Stage of Moral Development and Students’ Reasoning on Public Policy Issues
- 1 October 1975
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Moral Education
- Vol. 5 (1) , 51-61
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0305724750050107
Abstract
A distinction is drawn between public policy issues which are specific to time and place, and the kind of moral dilemma used by Kohlberg which is more general and universal. It is hypothesized that the same type of reasoning will be revealed by both. To test this a sample of sixty subjects at two different ages from both a predominantly middle class school and a predominantly lower class school were given three public policy dilemmas and three moral dilemmas. Responses were analyzed according to level of reasoning displayed. The results indicated a substantial positive association between the types of reasoning applied to the two kinds of dilemmas. The expected age differences were also found, with older subjects tending to exhibit higher stages of moral development.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- FROM IS TO OUGHT: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral DevelopmentPublished by Elsevier ,1971
- Growth of the idea of law in adolescence.Developmental Psychology, 1969
- Growth of political ideas in adolescence: The sense of community.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966