SOCIAL AND POLITICAL COMPLEXITY AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

In this study the authors aim to investigate empirically the relations hip between Kohlberg's stages of moral development and exposure to pol itical and social complexity. The sample consisted of 68 Social Work I students of the University of the Witwatersrand, 35 white and 33 blac k subjects, ranging in age from 18-24 years. Data were obtained by the use of a biographical questionnaire and Taylor's Reason for Action Qu estionnaire. Each instrument, respectively, allowed for the generation of data concerning subjects' exposure to political and social complex ity, and Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning. The stage of moral reas oning attained by the respondents was represented by frequency counts. More than half of the subjects demonstrated a capacity to reason with stage five post-conventional moral reasoning, a stage rarely attained by individuals under the age of 24 years (Kohlberg). Significantly, t hese subjects did not reason at a 'pure' stage five level. Instead, th ey reflected a bimodal preconventional (stage two) and post-convention al (stage five) moral response set. Hypotheses were offered to explain the ability of the subjects to attain stage five moral reasoning as w ell as their apparent contradictory bimodal reasoning pattern.