Adult Moral Development, Experience and Education

This article reports two studies??a longitudinal investigation of moral judgement and reported moral experience, and an outcome study on the impact of a moral intervention project with adult undergraduate students. In the first study, 29 middle?class, primarily white, well?educated adults, ranging in age from 18 to 80 were administered Standard Form Moral Judgment interviews 4 years apart and were asked to describe their own moral events that had occurred. The average moral judgement score on the hypothetical dilemmas was Stage Four. The reasoning in the spontaneously reported moral events was significantly lower, although the two scores were highly correlated. Difference scores between the two were not related to dilemma scores. While there were no significant gender differences in scores on the hypothetical dilemmas, there were in scores on spontaneous?reported events favouring males. The ethical quality of the reported events could be easily categorised by traditional moral?philosophic categories. About half the events contained traditional deontic moral content (moral right); the other half contained material defined as the moral good. The context of most events was interpersonal, as opposed to societal. The second study investigated the reported impact on mostly white, middle?and upper?class undergraduate students who participated in a mentor programme in an inner?city high school, a programme designed to impact both moral thinking and moral sentiments (motivation). Thirty?nine adults, ranging in age from 20 to 57 participated, of which 26 were female and 13 were male. In both short? and long?term follow?up surveys, most participants reported major changes in their thinking about and motivation to address social justice issues.