This study addresses the element which cognitive moral development researchers have tended to ignore, the perception of alternative courses of action open in any given moral decision-making situation. Specifically, the dissertation is concerned with exploring: (1) The relationship between the creative ability to perceive alternative courses of action in a decision-making situation with stages of cognitive moral development as defined by Lawrence Kohlberg and James R. Rest; (2) The amount of variance in generating alternative responses to such social/moral decision-making situations which can be explained by a combination of selected general knowledge, social knowledge, and demographic variables; and (3) Whether systematic training in generating alternatives to social/moral decision-making situations increases students' ability to generate alternatives in previously unencountered social/moral decision-making situations. / In real-world decision-making there are two relevant phases. First, there is the problem situation to which the actor or actors must respond by making a moral decision. Second, there is the actual laying out of feasible alternatives open to the actor or actors in that situation. / By logical analysis and a review of the literature on creativity, several critical factors emerge which affect a decision-maker's ability to generate increasing numbers of feasible alternative courses of action: general knowledge, spontaneous flexibility, social/situational knowledge, and practice in applying the rules of the decision-making model. / In this study, freshmen and sophomores at Palm Beach Junior College (Florida) were involved in college social science instruction, and those included in the treatment group were also provided systematic practice in generating alternative courses of action in decision-making situations. The research in this dissertation was designed to test this conceptual model, as the causal features of the ability or inability to generate alternatives in specific problem situations. / In light of the findings in this study, it appears that systematic practice does improve the ability of most subjects to produce a wider range of feasible solutions in real-life decision-making situations. Accordingly, the implications of this finding might be important for educators at all levels and in all academic disciplines. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 2876. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75921 |
| Contributors | ROLISON, ROGER WILLIAM, JR., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 154 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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