A path from adolescence into adulthood is mapped from the accounts of college students. The evolution in students' interpretation of their lives is seen and understood through changes in the "forms" in which they conceptualize the issues they face. These forms characterize the underlying structures that students explicitly or implicitly impute to…

Contains a discussion of: comparison of the concept of political literacy developed by Crick and Lister, role of a psychology of political education, outline and comparison of cognitive developmental approaches, and implications for political education and research suggestions. (ND)

Subjects with low levels of cognitive moral development chose either traditional morality, the double standard, or permissiveness without affection standard. Those with a moderate degree of cognitive moral development chose permissiveness with affection. The formulation of premarital sexual standards was discussed and theoretical implications were…

This study was designed to discover why young children fail to respond to fables in the same way as older children and adults. The paper describes a model of fable comprehension and appreciation which posits that the moral lesson of a fable is specified by the nature of the outcome that results from the actions of the main character. Although…

Liberal arts approaches to university education and many theories of counseling share as a goal the development of critical thinking in the individuals served. Such thinking requires the ability to consider the context within which one is working and the context within which the events and ideas under consideration occur. William Perry has…

The development of moral judgment in 11-year-old girls is discussed in terms of the evaluation of role taking ability. (ST)

This study investigated the effects of sex of child, age, rationale focus, rationale orientation, and maturity of moral judgment on resistance to deviation in 120 children (7 to 11 years old) using the standard punishment paradigm. Children were randomly assigned to a consequence- or intentions-focused rationale with an object or person…

Last year, Prime Time School Television conducted a survey of teachers to determine what kinds of evening television programs would be most helpful in teaching. Those that developed values was the answer and this article considered how television programing was utilized to help students better understand moral values. (Author/RK)

Adolescents were administered classical and practical moral dilemmas. They were asked to judge the actions of others (judgments), and to reach a personal decision and justify what they would do (deliberation). Stage of moral reasoning for deliberation on practical dilemmas was lower than moral judgment on classical dilemmas. (Author/RD)

Differences between cognitive development and social learning theories as they relate to moral development are assessed and an attempt is made to reconcile the points at dispute through the development of an alternate paradigm of the moral development process. Some material from Chinese and American socialization experiences is presented to show…

The article examines (1) the notion of teacher as developmental educator; (2) the classroom conditions prerequisite to stimulating moral development; (3) the role of teacher as moral educator; and (4) implications for pedagogy suggested by initial research on teaching within a cognitive developmental framework. (MJB)

It is suggested by this study that increases in moral judgment scores with age are related to increased generality of cognitive functioning. (Editor/CB)

Examined relationship between empathy and ego development to determine whether empathy is characteristic of higher levels of ego development. Subjects completed the Affective Sensitivity Scale and the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test. Analyses of scores indicated subjects at higher levels of ego development had higher empathy scores than those…

Examined preschool children's conceptions of moral and conventional rules. Children judged the seriousness, rule contingency, rule relativism, and amount of deserved punishment for 10 depicted moral and conventional preschool transgressions. Constant across ages and sexes, children evaluated moral transgressions as more serious offenses and more…

Reports an attempt to test two interpretations of immanent justice responses as causal attributions rather than as moral judgments. Finds older children use causal chains to explain contiguity between misdeed and adversity. Data were interpreted as consistent with an information-processing model of immanent justice responses. (RMH)