Testing for Moral Judgment Competence

Lind, Georg; Wakenhut, Roland

doi:10.4324/9781315124728-4

Cited by 20 publications

(40 citation statements)

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“…This is important, because both levels of moral reasoning and moral judgment competence are positively associated with number of years of formal education. In particular, it has been demonstrated that formal ethics training and educational programs that challenge people to look at issues from different points of view are effective in influencing people’s awareness of moral issues as well as moral judgment competence [ 3 , 13 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, he proposed three cognitive schemas mapping Kohlberg’s three stages of moral reasoning: personal interests (pre-conventional level), maintaining norms and following conventional rules and laws (conventional level), and deeper principles or shared ideals (post-conventional level). A complementary approach to understanding individual differences in moral reasoning is offered by Lind [ 3 ]. Here, morality is defined as consisting of two inseparable, yet distinguishable aspects: moral values and preferences and a person’s competence to act accordingly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

et al. 2015

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Going back to Kohlberg, moral development research affirms that people progress through different stages of moral reasoning as cognitive abilities mature. Individuals at a lower level of moral reasoning judge moral issues mainly based on self-interest (personal interests schema) or based on adherence to laws and rules (maintaining norms schema), whereas individuals at the post-conventional level judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals. However, the extent to which moral development is reflected in structural brain architecture remains unknown. To investigate this question, we used voxel-based morphometry and examined the brain structure in a sample of 67 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. Subjects completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) which measures moral development in terms of cognitive schema preference. Results demonstrate that subjects at the post-conventional level of moral reasoning were characterized by increased gray matter volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, compared with subjects at a lower level of moral reasoning. Our findings support an important role for both cognitive and emotional processes in moral reasoning and provide first evidence for individual differences in brain structure according to the stages of moral reasoning first proposed by Kohlberg decades ago.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

et al. 2015

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“…In this sense, moral research risks being reductionist (Rest 1986), even if there are researchers in this field that have also argued that test responses can be understood as actions since they in themselves are expressions of moral cognition and moral attitudes, i.e. the basic components of moral behaviour (Lind and Wakenhut 1985). Rest (1986) has stressed that perseverance and ego-strength are characteristic of implementation.…”

Section: Moral Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education – Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals

Osbeck

Franck

Lilja

et al. 2018

Journal of Beliefs & Values

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The aim of this article is to present varieties of ethical competence that are highlighted in ethics and moral education research articles, and to discuss them in the light of competences stressed in the Swedish curriculum, understood as an example of ethics education in compulsory school. The material consists of 1,940 educational research articles published between 2000 and 2015, and the method of analysis is inductive, focusing on ethical competence. One finding is the similarity between the study's tentative formulation of identified ethical competences in four categories, and Rest's understanding of acting morally, captured in the four components: sensitivity, judgement, motivation and implementation. Based on the analysis of the articles, broader understandings of these focuses are developed, and later discussed in relation to Swedish ethics education, characterised as both a conservative and liberal values education. The analyses and comparison show the importance of the components of moral sensitivity and moral implementation and their relative absence in the Swedish curriculum, but also how moral judgement must include a competence to evaluate moral motivations, where empirically testable reasons are also central. Moreover, the risk of neglecting contextual, situational and knowledge-related aspects of ethical competence is highlighted.

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“…To measure moral competence we used the MCT developed by Georg Lind [ 22 , 23 ]. The German version of the MCT was validated in respect to several analytical and empirical criteria (predictions derived by Kohlbergian research) and has been tested in different populations over the past 30 years [ 24 – 27 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principle-based structured case discussions: do they foster moral competence in medical students? - A pilot study

et al. 2017

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BackgroundRecent findings suggest that medical students’ moral competence decreases throughout medical school. This pilot study gives preliminary insights into the effects of two educational interventions in ethics classes on moral competence among medical students in Munich, Germany.MethodsBetween 2012 and 2013, medical students were tested using Lind’s Moral Competence Test (MCT) prior to and after completing different ethics classes. The experimental group (EG, N = 76) participated in principle-based structured case discussions (PBSCDs) and was compared with a control group with theory-based case discussions (TBCDs) (CG, N = 55). The pre/post C-scores were compared using a Wilcoxon Test, ANOVA and effect-size calculation.ResultsThe C-score improved by around 3.2 C-points in the EG, and by 0.2 C-points in the CG. The mean C-score difference was not statistically significant for the EG (P = 0.14) or between the two groups (P = 0.34). There was no statistical significance for the teachers’ influence (P = 0.54) on C-score. In both groups, students with below-average (M = 29.1) C-scores improved and students with above-average C-scores regressed. The increase of the C-Index was greater in the EG than in the CG. The absolute effect-size of the EG compared with the CG was 3.0 C-points, indicating a relevant effect.ConclusionTeaching ethics with PBSCDs did not provide a statistically significant influence on students’ moral competence, compared with TBCDs. Yet, the effect size suggests that PBSCDs may improve moral competence among medical students more effectively. Further research with larger and completely randomized samples is needed to gain definite explanations for the results.

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Testing for Moral Judgment Competence

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education – Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals

Principle-based structured case discussions: do they foster moral competence in medical students? - A pilot study

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