Review Jurnal Perkembangan Anak : Psikologi Perkembangan 1
By Gusti Gina - Friday, December 20, 2013
PANDANGAN ANAK BERMASALAH TERHADAP NILAI MORAL
REVIEW JURNAL
Disusun untuk memenuhi tugas akhir mata kuliah Psikologi
Perkembangan I
Dosen pengampu :
Emma Yuniarrahmah, M.Psi
Oleh :
Gusti Gina Madinatul Munawarni
(I1C113080)
PROGRAM STUDI PSIKOLOGI
FAKULTAS KEDOKTERAN
UNIVERSITAS LAMBUNG MANGKURAT
2013
Review Jurnal: “PANDANGAN ANAK BERMASALAH TERHADAP NILAI MORAL”
Judul Asli: Three Children with Emotional and
Behavioral Disorders Tell Why People Do Right (Elizabeth L. Hardman, University
of Florida)
I.
PENDAHULUAN
Laporan hasil studi kasus Elizabeth
L. Hardman dari University of Florida dalam International Journal of Special
Education tahun 2011 termasuk dalam kajian psikologi pendidikan yang
terkait dengan anak yang berkebutuhan khusus atau kategori pendidikan inklusif.
Penelitian diarahkan pada psikologi kognitif sosial yang mengacu pada tahapan
perkembangan kognitif dalam memahami nilai-nilai moral dan berhubungan dengan
hambatan perkembangan anak bermasalah.
Dalam tulisannya, Hardman berupaya
mengungkap kejelasan tahapan usia perkembangan seorang anak mampu memilah
perilaku baik dan buruk atau benar dan salah yang diterima dari lingkungannya
seperti yang dicontohkan oleh Piaget dan para peneliti psikologi. Hardman
kemudian mengarahkan alur penelitiannya terhadap perkembangan nilai kerjasama
pada anak-anak atau siswa yang mengalami gangguan emosi dan perilaku atau Emotional
and Behavioral Disorder (EBD) berdasarkan pola pertimbangan mereka yang
menurutnya belum banyak dikaji oleh peneliti lain sebelumnya.
Penelitian yang dilakukan Hardman
tentang tahap perkembangan pemahaman nilai moral dengan kekhususan pada anak
EBD masih terbatas pada kasus longitudinal, ini dikarenakan kasus-kasus anak
EBD mungkin saja berbeda dengan kasus-kasus anak EBD dinegara lain. Dalam
pengolahan data kualitatif terlkihat sangat analitik dan detail terutama
kemampuannya menangkap dan memilah kategori nilai moral yang disampaikan oleh
anak EBD.
II.
RINGKASAN
A. Tujuan Penelitian
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah
untuk menemukan hubungan antara tindakan dan konsekuensinya dari pemahamahan
anak-anak EBD. Selain itu yang menjadi tujuan utama dari penelitian yang dilakukan
Hardman adalah untuk mengetahui
bagaimana pandangan anak-anak yang bermasalah terhadap nilai moral. Penelitian
ini juga bertujuan mendeskripsikan orientasi moral dan mengeksplorasi pola
pertimbangan mereka terhadap nilai kerjasama sebagai bagian dari nilai sosial.
Adapan rumusan masalah dalam
penelitian ini adalah :
1.
Bagaimana perkembangan penilaian
moral pada anak?
2.
Apa yang menjadi dasar perkembangan
orientasi moral pada ketiga anak EBD yang diteliti oleh Hardman?
3.
Apakah anak-anak selalu menilai berdasarkan
aturan normatif atau orientasi moral egosentris?
B. Tinjauan Pustaka
Perkembangan Penilaian Moral
Pengertian nilai moral yang
digunakan oleh Hardman dikutip dari Dewey sebagai upaya serius yang dilakukan
untuk menemukan hubungan antara tindakan dan konsekuensinya. Asumsi bahwa
realitas moral juga dibangun dengan cara yang sama, Hardman mencontohkan hasil
penelitian Piaget tentang perkembangan penilaian moral dengan mengeksplorasi
pengaruh pengalaman dan pemikiran terhadap persepsi anak yang memperlihatkan
hubungan tindakan dan konsekuensinya. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa penerapan
aturan berkembang dalam 4 tahapan, yaitu sensorimotor, egosentrik, kerjasama,
dan kodifikasi; namun kesadaran tanggung jawab berkembang dalam 3
tahapan, yaitu non-moral, heteronomi, dan otonomi. Meskipun
perkembangan tersebut berbeda antaranak, namun secara umum diakuinya bahwa urut-urutannya
relatif seragam dan universal. Pembahasan ini berlanjut dengan pemaparan
hasil-hasil penelitian serupa dari berbagai negara untuk menunjukkan
universalitas temuan.
