Mature Moral Reasoning Research Articles

Moral reasoning, moral decision-making, and empathy in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder, caused by a vitamin B1 deficiency. Although it is known that patients with KS display diminished theory of mind functioning and frequently exhibit marked antisocial interactions little attention has so far focused on the integrity of moral decision‐making abilities, moral reasoning, and empathy. In an experimental cross‐sectional design, 20 patients diagnosed with KS, and twenty age‐, education‐, and gender‐equivalent healthy participants performed tests assessing moral decision‐making, moral reasoning maturity, empathy, and executive functioning. Participants were administered the Moral Behaviour Inventory (MBI) for everyday moral dilemmas, and ten cartoons of abstract moral dilemmas. Responses were scored according to the Kohlberg stages of moral reasoning. Empathy and executive functioning were assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). In contrast to frontal traumatic brain injury patients, KS patients did not display a utilitarian bias, suggesting preserved moral decision‐making abilities. Of interest, KS patients had significantly lower levels of moral reasoning maturity on everyday moral dilemmas, and abstract moral dilemmas. In patients, empathy was moderately related to the level of moral maturity on both tasks, while executive functioning was not. In conclusion, KS patients have preserved moral decision‐making abilities, but their moral reasoning abilities are poorer in everyday and abstract situations. Lower moral reasoning abilities and lower levels of empathy together may be responsible for adverse social functioning in KS.

Relationships among moral and contesting variables and prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport

The current study of US intercollegiate athletes (n = 1066) involved in multiple sports investigated relationships among moral (moral reasoning maturity, moral value evaluation [MVE], and moral identity), contesting (partnership and war orientations) and behavioral (prosocial and antisocial) variables in sport. Among other relationships, results demonstrated that prosocial behavior was positively correlated with moral reasoning maturity, higher appreciation of moral values, moral identity and a partnership contesting orientation. In contrast, antisocial behavior was negative correlated with moral reasoning maturity, MVE, moral identity and a partnership orientation. In addition, antisocial behavior was positively correlated with a war contesting orientation. Regression analyses demonstrated that prosocial behavior was best predicted by the partnership contesting orientation and moral identity; antisocial behavior was best predicted by the war orientation followed closely by moral identity. Results are discussed in relation to Kohlbergian moral theory and contesting theory.

Moral Reasoning in Children with Focal Brain Insults to Frontotemporal Regions

Neuroscientific evidence indicates that human social functioning is supported by a distributed network of frontal and temporal brain regions that undergoes significant development during childhood and adolescence. Clinical studies of individuals with early brain insults (EBI) to frontotemporal regions suggest that such lesions may interfere with the maturation of sociocognitive skills and lead to increased sociobehavioural problems. However, little attention has focussed on the direct assessment of sociocognitive skills, such as moral reasoning, following focal EBI. In the present study, the performance of 15 patients with focal EBI (8–16 years) was compared to that of 15 demographically matched controls on basic neuropsychological measures (IQ and executive functions), sociocognitive tasks (moral reasoning, moral decision-making and empathy) and parent reports of sociobehavioural problems and social adaptive skills. Patients with focal EBI had significantly lower levels of moral reasoning maturity, moral decision-making, and empathy than their matched controls, but did not differ on more general measures of cognition. Their parents also reported increased sociobehavioural problems. These findings suggest that focal EBI to frontotemporal regions can result in reduced sociocognitive capacities, more specifically moral reasoning, and increased vulnerability to sociobehavioural problems.

All for One: Contributions of Age, Socioeconomic Factors, Executive Functioning, and Social Cognition to Moral Reasoning in Childhood.

