Moral Judgment Development Research Articles

Social class, schadenfreude, and children's prosocial behavior in moral contexts.

Previous research has shown mixed results regarding the relationship between social class and children's prosocial behavior. The current study aims to further our understanding of these findings by exploring the relationship between social class and children's prosocial behavior in a moral context. Study 1 (N = 833) found that when a target child pursued a morally negative goal and subsequently experienced misfortune, children from higher social class, compared to those from lower social class, experienced greater schadenfreude and exhibited less prosocial behavior. The relation between social class and prosocial behavior was mediated by schadenfreude. Study 2 (N = 389) investigated whether the greater schadenfreude experienced by children from higher social class was due to a weaker empathic response to misfortune or a stronger sense of deservingness. The results revealed a sequential mediation effect of social class on prosocial behavior through deservingness and schadenfreude. These findings provide insight into the impact of social class on the development of children's moral judgment, emotions, and behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Reprint: In a Different Voice: Women's Conceptions of Self and of Morality

As theories of developmental psychology continue to define educational goals and practice, it has become imperative for educators and researchers to scrutinize not only the underlying assumptions of such theories but also the model of adulthood toward which they point. Carol Gilligan examines the limitations of several theories, most notably Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development, and concludes that developmental theory has not given adequate expression to the concerns and experience of women. Through a review of psychological and literary sources, she illustrates the feminine construction of reality. From her own research data, interviews with women contemplating abortion, she then derives an alternative sequence for the development of women's moral judgments. Finally, she argues for an expanded conception of adulthood that would result from the integration of the “feminine voice” into developmental theory.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGEMENT OF CHILDREN: ROLE OF HOME ENVIRONMENT

The home environment is the most crucial factor in fostering children's development of trust, attitudes, and skills necessary for learning and positive engagement with the world. Home environment refers to the psychosocial climate of the home as given by the parents. It means whether the parents are child oriented, child respecting, take into account what the child actually needs. The goal of the research study is to assess the influence of home environment on the development of emotional intelligence and moral judgement of children. Total sample included 300 boys and 300 girls of age 8 to 12 years. The scales used were Home Environment Scale by Reena Sharma and Vibha Nigam, Multifactor Emotional Intelligence test by Vinod Kumar Shanuwal and Moral Judgement Test by Durganand Sinha and Meera Verma. Analysis of the data was done using descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) and 3-way ANOVA. The results of the study revealed that emotional intelligence was higher in children coming from good home environment than children coming from poor home environment. Boys achieved significantly higher emotional intelligence than girls and girls revealed higher moral judgement than boys. Further home environment failed to influence moral judgement.

The existence and uniqueness of solutions to a functional equation arising in psychological learning theory

Abstract The paradigm of choice practice represents the psychological theory of learning in the development of moral judgment. It is concerned with evaluating the implications of several choices and selecting one of them to implement. The goal of this work is to provide a generic functional equation to observe the behavior of animals in such circumstances. Our suggested functional equation can be employed to describe several well-known psychology and learning theories. The fixed point theorem proposed by Banach is utilized to show that the solution of a given functional problem exists and is unique. In addition, the stability of the given functional equation’s solution is discussed in terms of the Hyers-Ulam and Hyers-Ulam-Rassias results. Furthermore, two examples are provided to highlight the relevance of the significant outcomes in the context of the literature.

The Development of Moral Judgment at Construal-level Theory

解释水平理论；道德判断；表征方式；心理距离；道德违规行为

On the solution of the generalized functional equation arising in mathematical psychology and theory of learning approached by the Banach fixed point theorem

In mathematical psychology, the model of decision practice represents the development of moral judgment that deals with the time to decide the meaning of the various choices and selecting one of them for use. Most animal behavior research classifies such situations as two distinct phenomena. On the other hand, reward plays a big part in this kind of study since, based on the selected side and food location, such circumstances may be classified into four categories. This paper intends to investigate such types of behavior and establish a general functional equation for it. The proposed functional equation can be used to describe several psychological and learning theory models in the existing literature. By using the fixed point theory tools, we obtain the results related to the existence, uniqueness, and stability of a solution to the proposed functional equation. Finally, we give two examples to support our main results.