Nilai-Nilai pada Anak dan Perkembangan Kerjasama
Perkembangan orientasi moral yang
ditemukan Hardman pada ketiga anak EBD tercermin dari pemahaman tentang aturan
yang telah disepakati. Struktur kognitif yang mendukung perkembangan kerjasama
umumnya muncul di usia 5 tahun dan mencapai puncak perkembangannya menjelang
usia 9 atau 10 tahun kecuali pada kasus anak-anak yang berstatus ekonomi lemah
atau menunjukkan perilaku antisosial yang serius. Banyak penelitian menemukan
bahwa perkembangan kerjasama akan beragam dan dalam kasus-kasus tertentu tidak
berkembang sama sekali dengan asumsi bahwa apa saja yang menghalangi peluang
anak belajar berpartisipasi dalam masyarakat akan memperlambat perkembangan
kerjasama mereka dan bahkan menghambat munculnya perilaku otonomi di masa
remajanya. Anak-anak EBD dalam penelitian ini berusia antara 9 s.d. 12 tahun
dengan karakteristik tertentu. Hasil wawancara menunjukkan bahwa 90% dari 375
penilaian mengacu pada aturan normatif dan hanya 10% sisanya mengacu pada
kerjasama. Henry dan Jessie dalam kasus ini cenderung patuh karena menghindari
hukuman dan Violet konsisten dengan orientasi solidaritas dan pujian.
Anak-anak
tidak selalu menilai berdasarkan aturan normatif atau orientasi moral
egosentris.
Fakta menunjukkan bahwa 10%
penilaian mereka lebih mengarah pada orientasi kerjasama dan konsep pertemanan
atau solidaritas merupakan pilihan nilai mereka. Benar atau salah, orang akan
menanggung beban dan menikmati keuntungan secara bersama-sama. Dalam hal ini,
Hardman mengutip beberapa pandangan ahli dan salah satunya adalah pandangan
Piaget (1932/1965) yang mengidentifikasi solidaritas sebagai fenomena kognitif
yang penting dalam perkembangan moral kemandirian dengan syarat memahami aturan
dalam kesepakatan. Perilaku anak pada dasarnya sulit ditebak meskipun mereka
tahu benar dan salah atau mampu menerapkan aturan perilaku sosial yang pantas.
Hal ini menurutnya tidak pantas membenarkan bahwa perilaku dan penilaian tidak
berkaitan tetapi hanya menjelaskan bahwa hubungan ini dimediasi oleh konteks
sosial itu sendiri (dikutip oleh Hardman dari Damon, 1988).
C. Metode
Penelitian
1.
Teknik
Penelitian
Teknik Penelitian ini menggunakan
teknik kualitatif. Hardman melakukan pendekatan penelitian kepada tiga orang
anak EBD. Penelitian dilakukan dengan studi kasus yang menggunakan teknik wawancara
dilema moral yang melibatkan 3 anak EBD atau yang mengalami masalah
kontrolemosi dan perilaku di salah satu SD di Florida, Amerika
2.
Subjek Penelitian
Subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah
siswa SD kelas 3, 4, dan 5; 2 laki-laki dan 1 perempuan, dan beberapa
karakteristik lain yang juga dijelaskan secara panjang lebar dalam tulisan
Hardman.
3.
Pengumpulan Data
Data dikumpulkan menggunakan pedoman
wawancara disertai dengan skenario (model tanya jawab antara peneliti dan
subyek) yang menyajikan 12 kisah yang mengandung dilema moral hipotetik (garis
antara yang benar dan yang salah sengaja dibuat kabur), dipilih dari berbagai
sumber yang sangat populer di kalangan anak-anak Amerika, dan beberapa
pertimbangan lainnya.
4.
