Development of Concepts of Justification in German University Students

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Reflective Judgment (Kitchener & King, 1981) model describes a sequence of seven qualitatively different assumptions about knowledge and corresponding ways to justify beliefs in the light of these assumptions. The purpose of this study was to test the cross-national robustness of the Reflective Judgment model and the influence of academic socialisation on Reflective Judgment. Forty-eight beginning, advanced, and doctoral level students from a traditional German university were administered the analogies subtest of the Intelligenz Struktur Test (Amthauer, 1955) and a German translation of the Reflective Judgment Interview (Kitchener & King, 1981). Inter-rater reliability and agreement were high and comparable to that found on American samples supporting the cross-national robustness of the rating rules. Davison's (1979) test for sequentiality indicated that stage adjacent frequencies occurred about five times as often as that expected under the hypothesis of quasi-independence supporting the sequentiality of the model. A two-way (educational level x sex) ANOVA revealed a significant effect for education (P = 0.03) and sex (P = 0.02). The results remained significant when age was covaried out. A significant sex (P = 0.01) but not education effect was found on the Intelligenz Struktur (IST) analogies subtest. After covarying the IST the sex effect on Reflective Judgment was not significant. The data offer initial support for the crossnational applicability of the Reflective Judgment model.