Behavioral Correlates of Moral Judgment

Abstract

Previous research on moral development has been compartmentalized into two realms of enquiry: the study of moral judgment as a correlate of conceptual-cognitive development and the behavioral study of moral action based on social-environmental hypotheses. The present investigation addresses the relationship between cognitively based levels of moral development and overt moral behavior. Studying 72 children of approximately 7 and 11 years of age and of varying levels of moral development, I found that the manifestation of moral behavior under varying game conditions bore a direct but complex relationship to moral judgment. The study also revealed consistent differences in the influence of sex on moral judgment and behavior.