Ls. Gump et al., Cultural and gender differences in moral judgment: A study of Mexican Americans and Anglo-Americans, HISPAN J B, 22(1), 2000, pp. 78-93
Kohlberg's theory of moral development regards justice concerns as developm
entally more advanced than interpersonal considerations. Men tend to score
as more morally developed than women on existing measures. Gilligan suggest
ed that this is because women rely more on "care" considerations in moral d
ilemmas, whereas men rely more on "justice " issues. Snarey noted similar,
bias in the cross-cultural realm. The authors studied moral judgment in Mex
ican American (n = 40) and Anglo-American (n = 40) college students. On the
care measure, as expected females scored higher than males (p < .05), and
Mexican Americans scored higher than Anglo-Americans (p < .01) Contrary to
expectation, no differences were obtained on the justice measure. The role
of socialization in moral development is discussed.