Prosedur Penelitian
Wawancara berlangsung ±30
menit per anak dan di akhir wawancara, ketiganya dihadiahi buku cerita Boxcar
Children. Wawancara direkam dan ditranskripsi lalu dikoding yang
menghasilkan 130 lembar data. Kode-kode yang digunakan berupa
singkatan-singkatan dengan kategori tertentu yang diisi berdasarkan respons
verbal anak.
5.
Teknik Analisis Data
Validitas dan reliabilitas temuan
dilakukan dengan cara-cara yang khas dalam penelitian kualitatif. Teknik
analisis data dari metode kualitatif ini antara lain, memahami makna dibalik
data yang tampak karna setiap ucapan dan perilaku orang memiliki makna
tertentu, oleh karena itu dilakukan wawancara mendalam dan obsevasi dan
dokumentasi. Dalam penelitian Hardman ini dia melakukan dokumentasi dengan cara
merekamnya. Selain itu teknik analisis lainnya dengan cara mengembangkan teori
yaitu dengan membangun data-data yang diperoleh dilapangan, Hardman
mengembangkan teoti-teori psikologi perkembangan, contohnya adalah teori
kognitif Piaget.
D. Hasil
Penelitian
Analis data secara umum menunjukkan bahwa
anak-anak memahami elemen dasar plot, karakter, dan latar yang disajikan di
setiap cerita sebelum mereka diminta mengemukakan isu-isu moral yang
dikandungnya. Henry agak kesulitan mengingat nama tokoh dalam cerita pada 3
cerita dilema Piaget di kesempatan pertama tapi setelah diulangi, Henry
berhasil mengingatnya kembali. Setelah 9 kali wawancara, hasil menunjukkan
bahwa informan memilih 36 pilihan isu dari 12 dilema yang terurai menjadi 375
jenis penilaian moral, baik berupa norma maupun elemen moral.
Hasil penelitian ini mengindikasikan
bahwa pemahaman hubungan antara perilaku dan penilaian tidak mungkin terlaksana
tanpa terlebih dahulu menerima tantangan dalam memadukan kedua pandangan yang
berbeda dalam perkembangan anak. Di satu sisi, fokus pada perubahan perilaku
dan di sisi lain berfokus pada transformasi kognitif. Penelitian ini menurutnya
hanya langkah awal untuk memahami nilai moral dari perspektif anak EBD. Jika
dilanjutkan, masyarakat diharapkan mampu memahami hubungan antara penilaian dan
perilaku pada anak-anak EBD untuk kemudian mengkaji ulang perlu tidaknya
pendirian sekolah khusus bagi mereka sehingga setiap anak memiliki peluang yang
sama untuk produktif dan dihargai oleh yang lain.
Penelitian tentang tahap
perkembangan penilaian moral dilakukan secara berkelanjutan dalam berbagai
konteks dan sudut pandang. Dari penelitian-penelitian tersebut, Hardman
menyimpulkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan persepsi di kalangan peneliti tentang
tahapan perkembangan penilaian moral, namun ditemukan beberapa variabel yang
dapat menghambat perkembangan penilaian moral anak seperti emosi negatif,
status ekonomi, ketidakmatangan keterampilan sosial, dan perilaku antisosial.
Yang menarik karena keseluruhan variabel tersebut juga terkait dengan
perkembangan anak-anak EBD. Inilah yang kemudian menjadi titik tolak Hardman
dalam melakukan penelitian dengan berasumsi bahwa masa kanak-kanak mewakili
periode kritis perkembangan penilaian moral serta intervensi perkembangan
perilaku antisosial dengan fokus utama pada perkembangan orientasi moral
kerjasama selama masa itu.
E. Pembahasan
Dalam hal penilaian moral, ketiga
anak EBD menunjukkan kecenderungan memilih nilai yang berasal dari norma
otoritas, hukuman, dan hukum yang mendukung pilihan isu mereka. Meskipun
demikian, terdapat beberapa temuan yang menunjukkan inkonsistensi mereka terhadap
pilihannya ketika diperhadapkan dengan konflik nilai dari kisah dilematis yang
diceritakan. Data lengkapnya disajikan dalam bentuk tabel dan secara umum,
Hardman menemukan bahwa mereka menitikberatkan pentingnya hukuman
sebagai kontrol perilaku dengan alasan bahwa hukumanlah yang memberi batasan
benar salahnya tindakan dan berpengaruh terhadap kepatuhan. Ketiganya
berkeyakinan bahwa menghindari hukuman akan menjerumuskan orang melakukan
tindakan yang tidak pantas. Hasil wawancara menunjukkan bahwa 90% dari 375
penilaian mengacu pada aturan normatif dan hanya 10% sisanya mengacu pada
kerjasama. Henry dan Jessie dalam kasus ini cenderung patuh karena menghindari
hukuman dan Violet konsisten dengan orientasi solidaritas dan pujian.
