Conceptual Development in Adulthood 2 Conceptual Development in Adulthood

Until recently, there was one basic approach to the study of conceptual development in adulthood. This approach, exemplified in the work of scholars like Kohlberg and his colleagues (Colby, Kohlberg, Gibbs, & Lieberman, 1983), Kitchener & King (1990), Armon (Armon & Dawson, 2002), and Perry (1970), involves collecting data from a more or less representative sample of individuals at more or less frequent intervals over the course of several years. Guided by cognitive developmental theory, their longitudinal results, and sometimes, philosophical categories, researchers construct stage definitions. Although these definitions are cast as descriptions of reasoning structures, they include descriptions of the conceptual content associated with each developmental level. Stage definitions, along with exemplars from the construction samples targeted in these studies, become the basis for scoring manuals, reifying the conceptual content associated with each stage. Employing these methods, the study of conceptual development in a given domain effectively ends with the development of a scoring manual. In the Kohlbergian case, the conceptual content associated with moral stages is based on the reasoning o