Moral reasoning from the perspective of others.

A questionnaire study was conducted to examine the ability of adolescents and college students to deliberate about moral dilemmas from social perspectives (roles) other than their own and to display different levels of moral judgment in these different perspectives. 30 subjects at each of grades 9, 10, 12, and college were administered a moral reasoning questionnaire and asked to respond 3 times--once for each of the social roles of self, average policeman, and average philosopher. Results showed that across roles and with increasing age there was an increase in individuals' tendencies to choose principled moral issues to resolve dilemmas. More important, there was an increase with age in differentiation among social roles--with the college students evidencing the greatest differences in the level of moral issues chosen as a function of social role.