Mordecai Nisan

Universality and variation in moral judgment: A longitudinal and cross-sectional study in Turkey.

NISAN, MORDECAI, and KOHLBERG, LAWRENCE. Universality and Variation in Moral Judgment: A Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Study in Turkey. CHID DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 865-876. A longitudinal and cross-sectional study of moral judgment development in Turkey is described. Rural and city subjects aged 10 through 28 were individually interviewed on Kohlbergs moral dilemmas. The responses were analyzed using a new manual, which calls for matching responses to criteria judgments. The results support the claim for structural universality in moral judgment: the Turkish responses fitted the moral judgment stages and exhibited the claimed sequence in both the longitudinal and the cross-sectional studies. The study also showed several aspects of variation in moral judgment. Village subjects showed a slower rate of development than city subjects. Beyond the age of 16 all the village subjects showed some conventional judgment; however, they seemed to stabilize at stage 3. Independent of stage level, the village subjects tended to justify their moral decisions mainly in the normfollowing and utilitarian modes, while city subjects (in the older group) showed a tendency to use deontological and perfectionistic justifications.

Personal Identity and Education for the Desirable

Abstract On the basis of an analysis of moral judgements and choices, this paper discusses moral motivation grounded in the desire to maintain and express ones personal identity as a good, or “good enough”, person. This identity is perceived as a link between moral knowledge and commitment to moral action. Identity‐based motivation encourages a pluralistic and tolerant view of other norms. Since it is based on personal identity, it suggests a new situation in education. The aim of moral education will be the development of an identity with an orientation towards the desirable rather than an instrumentalist orientation. It is suggested that the school should serve as a “culture preserve”, offering a model of identity. In order to fulfill this mission the school must present, with full awareness of the dangers of this approach, a comprehensive system of values, beyond morality in the narrow sense.

The actualization balance of ethnic identity

The authors propose that individuals set limits to the actualization of their social and personal identities. Two studies investigated the notion of actualization balance, according to which identity-related decision making is affected by the actualization status of that identity. The first study found that people are more willing to allow nonactualization of Jewish ethnic identity to a person who recently actualized that identity than to an individual who has not done so. In the second study, American Jewish students were requested to volunteer for a Jewish cause. When participants had previously been given the opportunity to actualize their Jewish ethnic identity, fewer of them agreed to volunteer, as compared with participants who had been denied the opportunity to actualize that identity and also as compared with control participants. Previous nonactualizers also showed a stronger motivation to actualize their Jewish identity in a new situation than did participants in the control group.

The Child as a Philosopher of Values: Development of a Distinct Perception of Values in Childhood

Abstract This study suggests a distinct concept of value as a reason for action, and examines its validity and development in children aged 6‐7, 9‐10, and 12‐13. In the distinct meaning suggested here, value refers to perception of a behaviour as intrinsically (non‐contingently) desirable yet not strictly obligatory. Values are thus distinguished from morality, conventions and personal preferences by the dimensions of (1) intrinsic versus contingent validity and (2) obligatory versus non‐obligatory nature. The study reveals that many 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children already demonstrate a distinct concept of value, as defined here, and that this distinction develops with age. Subjects also distinguished between values and other reasons for action in terms of the most frequent type of reasons they gave for their perceptions, i.e. short‐ and long‐term utility as opposed to the welfare of others or social norms. It is suggested that the childs concept of values is based on his or her perceptions of a childs develo...

Who Is Afraid of Success? And Why?.

This study was designed to facilitate understanding of different forms and expressions of Fear of Success. It had four specific aims: (1) to test for Fear of Success in response to a semiprojective measure among Israeli pupils in their last year in high school, (2) to test for developmental trends in this variable, (3) to investigate whether disadvantaged pupils also express Fear of Success, and (4) to investigate more overt expressions of negative attitudes toward success. The sample was comprised of 391 subjects of two age groups (13 and 17), two social classes (advantaged and disadvantaged), and both sexes. The results replicated Horners findings in that advantaged girls in high school scored higher on projective Fear of Success than advantaged boys. However, in elementary school both scored low. A novel finding was that disadvantaged pupils of both sexes scored high on Fear of Success in high school. Subgroups scoring high on projective Fear of Success also revealed a variety of negative attitudes toward success in response to the overt measures. Analysis of the results suggested that Fear of Success is a complex phenomenon which may take different forms involving various kinds of cultural expectations and different degrees of conflict.

The Nature of the Conflict in Delay of Gratification.

Summary Five hundred fifty-six Israeli male and female fifth graders received two hypothetical delay of gratification questions in counterbalanced orders. One required a choice between an immediate and a more valuable but delayed reward, the other required Ss to predict a smart childs choice under similar circumstances. Although choices in both cases tended to be similar, Ss attributed significantly more delay of gratification to the smart child than they displayed themselves. The results are discussed in relation to valueexpectancy theory, which sees behavior as stemming from utility considerations, and psychoanalysis, which sees it as the outcome of a conflict between pleasure and reality-principle functioning.

Delay of gratification as a function of exchange values and appetitive values of the rewards

This study examined the manner in which the probability of delaying gratification is affected by the exchange values and the appetitive values of the rewards offered. Several delay-of-gratification questions were used, requiring a choice between an early small reward and a reward twice as great due at a later time. A total of 6,799 fourth- and sixth-grade Israeli public school pupils participated in the study. Results consistent across sexes, grades, and two delay conditions (“now” versus “in a week from now” and “in a week” versus “in a month”) indicated that the tendency to delay gratification is directly related to the exchange values of the rewards offered but inversely related to their appetitive values. Several implications of these results for the Value X Expectancy model of delay behavior were discussed.

Children's Evaluations of Temporally Distant Outcomes.

Forty 4th grade boys indicated their perceptions of value and of excitement at the expected receipt, either immediately or a week later, of good- and bad-tasting foods. They also chose between receiving immediately either the food originally expected immediately, or the one expected in a weeks time. Delayed bad-tasting foods were judged less aversive and chosen more often than immediately expected ones. Evaluations and choices of good-tasting foods revealed similar, although weaker, trends. These findings are interpreted as reflecting the 10-year-olds confusion of subjective excitement and objective value, which arises from inadequate attention to the effects of delay. The findings are compared with results obtained in a similar study with 7th grade boys.

The Effects of the Yom Kippur War on Values of Israeli Female Students.

The Rokeach Terminal Value Scale and an attitude questionnaire were administered to two similar groups of female Israeli students before and after the Yom Kippur War. The second group also responded to a questionnaire about the effects of the war on the importance attributed to each of the values. The results were as follow: (a) Subjects stated that after the war 14 out of the 18 values in the Rokeach list increased in importance. (b) The war brought about a significant increase in the relative importance (rank) of 4 values (Pleasure, National Security, Happiness, and Mature Love), and a significant decrease in Equality. (c) No attitude change was found in respect to issues related to the war itself. (d) Values accounted for a smaller percent of the variance in attitudes after the war than they did before it. In view of these findings it is suggested that a distinction be made between relative and absolute importance within a value system.