Referensi:
Hardman, E.L. (2011). “Three Children with Emotional
and Behavioral Disorders Tell Why People Do Right”, International Journal of
Special Education for Development Children, Vol 27(1), 2011. Diunduh pada
tanggal 28 Desember 2013 dari www.internationalsped.com
http://www.anneahira.com/teknik-analisis-data-penelitian-kualitatif.htm
diakses pukul 9:18 tanggal 28 Desember 2013
Lampiran
Journal Of Psychology Development : THREE CHILDREN
WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS TELL WHY PEOPLE DO RIGHT
Elizabeth L. Hardman
University of Florida
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a small preliminary
investigation of the moral judgment of three children with emotional and
behavioral disorders (EBD) using case study research methodology to describe
their moral orientations and explore how their reasoning patterns might affect
the development of a cooperative moral orientation. Data were gathered using a
moral dilemma interview protocol developed specifically for the study. Results
showed that all three of the children valued punishment because it defines
right from wrong and coerces obedience, but they also reasoned that avoiding
punishment can sometimes motivate people to do that which they know they should
not. The implications of the results are discussed with respect to the overuse
of punishment, the placement of children with EBD in highly restrictive special
education settings, and the potential social cognitive benefits of using
positive behavioral supports to include students with EBD in the classroom
community.
Three Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Tell Why People Do Right
Almost everyone knows the “do right” rule. This
familiar rule represents a convenient shortcut to what is actually a long list
of behaviors that are obligated by community building values such as
civility, cooperation, care, trust, and respect for the rights of others (c.f.
Kauffman, Lloyd, Baker, & Riedel, 1995; Nucci, 2001; Walker, Ramsey, &
Gresham, 2004). Community building values such as these appear to form during
childhood and are assumed to lay the foundation upon which social competence is
built, although it is not clear exactly how (e.g., Damon, 1988; Eisenberg &
Fabes, 1998). Piaget (1932/1965) advised researchers to move beyond merely
observing how precisely children comply with rules and examine instead their
moral judgment, how they judge the good and evil in the performance of their
own actions. Piaget also acknowledged that “Difficult children, whom parents
and teachers send or ought to send up for psycho-therapeutic treatment, supply
the richest material for analysis.” (p.12)
In today’s schools, emotional and behavioral disorders
(EBD) is the special education designation given to students who are referred
for services because they exhibit antisocial behavior, distorted cognition,
and/or disordered emotion to a marked degree (Kauffman & Landrum, 2009;
Rutherford, Quinn, & Mathur, 2004). The behavioral manifestations of EBD
occur along two dimensions, externalized or aggressive, acting out behaviors
and internalized or withdrawal. Children may display either or both of these dimensions
but externalized behaviors characterize the most prevalent types of EBD and
cause the most concern in classrooms (Langdon, 1997). In fact, teachers view
students who exhibit aggressive, acting out behaviors as the most difficult to
teach and report that they are least liked by their peers (Kauffman & Wong,
1991). The behavioral characteristics of these students has received much
attention from the research community (Rutherford et al.) while only a few have
examined the moral judgment of children with EBD to describe how their judgment
differs from that of typical peers, focusing specifically on the development of
a cooperative moral orientation (Hardman, 2002).
