Cognitive and demographic correlates of moral reasoning in South African university students

M.A.Cognitive development has been an important area of research among many theorists in the past. The study of cognitive development includes the study of the development of cognitive functions, processes and abilities (Demetrious, Doise, & Van Lieshout, 1998). Wick-Nelson and Israel (2000) assert that cognitive development remains an important area of research in the field of contemporary psychology. Piaget formulated a stage theory of cognitive development, and although one can draw certain assumptions from this regarding moral development, it does not address it directly. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, on the other hand, addresses moral development directly, which, indirectly, builds on Piaget’s theories of cognitive development. This implies a theoretical relationship between these two theories, even though Kohlberg’s theory goes beyond Piaget’s initial formulations (Flavell, 1982). In this study, this theoretical relationship is investigated. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between formal operational thought and post-conventional moral reasoning, specifically. In order to investigate this relationship, a correlational research design was used. The two main variables, i.e. formal operational thought and moral reasoning, were measured by means of Kohlberg’s Moral Judgement Interview (MJI) and the Similarities sub-test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – third edition (WAIS-III). A biographical questionnaire was also included in order to gain information that could be used as independent variables (e.g. age, race, gender, etc.). This was used to categorize the data for the purposes of the statistical analysis. The assessments were done on 150 undergraduate psychology students. The demographic characteristics of the sample were as follows: - Age group: 17-35 years of age - Gender: 36 male and 114 female - Race: 83 Black, 41 White, 16 Indian, 9 Coloured and 1 Asian. Although the sample size was adequate to perform parametric statistical analyses, the level of measurement, which was ordinal, only allowed for non-parametric analyses. Given the fact that the sample was not representative of the general population, only tentative conclusion could be drawn from the results. To this effect, the study was able to show that there are indications that a significant relationship exists between the level of cognitive development and the level of moral development. This finding warrants the further investigation between these two constructs. A significant relationship between maternal education levels and moral development was also found, which is contrary to the findings of other, similar studies. This finding seems to suggest that there might be certain unique factors in the South African population that may affect moral development in different ways than in other, western populations. It is strongly recommended that these differences be addressed in future research