Assessment of Moral Development Among Undergraduate Pharmacy Students and Alumni

Objective. This study's principal aim was to assess the moral development of undergraduate pharmacy students and alumni at a university in Jordan.Methods. Using the Professional Ethics in Pharmacy (PEP) test, the moral reasoning of 512 pharmacy students and alumni was assessed in a cross-sectional design. The main assessment measure was the Principled Morality Score, which reflects an individual's level of moral judgment development and is given as a percentage, where higher values indicate greater moral development.Results. The response rate was 49%. The median Principled Morality Score was 16.7, with no significant differences observed across all five cohorts. No significant differences in median Principled Morality Scores were found between men and women (16.7 vs 20, respectively). Also, no significant differences in median Principled Morality scores were observed between students who had completed the ethics course versus those who had not completed the ethics course at the time of data collection (median Principled Morality Score 20 vs 16.7, respectively). No trends in median Principled Morality Scores were observed.Conclusion. In this study, the professional moral reasoning of prospective pharmacists was lower than expected. A further longitudinal study of the cohort, which attempts to correlate moral development with age, sex, education level, and moral education strategy, is warranted.

Development of Moral Judgments in Impersonal and Personal Dilemmas in Autistic Spectrum Disorders from Childhood to Late Adolescence.

A potential underlying mechanism associated with the difficulties in social interactions in Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) concerns the abnormal development of moral reasoning. The present study examined utilitarian and deontological judgments in impersonal and personal moral dilemmas, comparing 66 individuals with ASD and 61 typically developing (TD) individuals between 6 and 18years. Utilitarian judgments decreased with age. This decline was much more gradual for personal dilemmas in the ASD than in the TD group. ASD individuals rated utilitarian judgments as more appropriate but felt less calm, consistent with the Empathy Imbalance hypothesis. Utilitarian judgments were associated with social interaction difficulties in ASD. These findings identify possible social therapeutic targets for more efficient coping strategies in individuals with ASD.

STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVITY BASED PROGRAM FOR VALUE EDUCATION ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT OF STUDENTS

It is obvious that human life and Science are closely interlinked. Teachers should try their best creating conducive environment to inculcate values in students, right from their school life in order to create a progressive society. Teachers can best generate such an environment during the Science period through various action-oriented programs .While considering the nature of education it is necessary to take into account the moral judgment to enable students to adjust efficiently in all occupations and lifestyle by bringing about a transformation in them. The people who develop in moral judgment are those who love to learn, who seek new challenges, who enjoy intellectually stimulating environments, who are reflective, who make plans and set goals, who take risks, who see themselves in the larger social contexts of history and institutions and broad cultural trends, who take responsibility for themselves and their environs. Therefore Students should be enabled to make their decisions on their own. Teacher should be encouraged to develop their own moral judgment. The objectives of the study were to develop activity based program for developing the moral judgment among students and to implement the activity based program and to measure the effectiveness of the program. The researcher developed activity based program for enhancement of moral judgment. Moral judgment test by Sinha and Varma has been administered on a random sampling of 300 fifth std. students. The data was analyzed using‘t’ test. The study showed that the Values could be inculcated through activity-based program and the activity-based program prepared by the researcher was effective for development of moral judgment.

An earlier role for intent in children's partner choice versus punishment.

Among the many factors that influence our moral judgments, two are especially important: whether the person caused a bad outcome and whether they intended for it to happen. Notably, the weight accorded to these factors in adulthood varies by the type of judgment being made. For punishment decisions, intentions and outcomes carry relatively equal weight; for partner choice decisions (i.e., deciding whether or not to interact with someone again), intentions are weighted much more heavily. These behavioral differences in punishment and partner choice judgments may also reflect more fundamental differences in the cognitive processes supporting these decisions. Exploring how punishment and partner choice emerge in development provides important and unique insight into these processes as they emerge and mature. Here, we explore the developmental emergence of punishment and partner choice decisions in 4- to 9-year-old children. Given the importance of intentions for partner choice decisions-from both theoretical and empirical perspectives-we targeted the sensitivity of these two responses to others' intentions as well as outcomes caused. Our punishment results replicate past work: Young children are more focused on outcomes caused and become increasingly sensitive to intentions with age. In contrast, partner choice judgments exhibit sensitivity to intentions at an earlier age than punishment judgments, manifesting as earlier partner choice in cases of attempted violations. These results reveal distinct developmental trajectories for punishment and partner choice judgments, with implications for our understanding of the processes underlying these two responses as well as the development of moral judgment more broadly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Moral Foundations Theory Among Autistic and Neurotypical Children.

