An Examination of Moral Judgment in College: Integrating Developmental and College Impact Frameworks.

摘要

Research examining student outcomes in college most often employs either a college impact framework (focusing on the organization and make-up of a college and participation in and experiences with various components of that college) or a developmental framework (focusing on students engagement with cognitive processes that are consistent with theoretically supported mechanisms of development). This study examines the value of integrating these two frameworks in the examination of the developmental of moral judgment during college. Drawing on data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study examines the development of moral judgment in two samples of students at the end of their first and fourth years of college. Hierarchical linear models were first estimated using the developmental and college impact frameworks individually, and then with a framework that integrates the two. Changes in adjusted pseudo-R2 and coefficient effect sizes were then compared across the models to assess the relative explanatory power of the three frameworks and the threat of omitted variable bias in the restrictive frameworks. Variables consistent with both developmental and college impact frameworks were significant predictors of moral judgment in both samples; this remained true even after the models were integrated. However, few college experiences or institutional conditions were significant predictors of change in moral development. The variables with the largest estimated effects were students’ precollege characteristics (such as academic ability and gender). Additionally, models estimated with an integrated framework provided more explanatory power, both before and after the large effects of precollege variables were taken into account. Integrated models also yielded different effect sizes for most independent variables than the separate frameworks, indicating the presence of omitted variable bias. This study demonstrates that using an integrated framework provides a broader and more detailed picture of the development of moral judgment in college. Researchers and educators alike are encouraged to conceptualize this development using frameworks that do not rely solely on participation in institutional programs or the cognitive demands of those programs, but, rather, to design and implement programs that take both approaches into account.