The Development of Moral Judgment
Judgment is a term used to describe an intentional
endeavor to discover the connections between what one does and its consequence
(Dewey, 1916/1944). Assuming that moral realities are constructed in the same
way, Piaget (1932/1965) conducted the seminal study of the development of moral
judgment in childhood by exploring how children’s past experiences and thinking
affected present perceptions of the way in which their actions and their
consequences are related. Piaget’s subjects were infants to 12-year olds living
in Geneva and Neuchatel, Switzerland. He initiated his research by first
observing children of various ages as they played games and questioning them
about the fairness of various deviations from the rules as they played. He then
tested the explanatory power of the reasoning patterns he discovered by
presenting children ages three through thirteen with moral dilemmas about
clumsiness, stealing, and lying; retributive versus distributive punishment;
collective and/or communicable responsibility; immanent justice; equality and
authority; and justice among children. The results showed that the practice of
rules develops in four stages; sensorimotor, egocentric, cooperation,
and codification; but that the consciousness of obligation develops in
three; non-moral, heteronomy, and autonomy. Although Piaget found
that the age of onset for each stage varied somewhat from child to child, he
described the stage sequence itself as invariant and universal.
The first stage in the practice of rules is defined as
sensorimotor, a time in infancy when children manipulate the
accoutrements of games for the purpose of sensory stimulation alone (Piaget,
1932/1965). Infants are not aware of moral obligation and are non-moral
with respect to obligation. Egocentrism develops at about age two or three as
children become aware of rules but practice them only to suit their own
purposes. They are heteronymous with respect to obligation, believing that
rules are imposed by all powerful external authorities who must be obeyed to avoid
certain punishment. Children continue to be externally focused with respect to
obligation as the cooperation stage and perspective taking emerge at
about age five or six (Siegler, 1998). With perspective taking, children gain
insight into others’ thoughts and desires and are able to understand that
others may have legitimate interests and desires that are different from their
own. Without it, they continue to look to external authorities for moral
direction and must rely almost entirely on salient clues like reward,
punishment, and the severity of damage done to determine obligation (Siegler,
1998). Egocentrism and heteronomy both seem to serve an important protective
function during early childhood but may increase the risk for antisocial
behavior when they continue into adolescence because. While moral realism
renders them dependent upon external authorities for moral direction,
egocentrism allows rule-oriented behavior only when it suits selfish needs but
at a time when size and level of freedom enjoin cooperation and moral autonomy
(Gibbs, 1995). Piaget found that it is through experiences of cooperation in
respectful society with others that children transition into the codification
stage at about age twelve at which time they are able to realize that laws and
rules are mutually agreed upon social constructions that allow society to
function fairly and harmoniously.
In 1987, Colby and Kohlberg defined moral judgments as
imperatives derived from some rule or principle that the speaker believes is
binding on one’s actions. Moral judgments are (a) judgments of value, not fact;
(b) social judgments involving people; (c) prescriptive or normative judgments,
and (d) value judgments about rights and responsibilities as opposed to liking
and preference. They also refined Piaget’s theory (1932/1965),
identifying six moral orientations grouped into three levels: (a) the pre-conventional
level which is egocentric in intent and includes the punishment-obedience
and personal reward orientations; (b) the conventional level
which is cooperative in intent and includes the good boy/nice girl and law
and order orientations; and (c) the principled or post-conventional
level which includes the social contract and universal ethical
principle orientations. Their research with children showed that by age
nine, conventional level reasoning characterized most of their reasoning but
with a few exceptions. For example, juvenile delinquents, adult criminals, and
individuals with low SES tend to judge from an egocentric orientation and
develop cooperation at a slower rate and sometimes not at all, an effect
attributed to the limited opportunities these individuals have to participate
in society and its institutions (Colby, Kohlberg, Gibbs, & Lieberman,
1987).
Similar to Piaget (1932/1965), Colby and Kohlberg
(1987a) presented their stage sequence as universal and invariant. One cannot
simply internalize higher stage reasoning but can only move forward in the next
logical step of cognitive reorganization. To provide support for claims of
universality, Colby, Kohlberg, and Nisan (1987) studied the development of
moral judgment in Turkish males and found that their patterns of reasoning fit
the stage structures and sequence described but only with respect to the first
four stages. In a longitudinal study of the moral judgment of kibbutz
adolescents, Colby, Kohlberg, Snarey, and Reimer (1987) found patterns similar
to those reported for samples in the United States and other cultures but also
observed that the maturation of judgment in kibbutz adolescents was accelerated
when compared to adolescents in other cultures, an effect attributed to the
living in a democratically organized community such as an Israeli kibbutz
(Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1989).
