Moral Judgment Development and Identity Formation in First Year College Students

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Moral Judgement Development, Identity Formation, College Students

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate moral and identity development among first year students at a small liberal arts college in the southeastern United States. Participants' moral judgment development (MJD) was measured using the Defining Issues Test and their identity formation was measured using the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-II. 51 first-time-in-college students completed each of these measures at the beginning and again at the end of their first semester. The Social Factors Survey (which was piloted in the present study) was also administered at the end of the first semester to explore possible correlates of changes in MJD and identity that occur during college. It was found that students, on average, grew in MJD, but were stable or regressed somewhat (depending upon the assessment method used) in identity over the first semester. In addition, advances in identity were positively correlated with advances in MJD. The social factors variables generally did not correlate very strongly with moral and identity growth, but there were some interesting and unexpected relationships with specific social factors. Further work is needed to understand which factors may be affecting moral and identity change during the early years within the college setting.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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