Moral reasoning (MR) is a socio-cognitive skill essential to appropriate social functioning in childhood, and evolves in quality and complexity during ontogenetic development. Past research suggests that MR is related to age, socioeconomic factors, as well as some social and cognitive skills, such as executive functioning (EF), theory of mind (ToM), empathy, and affect recognition. However, their contributions have been studied in silos rather than comprehensively, with little integration of the relative and combined contribution of these skills to MR. Furthermore, few studies have addressed the putative links between these factors in childhood, a period during which these skills are in maturation. The aim of this study was to explore what factors predict moral maturity in typically developing children (n = 76, 47.4% males, M = 9.2, SD = 1.67 years), explore the potential moderating and mediating role of executive functions and social cognition in the relationship between age and MR maturity, and identify the specific contributions of age, socioeconomic factors, EF, and social cognition, using an innovative visual MR assessment tool (So-Moral). The results indicate that MR maturity was correlated with age, EF (inhibition, verbal fluency, and attentional control), and social cognition (ToM and affect recognition). Neither EF nor social cognition moderated the effect of age on MR maturity. However, verbal fluency and third-order false beliefs had a moderating role in this link. MR maturity in children was predicted by three variables from each of the three domains: age, verbal fluency, and third-order ToM. These results contribute to a better understanding of the underpinnings of MR during childhood, suggesting that MR is not reducible to general developmental factors such as age, but that higher order skills, such EF and social cognition also contribute to moral maturity. The findings have relevance for both typically developing and clinical populations in which social skills may be reduced, as well as for the identification of potential loci for intervention in children at-risk for socially maladaptive behaviors.

Cognitive underpinnings of moral reasoning in adolescence: The contribution of executive functions

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by intense changes, which impact the interaction between individuals and their environments. Moral reasoning (MR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions between right and wrong. Identifying the cognitive underpinnings of MR is essential to understanding the development of this function. The aim of this study was to explore predictors of MR in typically developing adolescents (n = 92, 33 males, M = 16.3 years, SD = 2.2 years) and the specific contribution of higher order cognitive processing using an innovative visual MR assessment tool and measures of executive functioning and intelligence. MR maturity was correlated with four executive functions (cognitive flexibility, feedback utilization, conceptual reasoning, verbal fluency) and was predicted by four variables: age, intelligence, nonverbal flexibility and verbal fluency. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of MR during adolescence and highlight the importance of using innovative tools to measure social cognition.

Sociomoral Reasoning in Adults with ADHD: A Pilot Study.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is frequently linked with antisocial behaviour, yet less is known about its relationship with sociomoral reasoning, and the possible mediating effect of intelligence. A pilot study was designed to investigate the relationship between antisocial personality traits, intelligence and sociomoral reasoning in adults with ADHD. Twenty two adults with ADHD and 21 healthy controls, matched for age, gender and IQ completed a battery of measures including the National Adult Reading Test, Gough Socialisation Scale and Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form. There was no difference between the groups and levels of sociomoral reasoning, despite the ADHD group reporting greater antisocial personality traits. Sociomoral reasoning was positively correlated with intelligence. Results from a hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that both antisocial traits and IQ were significant predictors of sociomoral reasoning, with IQ proving the most powerful predictor. Whilst antisocial personality traits may explain some of the variance in levels of sociomoral reasoning, a diagnosis of ADHD does not appear to hinder the development of mature moral reasoning. Intellectual functioning appears to facilitate the development of sociomoral reasoning. A further analysis showed that both ADHD and low sociomoral reasoning were significant predictors of antisocial traits. The current findings have important treatment implications.

A preliminary investigation of moral reasoning and empathy after traumatic brain injury in adolescents

Primary objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained during childhood can affect a number of socio-cognitive skills; however, little attention has focused on the integrity of moral reasoning in the assessment of post-TBI social sequelae and the role of empathy and intelligence on moral maturity.Research design: In a quasi-experimental, cross-sectional research design, moral reasoning maturity and empathy in adolescents with mild-to-severe TBI (n = 25) were compared to typically-developing peers (n = 66).Methods and procedures: Participants were administered the So-Moral and So-Mature, tasks of socio-moral reasoning and maturity, the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and a demographic questionnaire.Main outcomes and results: Participants with TBI had significantly lower levels of moral reasoning maturity. Further, adolescents with moderate-to-severe TBI had lower levels of empathy. Empathy correlated positively with moral reasoning abilities and, together with intellectual function, predicted a small, but significant proportion of moral reasoning outcome.Conclusions: Youth who sustained TBI during childhood have poorer moral reasoning abilities than their non-injured peers, potentially placing them at risk for poor social decision-making and socially maladaptive behaviour. This can have a significant impact on long-term social functioning.