Subsequent Research
Stage theories about the development of moral judgment
(Colby & Kohlberg (1987a; Piaget, 1932/1965) have received much attention
from researchers who study it as an invariant sequence of stages, a function of
social domains, or a reflection of cultural norms and values (e.g., Kurtines
& Gewirtz, 1995). Social constructivist, in particular, have challenged the
universality of stage theories with the results of cross-cultural studies that
suggest that the structural elements of children’s moral judgment is a
reflection of cultural specific norms and values (e.g., Brown, Tappan, &
Gilligan; Edwards, 1987; Gilligan, 1982; Shweder et al., 1987). For example,
Edwards conducted an ethnographic study comparing the moral judgment of young
African Oyugis children and American preschool children in a Vassar College
Nursery School. Her results showed that the Oyugis children conformed to
cultural conventions according to the salience of the social benefits connected
to cooperation with rules. Edwards reported that Oyugis parents did not need to
preach to their children about the rationales underlying rules because the
routines of their lives contain ample evidence. In comparison, the values and
norms taught in the Vassar College Nursery School differed from those taught to
Oyugis children but the method of inculcation was the same. As a result,
Edwards concluded that the learning environment, not the child, subdivides
morality into separate domains, such as moral and conventional and that with
increasing age and experience, ”children apply progressively more complex and
mobile logical schemas to cultural distinctions and categories; they transform
what they are told and what they experience into their own self-organized
realities.” (p. 149)
Gilligan (1982) and her colleagues (e.g., Brown et
al., 1995) studied the development of moral judgment in females and found that
females were more likely to interpret moral dilemmas from a care orientation as
opposed to a justice/rights orientation. Cassidy, Chu, and Dahlsgaard (1997)
investigated children’s use of care and justice orientations when presented
with four types of moral dilemmas designed to prompt a care perspective (one
dilemma), a justice perspective (one dilemma), or either justice or care (two
dilemmas) and found that children used justice and care orientations at equal
rates and would accept both orientations to the same dilemma regardless of
gender. Others have also studied gender differences in children’s judgment and
have found no significant difference (c.f. Barchard & Atkins, 1991;
Smetana, 1993).
Researchers do not agree about how moral judgment
develops but, as a result of their research, have uncovered several variables
that may differentiate, slow, or terminate its development such as negative
emotionality, low SES, immature social skills, and antisocial behavior (c.f.
Hardman, 2002; Astor, 1994; Astor & Behre, 1997; Colby et al. 1987; Eisenberg
& Fabes, 1998; Gibbs, 2003; Hoffman, 2000). Interestingly, all of these
variables are also related to the development of EBD (e.g., Kauffman &
Landrum, 2009; Rutherford et al., 2004). Since childhood represents a critical
time for the development of moral judgment (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987; Piaget,
1932/1965) and intervention in the development of antisocial behavior (Reid,
Patterson, & Snyder, 2002; Walker et al., 2004), the present study
represents a necessary first step in the study of the moral judgment of
children with EBD, focused specifically on the development of a cooperative
moral orientation during childhood.
Methods
Data were collected and analyzed to address the
following research question. What are the values expressed in the moral
judgments of three children with EBD and how might those values affect the
development of a cooperative moral orientation? Case study research was
employed to investigate the research question because qualitative research
methods are particularly well suited for facilitating the discovery process in
preliminary investigations such as this one, where the relationships among the
variables of interest are not well-researched or understood (Strauss &
Corbin). Data were collected using moral dilemma interviews and then analyzed
for the purpose of facilitating insight into subjectively experienced phenomena
in terms of the meanings the children might bring to them (Guba & Lincoln,
1994). Via moral dilemma interviews, it was hoped that the children would be
able to elaborate the intricate details of their feelings and thought processes
(Strauss & Corbin) as they undertook interpretive activities, moment by
moment, to construct, manage, and sustain a sense that their social worlds
existed as factual and objectively “there” (Gubrium & Holstein, 1997).
Setting and Participants
Lacking previous research on the moral judgment of
children with EBD, the informant sample was limited to three in number and
included only children with EBD in anticipation that there might be
communication problems, inadequate motivation to participate in the interviews,
and/or problems comprehending the moral stories and the questions that would
follow. Conducing individually administered interviews and interpreting the
results is also labor intensive, so the informant sample was limited to three.
