Examines several issues concerning Gilligan's and Kohlberg's models of moral orientations and Kohlberg's model of moral stages in a longitudinal study of 233 subjects aged 5 to 63 years. Results revealed few violations of the stage sequence over the two-year longitudinal interval. (RJC)

Studies the strategies that 41 perpetrators of child abuse used to insure that the victim remained silent. Results indicate that the perpetrators altered their strategies to coincide with the developmental level of the child. (RJC)

Although the theory and research of Lawrence Kohlberg have been the dominant approach in the study of moral reasoning and moral development, his procedures have been criticized in three areas: (1) reliability and validity; (2) applicability to daily experience; and (3) inadequate sampling. To examine the characteristics of moral problems…

A total of 96 students (16 males and 16 females, chosen randomly from each of the first, fourth, and seventh grades of a grade school and a middle school,) allocated rewards in response to stimuli representing pairs of children differing in work output and effort. Stimulus materials consisted of: (1) a booklet containing nine drawings representing…

Results indicate that preschool children are capable of making moral judgments in both apology-restitution and guilt-innocence test contexts. Age and sex are significantly related to both moral judgment measures, while intelligence and parent occupation are unrelated to both measures. (Author/RH)

Despite the relevance of moral development to professional education, little research has been done to examine the application of moral development theory. To relate Analytic Interactive Style to post-formal operational thinking or "unitary operations thinking," to test the relationship between level of moral development and Analytic…

A study was conducted to examine young children's ideas about a psychology study in which they had participated, and to assess their perceptions about the voluntary nature of their participation. Subjects were 28 third-grade students and 28 fifth-grade students. Findings indicated that while no significant grade level differences existed in…

Investigates the effects of recency and specific story content on the development of moral reasoning in four-, seven-, and 11- year-old children and college freshmen. Analyses confirmed that in general younger children judged on consequence, except on stories containing intentional injury to a person, whereas older children utilized intention.…

Reports on a study of the influence of age and formal education on the development of moral reasoning among 215 Spanish citizens ranging in age from 12 to 48. Finds that moral development is highly related to both variables, although more so with formal education than with age. Includes five tables of illustrative data. (CFR)

Uses fables to study the moral orientation used in problem solving by 54 first, second, and fifth grade children. The following findings are reported: (1) all adopted a "care" orientation; (2) only fifth grade boys used solutions involving tricks; and (3) the ability to explain the logic of solutions was related to abstract reasoning…