Moral Reasoning and Prosocial Action in Italian Culture

Abstract

An Italian study on the development of moral judgment, based on the Moral Reflection Measure–Short Form (SRM-SF; Gibbs, Basinger, & Fuller, 1992), was performed. One hundred fifty-four adolescent and adult volunteers (male and female) involved in prosocial activities, and two control groups of 130 nonvolunteers completed the SRM-SF. Involvement in prosocial activities was associated with higher levels of moral judgment and Type B responses, which represent morally mature, internal, and universalistic forms of sociomoral reasoning. The results suggested that the SRM-SF is a reliable and valid measure of the development of moral judgment in Italian society.