This thesis examined the knowledge and processes that adults use to reason about moral dilemmas. Two contrasting analyses of moral reasons, Kohlberg's justice orientation and Gilligan's response orientation, were reviewed and criticized. From this a Moral Reasoning Grammar which formally characterizes the semantics of the justice and response moral orientations was developed. Specifically, the Moral Reasoning Grammar distinguished reasoning based on principles and their defense from reasoning based on narrative and social-interactive knowledge. The Moral Reasoning Grammar was applied to subjects' protocols to determine the extent to which these two orientations characterized subjects' verbal responses to moral problems. Application of the Moral Reasoning Grammar resulted in good coverage of subjects' verbalizations which reliably differentiated knowledge and processes used by subjects resolving moral problems from either a justice or response orientation. The justice orientation characterized the four male subjects' protocols and the response orientation characterized the four female protocols. The small sample precludes any generalization of this finding. The Moral Reasoning Grammar and results were discussed in terms of further psychological research, an expanded and more comprehensive philosophical approach to moral reasoning, and the potential educational implications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59866 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Keefer, Matthew Wilks |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| 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 |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001171168, proquestno: AAIMM66509, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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