Relationships Among Moral Reasoning, Empathy, and Distorted Cognitions in Men With Intellectual Disabilities and a History of Criminal Offending

Eighty men, spread equally across 4 groups, were recruited, including men with and without intellectual disabilities. The men were either criminal offenders or nonoffenders. Participants completed measures of moral reasoning, empathy, and distorted cognitions. The results indicated that the moral reasoning abilities of offenders with intellectual disabilities were developmentally delayed but were still more mature than those of nonoffenders with intellectual disabilities. Offenders without intellectual disabilities had less mature moral reasoning abilities than nonoffenders without intellectual disabilities. The differences may be partially accounted for by intellectual ability. The results also indicated that the relationship between empathy and distorted cognitions was mediated by moral reasoning. The findings have implications for the use of psychological interventions with offenders with intellectual disabilities.

The Impact of Partial Sleep Deprivation on Moral Reasoning in Military Officers

The present study explores the impact of long-term partial sleep deprivation on the activation of moral justice schemas, which are suggested to play a prominent role in moral reasoning and the formation of moral judgments and behavior. Participants judged 5 dilemmas in rested and partially sleep deprived condition, in a counterbalanced design. In classroom and field exercises at the Norwegian Naval Academy and the Norwegian Army Academy. Seventy-one Norwegian naval and army officer cadets. The results showed that the officers' ability to conduct mature and principally oriented moral reasoning was severely impaired during partial sleep deprivation compared to the rested state. At the same time, the officers became substantially more rules-oriented in the sleep deprived condition, while self-oriented moral reasoning did not change. Interaction effects showed that those officers who displayed high levels of mature moral reasoning (n = 24) in the rested condition, lost much of this capacity during sleep deprivation in favor of a strong increase in rules-oriented moral reasoning as well as self-orientation. Conversely, officers at low levels of mature moral reasoning in rested condition (n = 23) were unaffected by sleep deprivation. The present data show that long-term partial sleep deprivation has an impact on the activation of moral justice schemas, and consequently on the ability to make moral justice judgments.

Higher development, brain integration, and excellence in leadership

PurposeToday, there is a global need for more effective leaders. The purpose of this paper is to present a model of human development which covers the psychological, physiological, and sociological dimensions of leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe authors review three research studies in which they have investigated the relationships between consciousness, psycho‐physiological integration, and leadership performance using physiological measures, psychological tests, and self‐reports.FindingsThese studies support the model that leadership ability is closely related to psycho‐physiological refinement – the authors found that higher integration of the electrical brain activity, more mature moral reasoning, and more frequent peak experiences are found in top performers compared to average performers.Research limitations/implicationsThe high frequency of peak experiences among top performers reveals the importance of such gratifying inner experiences for the business community.Practical implicationsThe research suggests that practical methods for psycho‐physiological refinement – such as the widely researched Transcendental Meditation technique – can be useful in developing more effective leadership. The brain integration scale presented here may be a reliable objective instrument for assessing an individual's leadership and performance capacity.Originality/valueA unique contribution of the authors' research is to recognize that integrity – an essential requisite for leadership – has a physiological counterpart in the integration seen in the functioning of the brain through electroencephalography.

Moral Reasoning, Executive Function, and Personality in Violent and Nonviolent Adult Offenders

To evaluate moral reasoning and personality, inmates from a maximum security jail were administered the Porteus Maze, the Defining Issues Test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-168, and the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence. Scores of 20 violent and 19 nonviolent offenders were compared. The control group consisted of 20 university students who indicated they did not have criminal ords. All were over the age of 18. Analysis showed the violent offenders had mature moral reasoning and were more elevated on the Antiestablishment scale of the Defining Issues Test. Furthermore, inmates displayed significantly elevated scores on depression, Psychopathic Deviance, and Social Introversion relative to the control group.

