This study was designed to determine why children at the transitional stage of operational development base their moral judgments on the objective consequences of another's act rather than on the other's intentions. The results confirmed the existence of a production deficiency as opposed to a mediational deficiency. (JMB)

Examines the effects of act- and outcome-oriented adult prohibitions on the moral judgments of seven- and nine-year-old children. Moral dilemmas portraying children in hospital settings were presented to children of ages six to nine years. (Author/SS)

Reports the results of an experiment in which 146 college freshmen were asked either to fake bad answers, fake good answers or record their own views on the Defining Issues Test. Findings indicated that students could not fake higher scores, but could fake bad scores. (SDH)

Information integration in judgments of deservingness and fair shares was studied in three experiments with 76 children from four to eight years of age. Even the youngest children had a well-developed sense of equity, and no age trends were found in this respect. (Author/MP)

Four studies examined the cognitive bases of children's judgments of morality. Over 240 children from preschool to fourth grade were participants. Moral dilemmas consisting of information about a character's motives and the consequences of his actions were devised in such a way that the order, concreteness and imageability of information were…

Investigates the relationship between empathy and two measures of moral development (Prosocial Moral Reasoning and Helping) and parental socialization practices in a sample of 72 students from grades 9, 11 and 12. (Author/SS)

Challenges studies supporting Kohlberg's claim of invariance in the development of moral judgment which maintain that subjects' preferred responses to moral dilemmas are based on higher stages of thinking. Findings indicate language rather than levels of thinking is a significant factor in subjects' response preferences. (CM)

Investigates immanent justice decisions in 72 children at three grade levels (kindergarten, second, and fourth). The children were asked to evaluate behavior-accidental event sequences that represented all possible combinations of good or bad prior behavior followed by a lucky or unlucky event. (SS)

Influence of motive-outcome valence matching and outcome foreseeability on perception of intentionality and moral judgments were compared. Preschool children and adult subjects were asked directly to make attributions of intentionality to and a moral judgment of the 21 story characters. Findings suggest that outcome foreseeability significantly…