Development of Children's Moralistic Judgments: Age, Sex, IQ, and Certain Personal-Experiential Variables1

Abstract

Certain of Piaget's contentions regarding the development of moralistic judgments were considered in this study. Moralistic judgments about behavior described in Piaget-type stories were provided by 173 public school children, age range 7 to 12 years. Results indicate that the ability to formulate mature judgments is a function of (a) increases in age, and (b) increases in IQ at each age. Maturity of moralistic judgment is found unrelated to personality characteristics as rated by teachers, insignificantly influenced by sex of subject, attendance at Sunday School, or membership in boy or girl scouting organizations, but positively influenced by children's attendance of ungraded classrooms.