The Role of Critical Experiences in Moral Development: Implications for Justice and Care Orientations

Abstract

In both a preliminary study and a main study, undergraduate subjects were asked to write an essay describing the one experience they considered as having been the most important in their moral development. In addition, they were asked to (a) rate the extent to which various moral lessons had been learned as a result of the experience and (b) complete the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bern, 1974). Independent Justice and Care dimensions emerged from factor analyses of subjects' ratings of lessons learned in both the preliminary and main studies. No relation was found between subjects' scores on the two lessons learned factors and their sex-role classification as determined by scores on the BSRI. However, in the main study, women rated themselves as having learned more of a moral lesson reflecting a care orientation from their most important moral experience than did men. Some sex differences were also observed in subjects' tendencies to cite particular experiences as having been most important in their moral development. Furthermore, the extent to which a particular kind of moral lesson was learned from an experience was found to be influenced by the particular type of experience recalled by the subject.