Inducing Changes in Moral Reasoning

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Abstract
This study attempted to induce changes in moral reasoning—as measured by the recently developed Ethical Reasoning Inventory—through a college ethics course emphasizing the logical analysis of normative ethical positions. Since dilemmas are used in the Inventory, discussion of dilemmas was carefully avoided in the classes in order to guard against the possibility of superficial changes due to subjects' recalling specific phrasing used by the instructor. Over the course of a 10-week academic quarter, three ethics classes (experimental group) had a significantly higher average difference score than a psychology class (control group). This result indicates that changes in moral reasoning can be induced by the described technique.