What kinds of experiences, interventions, or programs within the college context appear to foster or enhance moral growth beyond what one would expect developmentally from any 18-22 year old student? This quasi-experimental study is directed toward the effects of a particular aspect of the college environment on the moral judgment development of a particular group of students; specifically, first-year college men. The study investigates whether a certain cohort of men, Alpha Alpha (AA), who participate in a non-traditional, intentional, character-driven approach to fraternity membership demonstrated a rate of growth in moral judgment and reasoning that was greater than that of a similar cohort of men, Beta Beta (BB), who participated in a traditional approach to fraternity membership. The Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (DIT2), a neo-Kohlbergian instrument used to measure moral judgment and reasoning, was used to assess change/growth in moral development over time.
Differences in the pre-test moral judgment scores of AA and BB were found, though the differences did not reach significance (.075, p<.05). Strong statistically-significant differences in mean moral judgment scores were found in post-test test scores for AA and BB (.008, p<.05), though both groups saw decreases in group moral judgment scores from pre- to post-test. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that there were significant differences in the change/growth rates of AA and BB (.048, p<.05). An examination of the moral judgment and reasoning scores of AA and BB alongside normative national DIT2 data for males concluded that the post-test scores of BB were significantly lower than that of the mean for first-year undergraduate men. In discussing findings, the researcher notes the mitigating effect of AA's intervention; that is, rather than fostering growth in moral judgment and reasoning, it only appears to slow what might otherwise be a significant regression in moral judgment as a result of a powerful male group effect found in fraternities. The nature of this group effect is explored, and implications for practice and research are offered.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-05212013-114428 |
| Date | 21 May 2013 |
| Creators | Terry, Daniel J. |
| Contributors | Donald B Mills, Sherrie Reynolds, Catherine Wehlburg, Sarah Hill |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-05212013-114428/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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