Lawrence J. Walker

Naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity

By examining naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity, this project sought a more comprehensive understanding of moral excellence than is evident in dominant theories of moral development. Studies 1 and 2 involved different samples of 120 adults (17-25, 35-55, and 65+ years). Study 3 involved a sample of 180 undergraduates. In Study 1, a free-listing procedure was used to generate the attributes of a highly moral person as well as those for two related person-concepts. In Study 2, a rating procedure for these attributes was used to generate a prototype of the moral person-concept. In Study 3, a similarity-sorting task was used to uncover peoples implicit typology of moral maturity. The findings indicate that naturalistic notions of moral excellence not only contain themes of principled reasoning but also reference aspects of moral character and virtue that enlarge our understanding of the psychological functioning of the mature moral agent.

Moral Stages and Moral Orientations in Real-Life and Hypothetical Dilemmas.

WALKER, LAWRENCE J.; DE VRIES, BRIAN; and TREVETHAN, SHELLEY D. Moral Stages and Moral Orientations in Real-Life and Hypothetical Dilemmas. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 842-858. We examined 2 influential theories of moral reasoning: Kohlbergs moral stage model and Gilligans moral orientation model. 3 issues were of particular interest: (a) the relation between reasoning about hypothetical and real-life dilemmas, (b) the validity of Gilligans notion of sex-related moral orientations (response vs. rights), and (c) the relation of moral orientation to moral stage. Participants were 80 family triads (mother, father, and child, total N = 240), with children drawn from grades 1, 4, 7, and 10. In individual interviews, they discussed hypothetical dilemmas and a personally generated real-life dilemma, which were scored for both moral stage and moral orientation. Content analyses were also conducted for the real-life dilemmas. Results indicated consistency in moral stage between responses to hypothetical and real-life dilemmas, supporting the notion that stages are holistic structures. However, few individuals showed consistent use of a single moral orientation. The evidence regarding the relation between sex and orientation was inconsistent. Among other results, sex differences were evident in dilemma content but were not evident in orientations when dilemma content was controlled. The sexes did not differ in stage of moral development; however, there were moral stage differences as a function of moral orientation.

A longitudinal study of moral reasoning.

Several issues concerning Gilligans model of moral orientations and Kohlbergs models of moral stages and moral orientations were examined in a longitudinal study with 233 subjects (from 78 families) who ranged in age from 5 to 63 years. They participated in 2 identical interviews separated by a 2-year interval. In each interview, they discussed hypothetical dilemmas and a personally generated real-life dilemma, which were scored for both moral stage and moral orientation (both Gilligans and Kohlbergs typologies). Results revealed few violations of the stage sequence over the longitudinal interval, supporting Kohlbergs moral stage model. Sex differences were almost completely absent for both Gilligans and Kohlbergs moral orientations, although there were clear developmental trends. Hypothetical and real-life dilemmas elicited different moral orientations, especially in terms of Kohlbergs typology. The interrelations between the 2 models of moral orientations were generally weak, indicating that they are not synonymous.

Differing conceptions of moral exemplarity: just, brave, and caring.

Peoples conceptions of different types of moral exemplarity were examined in an attempt to augment the current emphasis on moral rationality with a fuller understanding of moral personality. In Study 1 (with 805 adults), a free-listing procedure was used to generate the attributes of 3 types of moral exemplars (just, brave, and caring). In Study 2 (with 401 undergraduates), prototypicality- and personality-rating procedures were used to generate a personality profile for each type of moral exemplar and to examine the relations among them. In Study 3 (with 240 undergraduates), a similarity-sorting procedure was used to identify the typologies implicit in peoples understanding of these different types of moral exemplarity. The findings indicate that moral excellence can be exemplified in rather divergent ways and that understanding of moral functioning would be enhanced by attention to this wider range of moral virtues.

Moral personality of brave and caring exemplars

Two contrasting types of moral exemplars were examined so as to identify personality variables associated with moral action. The sample comprised 50 Canadian awardees for either exceptional bravery or caring, as well as 50 comparison participants. Participants responded to a set of personality questionnaires and a life-review interview. Personality variables were found to substantially augment moral cognition in the prediction of exemplary action. In support of the notion that there is a personological core to the moral domain, it was found that moral exemplars were distinguished from the comparison groups by themes embodied in their life narratives. Specifically, moral exemplars had stronger motivational themes of both agency and communion, were more likely to construe critical life events redemptively, more frequently identified helpers in early life, and reported more secure attachments. Furthermore, the personality of caring exemplars was more nurturant, generative, and optimistic than that of brave exemplars; these somewhat divergent personality profiles imply multiple ideals of moral maturity.

