How are Moral and Ego Development Related (original) (raw)
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Ego development and moral development in relation to age and grade level during adolescence
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1986
The relation between Loevinger's measure of ego development and moral development as indexed by Rest's Defining Issues Test was examined in a sample of 517 adolescents between 12 and 21 years of age. Major increases in moral capacity were found at the Conformist and Conscientious levels of ego development. Low positive correlations between ego level and moral capacity were reported for young adolescents but not for older ones. The development indices of age and grade were compared. Both ego and moral development seemed more closely related to grade level than to age. Socioeconomic status predicted acceleration in ego development at the rate of one half an ego level over middle to late adolescence. This effect persisted at university. Students of higher socioeconomic background attained developmental levels one to two years before their contemporaries of low socioeconomic status. Sex differences in ego development were in favor of females.
Moral Identity and Developmental Theory
Human Development, 2015
The notion that self-identity and morality are deeply implicated has long-standing roots in both ethical theory and psychology. In ethical theory it is evident in Harry Frankfurt's [1971] account of what it means to be a person: A person (as opposed to a wanton) is someone who cares about morality. A person cares about the desirability of one's desires (second-order desires) and then wishes to will them all the way to action (second-order volitions). Similarly, Charles Taylor [1989] argued that identity is defined by reference to things that have significance for us. It is the result of strong evaluation about what is worthy or unworthy, and these discriminations are made against a horizon of significance that frames and constitutes who we are as persons. He writes, "My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I can try to determine from case to case what is good or valuable, or what ought to be done or what I endorse or oppose" [Taylor, 1989, p. 27]. The affinity of selfhood and morality is a theme in several psychological traditions as well. Erikson [1968, p. 39] argued, for example, that an ethical capacity is the "true criterion of identity," but he also noted that "identity and fidelity are necessary for ethical strength" [Erikson, 1964, p. 126]. This suggests that moral identity is the clear goal of both moral and identity development and that in the moral person the two developmental tracks are ideally conjoined. Similarly, Damon and Hart [1982] showed that, within each domain of the "Me Self" (physical, active, social, psychological), the highest level of self-understanding implicates a moral point of view. This suggests that the moral self is the clear outcome of self-development [Lapsley, 2005]. Indeed, recent research has shown that morality is considered indispensable to selfhood; it is the moral self that is essential to our identity, more than personality traits,
Moral ideal self scale (miss): A possible selves approach to measuring moral identity
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000
The purposes of this study were to conceptualize moral identity as moral ideal self, to develop a measure of this construct, to test for age and gender differences, to examine links between moral ideal self and adolescent outcomes, and to assess purpose and social responsibility as mediators of the relations between moral ideal self and outcomes. Data came from a local school sample (Data Set 1: N ϭ 510 adolescents; 10-18 years of age) and a national online sample (Data Set 2: N ϭ 383 adolescents; 15-18 years of age) of adolescents and their parents. All outcome measures were parent-report (Data Set 1: altruism, moral personality, aggression, and cheating; Data Set 2: environmentalism, school engagement, internalizing, and externalizing), whereas other variables were adolescent-report. The 20-item Moral Ideal Self Scale showed good reliability, factor structure, and validity. Structural equation models demonstrated that, even after accounting for moral identity internalization, in Data Set 1 moral ideal self positively predicted altruism and moral personality and negatively predicted aggression, whereas in Data Set 2 moral ideal self positively predicted environmentalism and negatively predicted internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Further, purpose and social responsibility mediated most relations between moral ideal self and the outcomes in Data Set 2. Moral ideal self was unrelated to age but differentially predicted some outcomes across age. Girls had higher levels of moral ideal self than boys, although moral identity did not differentially predict outcomes between genders. Thus, moral ideal self is a salient element of moral identity and may play a role in morally relevant adolescent outcomes.
The Reliability and Validity of Objective Indices of Moral Development
Applied Psychological Measurement, 1978
The present paper addresses three issues sur rounding Rest's Defining Issues Test, an objective test of moral development based on Kohlberg's six- stage theory of moral development. Those issues are (1) the stability of test scores over time; (2) correla tion of scores with Kohlberg's interview measure of moral development; and (3) the insensitivity of its scoring procedure, which ignores responses to all items keyed to lower stages. In two age heterogene ous samples, total score test-retest reliabilities were generally in the high .70's or low .80's, regardless of which of several scoring schemes was used. In another age heterogeneous sample, the correlation with scores on Kohlberg's test was .70; but in two age homogeneous samples, the correlations were about .35 and .20. These validity coefficients sug gest that (1) the common variance shared by Rest's and Kohlberg's tests in age heterogeneous samples can be attributed to the fact that scores on bo...