Moral development and politics a decade later: A replication and extension

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology 1983-11, Vol.45 (5), p.1127-1135
• Main Authors: Nassi, Alberta J, Abramowitz, Stephen I, Youmans, John E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; Followup Studies; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Moral Development; Political Attitudes; Political Radicalism; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social psychology
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.45.5.1127

Previous investigations performed during the age of student protest indicated a curvilinear relationship between moral development and political ideology and behavior, with both higher and lower levels of moral reasoning associated with leftist inclinations. The present research determined if the linkage between moral reasoning level and political choice could be extended to former students negotiating their middle adulthood during a period of political quiescence. Consistent with the expectations of N. Haan et al (1968), data obtained from 76 persons who had been students at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 suggest a linear relationship between moral judgment and leftist politics, with premoral reasoners no longer overrepresented among either liberal or politically active Ss. Previous investigators' substantive and directional interpretations of the relationship between moral maturity and political preference are weighed against recent challenges to the purportedly primary, structural, and value-free basis of the L. Kohlberg (1969) model of moral development. (15 ref)