts expressed by young children and that it generally underestimated their ability to take the perspective of others. Dawson and Gabrielian (2003) also have expressed concern about the limitations of Kohlberg's construction sample. They argued that not only was the sample small, but the youngest respondents were only 10 years of age at the time of the initial interviews.…”

“…Both are described in the following stage descriptions, which include only the six complexity orders identified in the data used in the following analyses. The examples provided in these descriptions are from Dawson and Gabrielian's (2003) analysis of the conceptions of authority and contract associated with complexity orders in a sample of 747 moral judgment interviews scored with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System.…”

“…In a final study, Dawson and Gabrielian (2003) examined the relationship between Kohlbergian moral stages and the conceptual content associated with complexity orders. They found strong correspondences between Moral Stages 2/3, 3, 4, and 5 and the conceptual content associated with the single abstractions, abstract mappings, abstract systems, and single principles complexity orders.…”

Values at stake: autonomy, responsibility, and trustworthiness in relation to genetic testing and personalized nutrition advice

“…Second, people have different abilities to comprehend and take responsibility owing to different interpretations of themselves, others, and the world in general (Loevinger and Blasi 1976). Third, the term ''responsibility'' means different things to different people depending on their stage of development (Dawson and Gabrielian 2003). Research into the question of taking responsibility for one's health has shown that developing such responsibility as an adult is associated with greater competence and changed behavior.…”