Since the internal validity of case study results is established using multiple
data sources, multiple data collection methods, and the degree of match with
theory (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996), three seemed to be the minimum number of
points needed to test the generalizability of any patterns and themes that
might develop across interviews and informants and would allow for the
selection of one third, one fourth, and one fifth grade student from a
previously selected random sample of 21 third through fifth grade children with
EBD who had parental consent to participate in this and another related study
(see Hardman, 2002). The random sample from which the three informants were
selected included only two students who did not have low SES as measured by
free or reduced lunch status, one Caucasian and one African American male
student. There were only two female students in the EBD sample and both had low
SES. All three of the children in the informant sample had low SES, were
African American, and attended a self contained classroom for students with
EBD. One was female and two were male. The third grade boy was given the
pseudonym Henry, the fourth grade girl Violet, and the fifth grade girl Jessie.
Henry and Violet went to the same school but were not in the same classroom. At
the time of the first interview, Violet’s teacher characterized her as
disruptive, noncompliant, and aggressive when she was placed in her classroom
but reported that her behavior was now much improved since that time. Henry and
Jessie’s teachers described their behavior as disruptive, noncompliant, and
aggressive and warned that they might not cooperate during the interviews.
Research Procedures
Data were collected using an interview protocol
developed specifically for the study comprised of 12 hypothetical moral
dilemmas selected from Colby and Kohlberg (1987b), Piaget (1932/1965), and The
Boxcar Children (Warner, 1977). Each story presents informants with a
conflict in values that poses no clear choice between right and wrong. Only a
small sample of the many Piagetian dilemmas was selected for inclusion in the
interview protocol, but these dilemmas were selected because they are child
friendly and depict scenarios familiar to most children. Louise’s Dilemma
was selected from Colby and Kohlberg’s interview protocol because it is the
only story that is focused on issues familiar to children. All of the other
stories are more sophisticated and adult focused, including the Heinz
Dilemma, which was selected because it is one of the most well known.
Kolbergian and Piagetian dilemmas were also selected because both had been used
for theory building and submitted to subsequent research. In contrast, TheBoxcar
ChildrenDilemma was created specifically for this study because it opposes
solidarity among children against adult authority in a way that seemed to
entice children to value cooperation with peers over obedience to authority.
The wording for the Piagetian and Kohlbergian dilemmas was slightly edited, but
TheBoxcar ChildrenDilemma was worded exactly as it is in the book. By
using a variety of dilemmas from multiple sources, the researcher hoped to
increase the generalizability of any patterns and themes that might develop
across interviews and informants. Table 1 lists the dilemmas by title,
interview number, issue choice, and plot and the text for each story can be
found in the Appendix.
Interview were scheduled in consultation with each
child’s teacher and lasted approximately 30 minutes each. The interviewees were
given a copy of The Boxcar Children as a thank you gift at the final
interview. After each dilemma was read aloud, the researcher asked, “Tell me
what this story is about,” to check comprehension of the characters, setting,
and plot. If any critical information was omitted, the story was reviewed and
the child questioned again about the critical story elements before the
researcher continued the interview by asking the informant to make an issue
choice. For example, the Heinz Dilemma is about a man named Heinz who
wants desperately to save his dying wife and is considering stealing a
lifesaving drug from a greedy local druggist who will not lower the inflated
price or sell the drug to him on time. After confirming story comprehension,
the research asked, “Should Heinz steal the drug?” The answer to that question,
which could be a simple yes or no, was then followed by additional open ended
questions intended to probe the child’s reasons for choosing one issue over
another.
The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and
entered into The Ethnograph (v5.0) for coding and analysis. The 9
interviews (3 informants x 3 interviews) produced 130 pages of data that were
coded using Colby & Kohlberg’s Standard Issue Scoring (1987b) as a guide.