Effect of perceived motivational climate on moral functioning, team moral atmosphere perceptions, and the legitimacy of intentionally injurious acts among competitive youth football players

Abstract Objectives To investigate the relationship between perceived motivational climate and moral functioning, moral atmosphere, and legitimizing injurious sports acts among competitive youth football players. Design A perceived performance climate will be associated with lower moral functioning, less appropriate moral atmosphere perceptions, and a greater likelihood of legitimizing aggression in competitive football than a perceived mastery climate. A perceived performance climate will be associated with lower moral cognitions and behavior. Lastly, boys will be lower in sport morality than girls. Methods A cross-sectional study of 705 competitive Norwegian youth football players ( n =365 boys; n =340 girls). Participants responded to a questionnaire measuring coach-created motivational climate, moral functioning, moral atmosphere, and the legitimacy of injurious acts in football. Results Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the differential effect of mastery and performance climate perceptions on the moral variables. Controlling for the emergence of gender differences, climate interactions emerged for moral judgment and intentional aggression by means of physical intimidation. A high performance/high mastery climate significantly predicted lower moral judgment as well as the legitimacy of using physical intimidation. Further, climate main effects indicated that perceiving a performance climate significantly predicted overall low sport morality, whereas mastery climate perception predicted more mature moral reasoning and a coach-determined moral atmosphere disproving of low moral behavior. Conclusions Our findings further emphasize the low moral effect of a high perceived coach-created performance climate in competitive youth football.

Extraordinary moral commitment: young adults involved in social organizations.

The personality of exemplary young adults was studied in an effort to paint a portrait of moral excellence that expanded upon the traditional emphasis on moral reasoning maturity. These young adults were nominated based on their extraordinary moral commitment towards various social organizations. The sample included 40 moral exemplars and 40 matched comparison individuals who responded to a battery of questionnaires and participated in a semistructured interview. It was found that moral exemplars, in contrast to comparison individuals, were more agreeable, more advanced in their faith and moral reasoning development, further along in forming an adult identity, and more willing to enter into close relationships. These findings are discussed in the context of describing moral excellence from a multifaceted, personality perspective.

The interrelations of socio‐moral reasoning, perceptions of own parenting and attributions of intent with self‐reported delinquency

Purpose. This study considers the relationships between moral reasoning, perceptions of parenting, attribution of intent, and self‐reported delinquency among young male offenders and non‐offenders. Methods. A sample of 97 convicted male young offenders and 77 male non‐offenders were assessed using the Sociomoral Reflection Measure‐Short Form, the EMBU (a measure of own perceptions of parenting), a measure of Attribution of Intent, and a self‐reported delinquency checklist. Results. Analyses revealed that offenders had significantly less mature moral reasoning than non‐offenders, and perceived their fathers as more rejecting. They also exhibited a greater hostile attributional bias than non‐offenders. Correlational analyses revealed that perceived parenting was related to attribution of intent in both samples. There were also significant relationships between moral reasoning and attribution of intent among the non‐offenders. Perceived parental rejection and emotional warmth, moral reasoning and attribution of intent were significantly related to levels of self‐reported delinquency among the offenders. For the non‐offenders, self‐reported delinquency was related to attribution of intent. The most significant predictors of self‐report delinquency scores were age, perceived paternal emotional warmth, and incorrect attribution of hostility among offenders and incorrect attribution of hostility for male non‐offenders. Conclusions. The findings suggest that theories of delinquency need to account for the complex interactions between environmental factors (such as parenting) and social‐cognitive processes (such as attribution of intent). Furthermore, by identifying areas in which offenders experience problems, more effective interventions can be developed.

Personality and moral reasoning in young offenders

Abstract This study examined personality, moral reasoning maturity, intellectual capacity, and family background in 101 convicted male young offenders. In addition, the relationship between these variables and self-reported offending behaviour was investigated. The main aim of the investigation was to test predictions from the theories of criminality proposed by Kohlberg [Kohlberg, L. (1958). The development of modes of moral thinking and choice in the years ten to sixteen . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago. Kohlberg, L. (1963). The development of children’s orientations towards a moral order-I: sequence in the development of human thought. Vita Humana , 6, 11–33. Kolhberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: the cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In D. Goslin, Handbook of socialization theory and research . New York: Rand McNally.] and H. J. Eysenck [Eysenck, H. J. (1964). Crime and personality . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Eysenck, H. J. (1970). Crime and personality (2nd ed.). London: Granada. Eysenck, H. J. (1977). Crime and personality (3rd ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.] which associate offending behaviour with lower moral reasoning maturity and the personality characteristics of high psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism. The results suggested that both official and self-reported measures of offending were related to high psychoticism and extraversion. Neuroticism was not found to be important in predicting offending in the age group used, but may nonetheless be involved in older individuals when offending behaviour has developed into a habit. While lower levels of moral reasoning maturity were found, no relationship to self-reported offending was apparent. It was concluded that moral reasoning may be associated with offending through the mediation of other variables, possibly psychoticism and general reasoning ability.