Morality can help guide behavior and facilitate relationships. Although moral judgments by autistic people are similar to neurotypical individuals, many researchers argue that subtle differences signify deficits in autistic individuals. Moral foundation theory describes moral judgments in terms of differences rather than deficits. The current research, aimed at assessing autistic individuals’ moral inclinations using Haidt’s framework, was co-designed with autistic community members. Our aim was to describe autistic moral thinking from a strengths-based perspective while acknowledging differences that may pose interpersonal challenges among autistic youth. We assessed 25 autistic and 23 neurotypical children’s moral judgments using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire for Kids. We used semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis with a subset of participants to describe children’s moral reasoning. Analyses suggested that autistic and neurotypical children make similar judgments about moral transgressions across all five moral foundations. General linear mixed modeling showed that the greatest predictor of recommending punishment was how bad children deemed moral transgressions to be. We also found a trend that autistic children were more likely to recommend punishment for harmless norms violations than were neurotypical children. Future research could use longitudinal methods to understand the development of moral judgments among autistic and neurotypical children.

Universality and Cultural Diversity in Moral Reasoning and Judgment.

Many theories have shaped the concept of morality and its development by anchoring it in the realm of the social systems and values of each culture. This review discusses the current formulation of moral theories that attempt to explain cultural factors affecting moral judgment and reasoning. It aims to survey key criticisms that emerged in the past decades. In both cases, we highlight examples of cultural differences in morality, to show that there are cultural patterns of moral cognition in Westerners’ individualistic culture and Easterners’ collectivist culture. It suggests a paradigmatic change in this field by proposing pluralist “moralities” thought to be universal and rooted in the human evolutionary past. Notwithstanding, cultures vary substantially in their promotion and transmission of a multitude of moral reasonings and judgments. Depending on history, religious beliefs, social ecology, and institutional regulations (e.g., kinship structure and economic markets), each society develops a moral system emphasizing several moral orientations. This variability raises questions for normative theories of morality from a cross-cultural perspective. Consequently, we shed light on future descriptive work on morality to identify the cultural characteristics likely to impact the expression or development of reasoning, justification, argumentation, and moral judgment in Westerners’ individualistic culture and Easterners’ collectivist culture.

The influence of issues on moral judgment: A comparison of college students and business practitioners in the Republic of Croatia

AbstractGiven recent lapses in business decision making the development of business moral judgment has become a central issue in the United States and around the world. Our paper surveyed 171 students and 59 business practitioners in the Republic of Croatia to identify the influence that an issue's contours have on Rest's second psychological construct, Moral Judgment. Issue context—business or student sample—found that business practitioners demonstrated superior moral reasoning. Issue content—specific nature of the issue at hand—showed richness of moral reasoning varied with the specific subject of the issue for both students and business practitioners. And stability across issues—consistency in moral judgment—found students far more uniform in their reasoning than business practitioners. It follows that (1) lessons learned in the business community may better inform instruction at the collegiate level, (2) cultural peculiarities impact moral reasoning, and (3) transitioning economies offer challenges. Future researchers may wish to explore the decline in moral judgment exhibited by Millennials, possible bifurcated reasoning in other social groupings, and public policies needed to improve moral judgment.

