Experiential and Cognitive Sources of Moral Development in Adulthood

Walker, Lawrence J.

doi:10.1159/000273027

Cited by 72 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Apparently, greater sophistication of reasoning about personal-life problems does not follow simply from more social contacts or guarantee a more positive sense of one's own life course. Also, although verbal intelligence was not assessed in this study, it should be noted that there is little independent evidence that measures of verbal IQ are substantially related to these sociocognitive stage indexes, particularly with educational influences removed (e.g., Pratt, Hunsberger, Pancer, Roth, & Keith, 1990;Walker, 1986a). With regard to gender differences in this study, there were no indications of systematic patterns of differences between men and women in average justice stage levels (on either the WAS or the real-life index), the Kegan subject/object stages, or the integrative complexity index, consistent with most recent evidence for the Kohlberg instrument (e.g., Walker, 1986b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Four pathways in the analysis of adult development and aging: Comparing analyses of reasoning about personal-life dilemmas.

Pratt¹,

Diessner²,

Hunsberger³

et al. 1991

Psychology and Aging

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Four systems for analyzing thinking about 2 personal-life dilemmas, as discussed by 29 men and 35 women (ages 35-85), were compared. Kohlberg's (1976) moral judgment stages, Kegan's (1982) ego-development stages, Gilligan's (1982) moral orientation system, and Suedfeld and Tetlock's (1977) integrative complexity scoring were used. Subjects completed Kohlberg's (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987) standard moral judgment measure, a self-concept description, and several questionnaires. The Kohlberg, Kegan, and integrative complexity codings of the dilemmas were positively related to each other and to the standard Kohlberg moral stage scores. There were no age-group differences and few gender differences on the measures. However, education, role-taking skills, and greater sensitivity to age changes in the self positively predicted higher stage scores across maturity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Four pathways in the analysis of adult development and aging: Comparing analyses of reasoning about personal-life dilemmas.

Pratt¹,

Diessner²,

Hunsberger³

et al. 1991

Psychology and Aging

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“…In personal moral dilemmas women discuss different types of problems from men and focus more on relationship issues (Hunter & Pratt, 1988). Just as different social experiences of life differentially affect the moral judgement development of men and women (Walker, 1986;Boldizar et a/., 1989), different aspects of life may result in differential use of moral concepts. It may be that some teachers, and males more than females, focus on the institutional expectations inherent in school discipline incidents and suppress the moral issues involved.…”

Section: Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teacher Reasoning and Moral Judgement in the Context of Student Discipline Situations

MacCallum

1993

Journal of Moral Education

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Twenty-four high school teachers were interviewed about specific hypothetical discipline incidents in moral and social-conventional domains, before and after attending an in-service programme introducing a whole-school approach to discipline. Their reasoning was found to be related to the teachers' individual moral judgement levels (as assessed by the Defining Issues Test or DIT). The teachers in the high principled group (DIT-%P score over 46) responded to the incidents with more perspective coordination, and provided more information in the form of domain-appropriate rationales, than teachers in the low moral judgement group (DIT-%P score below 38). The relationship was not constant across discipline incidents. The importance of teachers' individual moral judgement levels in explaining variations in teachers' reasoning about the teacher's role in school discipline situations and teachers' interpretations of educational methods are discussed [1, 2].

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“…Variability in levels of moral develop ment within cultures has been explained by a number of factors: attainment of social roles, especially leadership [Harkncss et al, 1981;Tietjen and Walker, 1985]; level of educa tion [Edwards, 1975[Edwards, , 1978Tietjen and Walker, 1985;Walker, 1986b]; occupational status [Walker, 1986b]; family structure [Parikh, 1980]; urbanization [Edwards, 1975[Edwards, , 1978Nisan and Kohlberg, 1982]; eth nic diversity [Edwards, 1978]; and living ar rangements [Edwards, 1978;Maqsud, 1978]. All of these factors are social experiences that presumably stimulate moral develop ment through exposure to role-taking oppor tunities in situations of moral conflict.…”

Section: Criteria For Kohlberg's Stage Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of Cultural Diversity for the Universality Claims of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning

Boyes

Walker²

1988

Human Development

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Kohlberg’s claim that his theory of moral reasoning development has universal validity and that the evidence is consistent with a position of ethical nonrelativity is evaluated. The available data indicate that the cognitive-developmental criteria for a strict moral stage model do hold universally and that the theory does reflect much of what is morally relevant in diverse cultures. However, the theory’s universal applicability is challenged by evidence that it misses or misconstrues some significant moral concepts from several cultures. It is argued that Kohlberg’s universality claims are grounded in metaethical assumptions about the nature of morality. Although the validity of these assumptions cannot be proven at an empirical level, doubt would be cast on their plausibility by failure to support the empirical claims of the theory.

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Experiential and Cognitive Sources of Moral Development in Adulthood

Cited by 72 publications

References 10 publications

Four pathways in the analysis of adult development and aging: Comparing analyses of reasoning about personal-life dilemmas.

Four pathways in the analysis of adult development and aging: Comparing analyses of reasoning about personal-life dilemmas.

Teacher Reasoning and Moral Judgement in the Context of Student Discipline Situations

Implications of Cultural Diversity for the Universality Claims of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning

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