Hypothetical versus real-life moral reasoning among psychopathic and delinquent youth

Differences in moral reasoning concerning hypothetical versus real-life conflicts were examined with a sample of 44 youths (aged 15–18 years) who were classified as psychopathic, delinquent, or normal. All subjects were individually interviewed and assessed on (a) Hares Psychopathy Checklist, (b) two of Kohlbergs hypothetical moral dilemmas, and (c) a subject-generated real-life moral dilemma. The results revealed that the normal youths attained a higher level of moral reasoning than either the delinquents or psychopaths. All groups scored lower on the real-life than the hypothetical dilemmas, indicating that hypothetical dilemmas may best elicit a persons level of moral reasoning competence, whereas real-life dilemmas may entail factors that lower the level of reasoning used in a situation of moral conflict. These two dilemma types also were found to elicit differing moral orientations. Finally, psychopaths were found to orient more to egoistic concerns than did delinquents when discussing real-life dilemmas.

The integration of agency and communion in moral personality: Evidence of enlightened self-interest.

Agency and communion are fundamental human motives, often conceptualized as being in tension. This study examines the notion that moral exemplars overcome this tension and adaptively integrate these 2 motives within their personality. Participants were 25 moral exemplars-recipients of a national award for extraordinary volunteerism-and 25 demographically matched comparison participants. Each participant responded to a life review interview and provided a list of personal strivings, which were coded for themes of agency and communion; interviews were also coded for the relationship between agency and communion. Results consistently indicated that exemplars not only had both more agency and communion than did comparison participants but were also more likely to integrate these themes within their personality. Consistent with our claim that enlightened self-interest is driving this phenomenon, this effect was evident only when agency and communion were conceptualized in terms of promoting interests (of the self and others, respectively) and not in terms of psychological distance (from others) and only when the interaction was observed with a person approach and not with the traditional variable approach. After providing a conceptual replication of these results using different measures elicited in different contexts and relying on different coding procedures, we addressed and dismissed various alternative explanations, including chance co-occurrence and generalized complexity. These results provide the first reliable evidence of the integration of motives of agency and communion in moral personality.

Reconciling the Self and Morality: An Empirical Model of Moral Centrality Development

Self-interest and moral sensibilities generally compete with one another, but for moral exemplars, this tension appears to not be in play. This study advances the reconciliation model, which explains this anomaly within a developmental framework by positing that the relationship between the selfs interests and moral concerns ideally transforms from one of mutual competition to one of synergy. The degree to which morality is central to an individuals identity-or moral centrality-was operationalized in terms of values advanced implicitly in self-understanding narratives; a measure was developed and then validated. Participants were 97 university students who responded to a self-understanding interview and to several measures of morally relevant behaviors. Results indicated that communal values (centered on concerns for others) positively predicted and agentic (self-interested) values negatively predicted moral behavior. At the same time, the tendency to coordinate both agentic and communal values within narrative thought segments positively predicted moral behavior, indicating that the 2 motives can be adaptively reconciled. Moral centrality holds considerable promise in explaining moral motivation and its development.

Experiential and Cognitive Sources of Moral Development in Adulthood

This study examined three issues in adult moral development: (a) the relationship between cognitive and moral development; (b) the relationship between social experiences and rate of moral development

The Model and the Measure: An appraisal of the Minnesota approach to moral development

This review provides a critical appraisal of two of the more significant contributions of the Minnesota approach to moral development. One contribution is the componential model which describes the four psychological components underlying moral behaviour. Evaluation of this model focuses on the adequacy of its synthesis of disparate processes in moral functioning, its instruments for assessing the four components, and its framework for moral education. A second contribution entails the conceptual and methodological reformulations known as the neo-Kohlbergian approach. Evaluation of this approach focuses on its emphasis on macro-morality, redefinition of post-conventional morality, proposal of three moral schemas and six moral types and assessment of moral judgement with the Defining Issues Test. This review identifies the most valuable contributions of the Minnesota approach, as well as its most telling limitations.