Moral judgement development during medical student clinical training

BackgroundWhereas experience and cognitive maturity drives moral judgement development in most young adults, medical students show slowing, regression, or segmentation in moral development during their clinical years of training. The aim of this study was to explore the moral development of medical students during clinical training.MethodsA cross-sectional sample of medical students from three clinical years of training were interviewed in groups or individually at an Australian medical school in 2018. Thematic analysis identified three themes which were then mapped against the stages and dimensions of Self-authorship Theory.ResultsThirty five medical students from years 3–5 participated in 11 interviews and 6 focus groups. Students shared the impacts of their clinical experiences as they identified with their seniors and increasingly understood the clinical context. Their accounts revealed themes of early confusion followed by defensiveness characterised by desensitization and justification. As students approached graduation, some were planning how they would make moral choices in their future practice. These themes were mapped to the stages of self-authorship: External Formulas, Crossroads and Self-authorship.ConclusionsMedical students recognise, reconcile and understand moral decisions within clinical settings to successfully reach or approach self-authorship. Curriculum and support during clinical training should match and support this progress.

Improved model exploration for the relationship between moral foundations and moral judgment development using Bayesian Model Averaging

ABSTRACT Although some previous studies have investigated the relationship between moral foundations and moral judgment development, the methods used have not been able to fully explore the relationship. In the present study, we used Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) in order to address the limitations in traditional regression methods that have been used previously. Results showed consistency with previous findings that binding foundations are negatively correlated with post-conventional moral reasoning and positively correlated with maintaining norms and personal interest schemas. In addition to previous studies, our results showed a positive correlation for individualizing foundations and post-conventional moral reasoning. Implications are discussed as well as a detailed explanation of the novel BMA method in order to allow others in the field of moral education to be able to use it in their own studies.

Investigating the Moral Development and Academic and Clinical Integrity in Nursing Students Using the Defining Issues Test and Hilbert’s Unethical Behavior Survey

Shaping student moral judgment poses challenges for nursing faculty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in moral judgment development and perceptions of academic and clinical integrity in baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in their first or final semester of nursing school.

Моральные суждения у подростков с девиантным поведением

The features of the moral judgments of adolescents with deviant behavior are considered in the article. The relationship between the level of moral development and deviant behavior is established. Lower levels of development of moral judgments are observed in juvenile with deviant behavior. The factors affecting the moral consciousness of adolescents and the causes of deviant behavior are analyzed in the article. Special attention is paid to the main views of foreign specialists on this problem. Ways to increase the moral consciousness of juvenile for the correction of deviant behavior are indicated.

الذکاء الوجدانی وعلاقته بنمو الحکم الخلقی لدى المراهقات بمدینة الریاض. Emotional Intelligence and Its Correlation with the Development of Moral Judgment among Adolescent Girls in Riyadh

هدفت الدراسة إلى التعرف على مظاهر نمو الذکاء الوجداني (الدرجة الکلية للمقياس والأبعاد الأساسية) ونمو الحکم الخلقي والتعرف على درجة العلاقة بين الذکاء الوجداني ( الدرجة الکلية والأبعاد الأساسية) ونمو الحکم الخلقي، والکشف الفروق بين المراهقات مرتفعات الذکاء الوجداني والمراهقات منخفضات الذکاء الوجداني في نمو الحکم الخلقي، وتکونت عينة الدراسة من (300) طالبة من الطالبات المراهقات في مراحل المراهقة بمراحلها الفرعية (مبکرة-متوسطة - متأخرة)، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية في درجات الأبعاد الرئيسة لمقياس الذکاء الوجداني (الذکاء الوجداني داخل الشخص، الذکاء الوجداني بين الأشخاص، القدرة على التوافق، المزاج العام) والدرجة الکلية للذکاء الوجداني، وعدم وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية في درجات البعد الوجداني (ادارة الضغوط) لدى عينة الدراسة تعود لاختلاف مراحل المراهقة، کما أشارت النتائج الى عدم وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية في درجات مقياس نمو الحکم الخلقي لدى عينة الدراسة تعود لاختلاف مراحل المراهقة، ووجود علاقة موجبة بين درجات الطالبات في الأبعاد الرئيسة لمقياس الذکاء الوجداني: (الذکاء الوجداني داخل الشخص، الذکاء الوجداني بين الأشخاص، القدرة على التوافق، إدارة الضغوط)، والدرجة الکلية للذکاء الوجداني, وبين درجاتهم في مقياس نمو الحکم الخلقي, وعدم وجود علاقة بين درجات الطالبات في بعد مقياس الذکاء الوجداني: (المزاج العام)، وبين درجاتهم في مقياس نمو الحکم الخلقي. This study aimed at recognizing the aspects of emotional intelligence (total score of the scale and the main dimensions) and developing moral judgment among female teenagers. The study also aimed at recognizing the relationship between emotional intelligence (total score) and the development of moral judgment. The study also aimed at discovering the differences between the teenagers with high intelligence and teenagers with low intelligence in moral judgment. The sample of the study consisted of (300) female teenagers who were different in age (early, middle and late teenage). The results of the study revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the scores of main dimensions of emotional intelligence scale (personal emotional intelligence, intrapersonal emotional intelligence, ability to adjust, general mode) and the total score of the emotional intelligence. There were no significant differences for the emotional dimension (pressures management) among the study sample and it is attributed to the differences in ages. There were no significant differences in the scores of moral judgment scale among the study sample because of the differences in ages. There was a positive correlation between the students’ scores on the emotional intelligence scale (personal emotional intelligence, intrapersonal emotional intelligence, ability to adjust, general mode) and the total score of the emotional intelligence and their scores on the scale of developing moral judgment. There was no correlation between students’ scores in emotional intelligence (for general mode) and their scores in moral judgment scale.

