Sj. Thoma, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POLITICAL PREFERENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT DEVELOPMENT IN LATE ADOLESCENCE, Merrill-Palmer quarterly, 39(3), 1993, pp. 359-374
Considerable evidence suggests that moral judgments are related to pol
itical/social issues and to conservative versus liberal political orie
ntations, but much less is known about the relationship between moral
judgments and political choices. To address this issue, adolescents of
voting age (n = 128) were surveyed about their perceptions of the ele
ction issues, candidates, and their voting intentions two weeks prior
to the 1988 U.S. presidential elections. Rest's Defining issues Test (
DIT) of moral judgment development also was administered. Consistent w
ith theoretical predictions, a curvilinear function was the most appro
priate fit to the data. In addition, the common links between politica
l party identification, liberal versus conservative ideology, and poli
tical variables could not account for the moral judgment and political
choice relationship. Further, subjects who differed on the DIT attend
ed to different election issues in defining their election decision.