Moral Judgment and the Others-Concept

Abstract

198 students in Grades 7 through 12 were assessed for their level of moral reasoning and their perceptions of others. The respective instruments were James Rest's Defining Issues Test and the Paired Hands Test-Secondary developed by Karl Zucker and others. A one-way analysis of variance and correlation statistics showed a consistent relationship between students' level of moral development and their others-concept. Those students who had reached the higher (principled) stages of moral development perceived and/or felt more positively about other people than students who were at a lower stage of moral development. Students who were at the antiestablishment stage had an especially low others-concept. Since it is thought that a person's others-concept indicates how he feels about other people as well as how he perceives others, the results of this study suggest that the complex relationship between thoughts and feelings, and their respective roles in moral education should be reexamined. Perhaps a cognitive-affective-developmental model would be more helpful for developing approaches to moral education than the cognitive-developmental model currently supported by many authorities.