John C. Gibbs

Cognitive Distortion and Problem Behaviors in Adolescents

The authors investigated the prevalence of self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions and their specific relations to externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors in 96 incarcerated male and female delinquents and a comparison sample of 66 high school students. The incarcerated participants evidenced higher levels of cognitive distortion (self-serving and self-debasing) and problem behavior (externalizing and internalizing) than did comparison participants. Both self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions were associated with unique variance in overall problem behaviors. Most notably, self-serving cognitive distortions specifically related to externalizing behaviors, whereas self-debasing cognitive distortions specifically related to internalizing behaviors. The theoretical and treatment implications of the findings are discussed.

Kohlberg’s Moral Stage Theory

The purpose of this essay is to reconceptualize Kohlberg’s theory and research on moral stages in the light of recent criticisms. In the early 1970s, Kohlberg extended his Piaget-based moral stages to

Social skills and antisocial conduct of delinquents

A revised and abbreviated version of the Adolescent Problems Inventory (API)1 was used to examine the relationship between social skills deficits and antisocial behavior. A factor analysis of the revised API yielded three factors (immediate Response Demand, Deferred Response Demand, and Antisocial Peer Influence) which were differentially related to specific measures of antisocial responding. Results are discussed in the context of a multifactorial model of juvenile delinquency.

Developing the helping skills and prosocial motivation of aggressive adolescents in peer group programs

Abstract Peer-group and skills-training treatment approaches are integrated in EQUIP, an innovative group program for aggressive and other antisocial adolescents. Peer group programs such as Positive Peer Culture generally have had only mixed success, perhaps because they do not sufficiently counteract the negative youth culture and the helping-skill limitations of antisocial youth. These helping-skill limitations include: (a) delay or immaturity in moral judgment and egocentric bias, (b) social information-processing deficits and distortions, and (c) social skill deficiencies. Single-component skills-training interventions addressing one or another of these limitations have also had only mixed success. EQUIP introduces “equipment meetings” to remediate these limitations by incorporating into a peer-group treatment approach multicomponent skills training (cf. Aggression Replacement Training, cognitive therapy). Equipment meetings also promote the development of a positive youth culture and hence the prosocial motivation of group members. A recent favorable study encourages continued evaluation research for multicomponent group programs that are designed to motivate and equip aggressive youth to help one another.

Moral Development and Recidivism: A Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of 19 studies (N = 15,992 offenders) showed a significant inverse relation between more mature moral development and recidivism. Moderator analyses revealed a larger effect size for moral cognition (r = .20) than for moral emotion (r = .11). Effect sizes for production measures (r = .57) were much larger than for recognition measures (r = .16) and unstructured (clinical) judgment (r = .10). Larger effect sizes were found for female delinquents (r = .32) than for male delinquents (r = .21). Only small differences in effect sizes were found between juvenile delinquents (r = .10) and adult delinquents (r = .16). Finally, self-report measures of recidivism revealed much larger effect sizes (r = .32) than official reports of recidivism (r = .09). The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical meaning of the magnitude of the effect size for the relation between moral development and recidivism.

Context and the Measurement of Moral Judgement

This study explored the role of context in moral judgement measurement by addressing a recent contention that moral dilemmas are not essential for the successful assessment of moral judgement. We evaluated a new instrument, the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF), that uses contextually open-ended stimuli instead of moral dilemmas. SRM-SF data were collected from 509 male and female subjects, 8 to 81 years of age, including 94 delinquent males. The SRM-SF evidenced acceptable levels of reliability (inter-rater, test-retest, internal consistency) and validity (criterion-related and construct-related). For example, the SRM-SF demonstrated acceptable concurrent validity with the Moral Judgement Interview and discriminated delinquents as developmentally delayed in moral judgement. The SRM-SF was found to be procedurally efficient in terms of group administrability, completion time, self-training for scoring, and scoring. The factor structure of moral judgement as elicited by the SRM-SF was found to be unidimensional. Also, females were found to be more advanced in moral judgement than males in early adolescence, but the difference disappeared in late adolescence and adulthood.

Validation of the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure—Short Form

The Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure—Short Form—derived from the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure, a group-administered recognition measure of Kohlbergian moral reasoning—was psychometrically evaluated for use with 11th graders, juvenile delinquents, and 6th graders. The short form evidenced acceptable reliability and validity for use with 11th graders. Psychometric properties were comparable to those reported for the full scale. Since the short form takes 20 min. less to administer and is quicker to score, the short form was recommended for use with 11th graders in large-scale research. Results for both 6th graders and juvenile delinquents showed that the short form, like the full scale, does not have acceptable reliability and validity for these groups. Reliability and validity of the short form for other adolescent groups must be assessed.

Relations between Moral Judgment, Moral Courage, and Field Independence.

GIBBS, JOHN C.; CLARK, PHILIP M.; JOSEPH, JACK A.; GREEN, JULIE L.; GOODRICK, TERRY S.; and MAKOWSKI, DAVID G. Relations between Moral Judgment, Moral Courage, and Field Independence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 185-193. The relationship of moral judgment to moral action as well as to certain cognitive style variables was examined. 134 male and female eleventhand twelfth-grade students completed measures of moral judgment, field dependence-independence, locus of control, and other variables and nominated teachers who then rated the students for tendency to evidence morally courageous action. Moral judgment was examined in terms of not only Kohlbergian moral judgment stage but also moral judgment type, where type B represents ethical ideality (role reversal, conscience, fundamental valuing), and type A limitation to existing social arrangements, in moral decision making. Results were consistent with exploratory hypotheses that type B is a social-cognitive manifestation of field independence and is conducive to socially independent and ethically ideal action (e.g., moral courage). Both moral judgment type B and moral judgment stage maturity were related to moral courage, p < .01, as well as to field independence, p < .01, although not to internal locus of control.

Social Perspective Taking and Moral Judgment among College Students

The present study evaluated hypotheses that social perspective-taking experiences in university and employment settings are related to advanced moral judgment in late adolescence and adulthood. Measures of childhood and postchildhood role-taking opportunities as well as the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form were administered to 153 university first-year and senior undergraduates. Advanced moral judgment was defined as the transitionfrom interpersonal to societalmoraljudgmen4 as described in the Gibbs et al. adaptation of Kohlbergs Stages 3 and 4. Adolescent and adult social perspective-taking contexts were divided intofour categories: academic, campus peers, employment, and exposure to social diversity. Postchildhood, but not childhood, roletaking opportunities related to advanced moral judgment. Intellectualperspective taking in academic settings accounted for more of the moral judgment variance than did any other factor, although employment-related, campus peer, and socially diverse perspective taking also were significant.

Toward an Integration of Kohlberg’s and Hoffman’s Moral Development Theories

This article takes an initial step toward integration of Kohlberg’s and Hoffman’s theories of morality and moral development. Kohlberg’s and Hoffman’s theories provide important and complementary contributions to our understanding of moral motivation and development. Kohlberg’s theory emphasizes the individual’s construction of progressively more mature moral meaning. It accounts for moral motivation in terms of a decentration process that generates prescriptions of equality and reciprocity, or justice. Hoffman’s theory emphasizes society’s transmission of moral norms through internalization. Hoffman sees empathic affect and related emotions as the basis for moral motivation. It is concluded that constructive and internalized aspects of ‘internal’ morality commonly derive from social interaction, just as cognitive (justice) and affective (empathy) aspects of moral motivation commonly relate to dynamic organizations of experience.