Validity study using factor analyses on the Defining Issues Test-2 in undergraduate populations.

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) aimed to measure one's moral judgment development in terms of moral reasoning. The Neo-Kohlbergian approach, which is an elaboration of Kohlbergian theory, focuses on the continuous development of postconventional moral reasoning, which constitutes the theoretical basis of the DIT. However, very few studies have directly tested the internal structure of the DIT, which would indicate its construct validity. Using the DIT-2, a later revision of the DIT, we examined whether a bi-factor model or 3-factor CFA model showed a better model fit. The Neo-Kohlbergian theory of moral judgment development, which constitutes the theoretical basis for the DIT-2, proposes that moral judgment development occurs continuously and that it can be better explained with a soft-stage model. Given these assertions, we assumed that the bi-factor model, which considers the Schema-General Moral Judgment (SGMJ), might be more consistent with Neo-Kohlbergian theory. We analyzed a large dataset collected from undergraduate students. We performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) via weighted least squares. A 3-factor CFA based on the DIT-2 manual and a bi-factor model were compared for model fit. The three factors in the 3-factor CFA were labeled as moral development schemas in Neo-Kohlbergian theory (i.e., personal interests, maintaining norms, and postconventional schemas). The bi-factor model included the SGMJ in addition to the three factors. In general, the bi-factor model showed a better model fit compared with the 3-factor CFA model although both models reported acceptable model fit indices. We found that the DIT-2 scale is a valid measure of the internal structure of moral reasoning development using both CFA and bi-factor models. In addition, we conclude that the soft-stage model, posited by the Neo-Kohlbergian approach to moral judgment development, can be better supported with the bi-factor model that was tested in the present study.

Impacto de un programa de intervención para el desarrollo del juicio moral en estudiantes de secundaria

This article titled “Impact of an Intervention Program for the Development of Moral Judgment in High School Students” collects the research work that we did to obtain the degree of Masters in Psychology with mention in Diagnosis in Psychoeducational Intervention at the Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón. The objective of the research was to determine the effects of a Tutorial Intervention Program for the development of moral judgment in high school students of a particular school in Lima. The Gibbs & Widaman Socio-moral Reflection Questionnaire (SROM) was used as an instrument to carry out this research. After the study, the reliability of the instrument was determined again, although similar studies in Peru had already  concluded that it was reliable to measure the development of moral judgment. In addition, a Tutorial Intervention Program called “Developing Our Moral Judgment” was designed, using moral dilemmas as a pedagogical strategy. The results indicated that while there were no significant differences between the total exit scores of the experimental  and control groups, it was observed a remain in the stage or a move forward higher stages in the experimental group after the intervention.