Moral judgment and the development of real and ideal androgynous self-image during adolescence and young adulthood.

Abstract

Subjects at 13, 17, and 20 years of age responded to Rest's Defining Issues Test and to Bern's Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). The BSRI was divided into real self-image and ideal self-image formats. Seventeen-year-old and college-age males showed less preference on ideal image for masculine characteristics and more preference for feminine characteristics compared to 13-year-old males. College-age females had a greater preference for masculine compared to feminine characteristics, whereas younger females had no preference for sex-typed characteristics. Subjects at higher stages of moral judgment or with a higher percent of postconventional moral judgment were more likely to incorporate aspects of the opposite sex in their self-image. The findings are discussed in terms of both Kohlberg's cognitive developmental theory of sex role development and Loevinger's theory of ego development. Kohlberg (1966, 1969) has proposed that sex role development is related to cognitive developmental level. According to Kohlberg, once younger children attain gender constancy, they come to view conformity to their sex role as moral and selectively attend to and imitate either same-sex models or gender-stereo typed behavior. Although a number of studies have been concerned with the influence of gender constancy or intelligence in the development of sex-typed behaviors or interests (Bryan & Luria, 1978; Kohlberg & Zigler, 1967; Slaby & Frey, 1975; Thompson, 1975), little is known of the relationship between moral judgment and the development of sex role. Although Kohlberg's discussion of sex role development is limited to learning or internalizing conventionally stereotyped masculine or feminine values, his general theoretical model may be extended to the development of less stereotyped sex role attitudes. One implication of Kohlberg's claim that moral