This study used a finding of "mild" theoretical concurrency between Kohlberg's general model of moral development and Kelly's psychology of personal constructs to test the claim that Kohlberg's developmental scheme satisfies the Piagetian "hard stage model" assumption of the "structured whole". / To address the question of theoretical concurrency, a sample of 75 subjects completed Rest's measure of moral development, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and Kelly's Role Repertory Grid, with the finding that one's capacity for post-conventional moral reasoning was directly related to one's capacity for differentiating interpersonal roles supplied by the Role Repertory Grid. / To test the "structured-whole" assumption, this finding was used to generate two categories of developmental-structural-type: subjects whose DIT profiles were configured according to Kohlberg's "structured-whole", designated "structured-wholes"; and subjects whose profiles violated the "structured-whole", exhibiting broad, stage variability, designated "structured-anomalies". The hypothesis that "structured-anomalies" also used the same broadly-variable, developmental structures to construe DIT dilemma character roles was rejected. However, subject "performance" in reasoning about individual dilemmas varied directly with one's capacity for differentiating dilemma roles, regardless of "structural-type". / Three additional hypotheses were generated post hoc to test the effects of "pyschological content" on one's use of moral reasoning structure. While subject familiarity with dilemma content was unrelated to developmental level, lack of dilemma familiarity influenced one's capacity to differentiate character roles, affecting, in turn, one's moral reasoning "performance". Finally, an examination of the relationship between subject "psychological identification" with DIT character roles and developmental level of reasoning revealed that subjects who "identified more" with characters tended to use a "less mature" level of developmental reasoning. / In a theoretical summary, study results were discussed from the perspective of Noam's constructive-developmental model with suggestions for model enhancements offered by personal construct psychology. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: A, page: 0079. / Major Professor: Gary W. Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78139 |
| Contributors | Conners, Robert Alan., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 254 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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