It’s All in Their Heads: Reflective Abstraction as an Alternative to the Moral Discussion Group

This study examined two distinct moral reasoning interventions: an interindividual intervention, in which students discussed moral dilemmas, and an intraindividual intervention, in which students individually reflected on moral dilemmas. Ninety-seven 6th- and 7th-grade students were administered pre- and posttest measures of the Sociomoral Reflection Measure (Gibbs, Basinger, & Fuller, 1992). Participants were randomly assigned to either treatment (moral) or placebo (nonmoral) conditions. The results indicated no difference in moral reasoning was between students in the two experimental groups and indicated that students in both experimental groups made significant gains in moral reasoning compared with students in placebo groups