Cognitive-developmental theory claims that moral reasoning ordinarily
progresses through distinct stages, and that such development can be stimulated by
discussion with others, especially discussions involving exposure to higher-stage
reasoning. The concern of this study was the social/contextual factors that interact with
cognitive processes involved in the development of moral reasoning. Two types of such
factors were studied: namely, sociometric status and intensity of moral education
program. The first of these could be studied because the participants were residents of a
facility for young offenders (a total institution), characterized by an obvious and rigid
hierarchical peer status system within the culture. The second factor could be studied
because the participants were drawn from three residential units within the larger center,
which varied significantly in terms of their program activities (specifically, unit
meetings), and hence their moral climates.
A total of 101 young offenders served as participants. They were assessed for
moral reasoning, their perceptions of moral and institutional climate, and also through
behavioral ratings - all at the pretest and at the 1-month posttest. The three levels of
program were reflected in the institutional and moral climate measures. As well, better
climates were associated with improvements in behavior and lesser climates with
reductions in prosocial behavior. It was concluded that moral climate represents a valid
measure of the factors which predict behavior within and following release from
institutional settings.
In order to study the effects of peer status, 40 participants served as target
subjects who engaged in moral dilemma discussions with one other subject, each day for
3 consecutive days. According to cognitive-developmental theory, a dyadic intervention
such as the one used here would be expected to stimulate the moral reasoning
competence of the participant who is lower in that ability. However, the dyads were formed in such a way that some of the high stage participants (who would be expected to
have an influence on their partner) were of significantly lower peer status. It was found
that both exposure to higher-stage reasoning and higher peer status were necessary but
not sufficient elements within this developmental process, consistent with the Piagetian
notions regarding peer interaction and disequilibration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8817 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Taylor, John Harrison |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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