The effects of a cognitive-moral development program on inmates in a correctional educational environment.

摘要

Correctional educational programs that focus primarily on basic academics such as reading, writing, and mathematics are important, but they ignore the basic fundamentals of moral development programs. It is the absence of these moral values and ethical foundations that caused the inmate to violate the laws and be sentenced to a term of incarceration. An attempt to influence the cognitive domain with an ethical awareness program and a moral education curriculum is a different way of attacking the issue of large numbers of persons being sentenced to prison. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a formal cognitive-moral training program on inmate empathy, social responsibility, confidence, reflectiveness, and past satisfaction.; A training program developed by the Institute for Global Ethics entitled Ethical Fitness was selected as the training intervention. The materials had been piloted at a prison in North Carolina and the results were favorable. The training is predicated on the basis that if inmates become aware of the ethical dimensions of their social actions and relationships with other members of society, they will reflect differently on their decision-making skills, and perhaps be less likely to commit antisocial or illegal activities.; Inmates who volunteered to participate in this research were offered a 14-lesson curriculum that lasted approximately 18 hours and was conducted within the prison classroom. The research compared the results of the experimental groups with control groups using pre- and post-test evaluation factors which were structured on either the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index or the Social Responsibility Scale of Harris.; Results of the effectiveness of the moral-cognition program were measured using both paired test results and analysis of covariance. Using the paired test analysis of 28 inmates who received the training, significant changes (p .05) were observed in four of the five measured categories: empathy, social responsibility, confidence, and reflectiveness. The fifth measured category, past satisfaction with previous ethical and moral decisions, was not significantly improved (p = 0.125). The analysis of covariance was used to contrast the changes in individual empathy, social responsibility, confidence, reflectiveness, and past satisfaction blocked by the pre- and post-test for both the experimental and comparison groups. The null hypothesis was H 0: B1 = B2, which assumes the regressing lines have equal intercepts given that the slopes are equal.; Analysis of the data indicates that the moral-cognition program was not effective in promoting statistically significant changes among inmates. Nevertheless, this information will be valuable in future efforts to restructure the fundamentals of a moral-cognition program for use in a correctional educational environment.