Adolescents' Attachment Representations and Moral Reasoning

Theoretical speculations and empirical data on the relation between attachment and moral reasoning are presented. An autonomous attachment representation was hypothesized to be an important personality dimension facilitating higher levels of moral (Type B) reasoning in adolescence. A sample of 47 U.S. college students (mean age 19.5 years) completed the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985-1993) and the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form (Gibbs, Basinger, & Fuller, 1992). Although the overall score for sociomoral reflection was not associated with attachment representation, moral Type B reasoning was more prevalent in respondents with an autonomous attachment representation; thus, autonomous attachment may be at the core of mature moral reasoning.

Justice and Caring and the Problem of Moral Relativism: Reframing the Gender Question in Ethics

Abstract The relatively recent addition of women's voices to the study of moral development has led to the postulation of two separate moral contexts defined by gender, each with its own dominating concerns; guiding principles, forms of reasoning and hypothetical end point. While many developmental theorists agree that mature moral reasoning entails some sort of integration of these two perspectives, the exact nature of that reconciliation is a matter of considerable speculation and debate. This paper begins with the premise that the mark of a moral developmental model's philosophical adequacy is its handling of the problem of moral relativism. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of the justice and caring approaches in regulating the contextual relativism inherent in genderized moralities. And it concludes by proposing that only by reframing the gender question in broader, teleological terms than present theories have attempted can the problem be resolved.

The Relationship of Sport Involvement with Children's Moral Reasoning and Aggression Tendencies

The relationships between sport involvement variables (participation and interest) and facets of children's morality (reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies) were investigated for 106 girls and boys in grades 4 through 7. Children responded to a sport involvement questionnaire, participated in a moral interview, and completed two self-report instruments designed to assess aggression tendencies in sport-specific and daily life contexts. Analyses revealed that boys' participation and interest in high contact sports and girls' participation in medium contact sports (the highest level of contact sport experience they reported) were positively correlated with less mature moral reasoning and greater tendencies to aggress. Regression analyses demonstrated that sport interest predicted reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies better than sport participation. Results and implications are discussed from a structural developmental perspective.

Moral judgment in delinquents and nondelinquents: recognition versus production measures.

Juvenile delinquents' (n = 60) and nondelinquents' (n = 73) stages of moral development were compared using both recognition and production measures. Juvenile delinquents were found to score significantly lower than nondelinquents on a production measure of moral judgment (the Sociomoral Reflection Measure). A recognition measure (the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure), however, did not discriminate between the two groups in an analysis controlled for significant covariates of age, socioeconomic status, and IQ. The possibility that delinquents are delayed in the production but not recognition of mature moral reasoning is considered. The possibility is also considered, however, that excessive error variance associated with recognition measures of moral reasoning when administered to juvenile delinquents is responsible for the inability of such measures to discriminate between delinquents and nondelinquents.

The relation between the ethics of personal conscience—social responsibility and principled moral reasoning

Three samples of college students were tested on Hogan's Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) and Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), a test of moral reasoning ability in the Kohlbergian tradition. In addition, one of the samples took Collins's revision of Rotter's Internal-External Scale (I-E) while another sample took Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale. There was a small but reliable tendency for subjects who endorsed the "ethics of personal conscience," as measured by the SEA, to show greater maturity in moral reasoning, as assessed by the DIT. This result was seen as raising some interesting questions about the relation between liberalism-conservatism and moral maturity. The subjects who advocated the ethics of social responsibility tended to show more internal locus of control as measured by the I-E scale. There also was a tendency for subjects who preferred the morality of conventional role-conformity, as measured by the DIT, to have high scores on the Self-Monitoring Scale. The correlations between personal conscience and mature moral reasoning, while significant, were small enough to make it seem that people of various social and political attitudes are likely to achieve maturity in moral reasoning.