INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

Summary. 65 girls between 12 and 15 years of age were presented with four of Kohlberg's ‘moral dilemma’ stories and Inhelder and Piaget's ‘floating bodies' problem. The relation between level of moral judgment and formal operations was found to change from negative in Kohlberg's earlier stages to positive for the later stages of moral judgment. It was concluded that reasoning at the stage of formal operations is a precondition for progress to Kohlberg's Types 5 and 6 in moral judgment.