KOHLBERG'S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF VALIDATION STUDIES WITH THE DEFINING ISSUES TEST

This paper evaluates studies that have used the Defining Issues Test for validating Kohlberg's theory of moral stage development. Although this test was introduced to overcome inadequacies with Kohlberg's procedure, it too encounters serious methodological and conceptual difficulties. Its limitations include truncation of the stages and age range assessed. The validation studies, both cross-sectional and longitudinal, have used a correlational design and confounded age with other variables. Threats to internal and external validity obviate support claimed for Kohlberg; moral reasoning thus measured seems a function of education, IQ, direct moral training, and cultural values rather than maturation. Nor is the stage model upheld by longitudinal data, which fail to reveal sequential stepwise change and belie occasional regression. Attempted redefinition of the stage concept to salvage these data has not rescued Kohlberg's proposal, which remains to be validated empirically.     

The development of a child assessment interview for research and clinical use

The Child Assessment Schedule (CAS) was developed to address the need for a standardized child interview that could be used for research and clinical purposes. The CAS has several distinguishing characteristics: (1) Questions and responses are standardized, (2) the format was designed to enhance rapport with the child, and (3) information necessary for DSM III childhood diagnoses is explicitly solicited. The CAS was administered to 32 child outpatients, 18 inpatients, and 37 normal controls. Derived scores were obtained for total psychopathology, 11 content areas, and 9 symptom complexes. Interrater reliability for the total CAS score was quite high. The CAS was able to discriminate among the three groups in total score indicating degree of psychopathology, on 9 of the 11 content areas, and on 8 of the 9 symptom complexes. Significant correlations were found between the CAS and maternal report of child behavior and between the CAS and child selfreport of internal affects. It was concluded that the CAS has adequate reliability and validity, although further research is indicated.     

Learning of a serial task by different age groups

In a serial learning task given to subjects whose ages ranged from twenty to seventy, a decline in performance showed itself as a loss of speed in the thirties, a loss of accuracy in the forties, and a marked loss of both speed and accuracy in the fifties and sixties. Experiments on recall and reorganization of material verified that older subjects were forgetting more quickly than younger, but that one of their main difficulties was an inability to substitute new reponses in an already mentally formed sequence.

Older subjects were not introducing new learning features but accentuating normal tendencies, such as the repetition of the same error at the same serial position. In so far as subjects learned their repeated errors, final learning involved unlearning, with the often observable phenomenon of the previously learned error serving as the cue for the more recently learned correct response. In terms of schematic concepts of mental functions, serial learning difficulty was not so much the formation of a general “scheme” but its subsequent amendment. Preformed habits influenced both the learning procedure and its results, particularly in the constraints and expectancies which the making of one serial response had upon another.     

Different thresholds for recognition—further experiments on interpolated recall and recognition

Three experiments are described which have attempted to identify some of the difficulties in recognition after interpolated recall. In the first, complex picture material was used, and, though subjects were able to recognize the original after interpolated recall, they did in fact recognize fewer items. This posed the query, why should the recall of some items depress the recognition of other unrecalled items? The second experiment showed that in recognition the stronger (correct) memory has an inhibitory effect on a weaker (also correct) memory. The third experiment therefore examined the hypothesis that the juxtaposition of better and worse known items raises the threshold of recognition of the worse known, and confirmed that the threshold of recognition for an item varies according to its context. The theoretical significance of this finding is briefly indicated.     

Cognitive problem-solving and life event correlates of depressive symptoms in children

This study examined the relationship between a number of cognitive problem-solving and life event variables and depressive symptoms in a sample of non-referred grade school children. The results indicated that higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with an external locus of control, increased levels of objective and subjective life stress, and lower performance levels on an impersonal problem-solving task. Level of depressive symptoms was also found to be inversely related to socioeconomic status as measured by father's occupation. Contrary to prediction, no consistent relationship was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability.This research is based on the first author's master's thesis submitted under the supervision of the second author to the Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia.     

Proactive behavior,but not inhibitory control,predicts repeated innovation by spotted hyenas tested with a multi-access box

Innovation is widely linked to cognitive ability, brain size, and adaptation to novel conditions. However, successful innovation appears to be influenced by both cognitive factors, such as inhibitory control, and non-cognitive behavioral traits. We used a multi-access box (MAB) paradigm to measure repeated innovation, the number of unique innovations learned across trials, by 10 captive spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). Spotted hyenas are highly innovative in captivity and also display striking variation in behavioral traits, making them good model organisms for examining the relationship between innovation and other behavioral traits. We measured persistence, motor diversity, motivation, activity, efficiency, inhibitory control, and neophobia demonstrated by hyenas while interacting with the MAB. We also independently assessed inhibitory control with a detour cylinder task. Most hyenas were able to solve the MAB at least once, but only four hyenas satisfied learning criteria for all four possible solutions. Interestingly, neither measure of inhibitory control predicted repeated innovation. Instead, repeated innovation was predicted by a proactive syndrome of behavioral traits that included high persistence, high motor diversity, high activity and low neophobia. Our results suggest that this proactive behavioral syndrome may be more important than inhibitory control for successful innovation with the MAB by members of this species.