A comprehension category (COMP) was created to include the children’s
responses to questions about the major story elements so that story
comprehension could also be evaluated. The remaining data were then broadly
categorized as either an issue choice (IC) or moral judgment (MJ). For
example, when asked, “Should Heinz steal the drug to save his wife,” a simple
no indicated that upholding the law was the issue choice. If the child
changed his or her mind after further deliberation, the final decision was
coded as the issue choice. All other responses to the open ended questions
about the issue choice were then coded as moral judgments as long as the
response included a valued norm and was prescriptive in terms of patterns that
developed both within and across informants (Gall et al., 1996). Judgments
offered in support of the issue choice were coded with a plus (MJ+) and for the
issue not chosen with a minus (MJ-). The norm (N), which represents the moral
value or object of concern offered in support of the issue choice (Colby &
Kohlberg, 1987b), was then identified and coded. For example, in The Heinz
Dilemma, the informant might decide that Heinz should not steal the drug
because you should not take things that do not belong to you. The issue choice
is to uphold the law (IC: LAW), but the norm offered in support of that choice
is respect for individual property rights (N: PROP). This researcher would then
follow up with why questions to generate information about the child’s reasons
for endowing the norm with value, which was coded as either a modal element
(ME) or a value element (VE). The model element expresses the mood or modality
of the moral language and may represent the terminal value or justification for
the issue choice and the value elementprovides the terminal value or
justification for the issue choice. For example, an informant might decide that
Heinz should not steal the drug because, “It’s wrong.” One should not steal
simply because society disapproves of stealing (ME: BLAME). No terminal value
is given. Or, an informant might say, “Stealing is wrong because you might go
to jail,” indicating that the ultimate end or reason for the valuing the norm
is to avoid punishment (VE: PUNISH).
Table 1 Issues Represented in Twelve Dilemmas
Interview
|
Dilemma
|
Issue Choice
|
Plot
|
I
|
The Heinz Dilemma
|
Heinz steals a drug to save his wife, is caught, and
tried.
|
|
Part 1
|
life/ law
|
||
Part 2
|
conscience/law
|
||
Part 3
|
conscience/punishment
|
||
II
|
Louise’s Dilemma
|
authority/contract
|
A mother breaks a promise.
|
Father’s Pen
|
conscience/punishment
|
A child finds Father’s lost pen.
|
|
Mother’s Scissors
|
punishment/fairness
|
Two girls play with mother’s scissors, but one does
not.
|
|
Doing Chores
|
authority/contract
|
A scoutmaster asks a scout to do someone else’s
chores.
|
|
The Foolish Brother
|
authority/contract
|
A father asks his son to tell on his brother.
|
|
The Long Walk
|
equality/equity
|
One big boy and one little boy must share one lunch.
|
|
III
|
The Boxcar Children
|
||
Part 1
|
affiliation/authority
|
An adult asks runaway siblings to identify
themselves.
|
|
Part 2
|
affiliation/law
|
The siblings run away from the baker’s wife.
|
|
Part 3
|
affiliation/life
|
The youngest sister becomes ill.
|
Throughout each interview, the researcher repeatedly
probed the children’s reasoning about each dilemma both for and against the
issue choice with simple why questions to generate as much information as
possible about the children’s values and increase the generalizability of the
themes and
Reliability and validity
Evidence of construct validity for data collected
using moral dilemma interviews is represented in the degree to which the
patterns and themes identified match the hypothesized theoretical framework for
the development of moral judgment (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987a). An associate
professor in special education who was familiar with Colby & Kohlberg’s
theory and scoring procedures conducted an external audit of the results by
randomly selecting one of the nine interviews to review independently and
marking a plus (+) for agree or a minus (–) for disagree for every code in the
14 page interview. The reliability of the interpretation was then calculated by
dividing the number of agreements by the sum of disagreements and agreements,
obtaining the following results: comprehension 1.00, issue choice 1.00,
moral judgment 1.00, norm 1.00, and modal element 1.00,
and value element .93.
Results
The analysis of the comprehension data showed that, in
most cases, the children understood the basic elements of plot, character, and
setting presented in each story before deliberating the moral issues
represented. Henry had difficulty recalling the characters’ names in three of
the Piagetian dilemmas (1932/1965) after first hearing the story but was able
to remember them after listening to the story for a second time. Over the
course of the nine interviews, the results showed that the informants made 36
issue choices in response to 12 dilemmas (see Table 1) and justified those
issue choices with 375 moral judgments that were prescriptive and included both
a valued norm and a moral element.
Issue Choice
An analysis of the issue choices revealed that Jessie
and Henry generally made quick, firm issue choices in response to the issue
prompt but that Violet tended to equivocate as she explored various solutions
to the dilemma before returning to her original choice and confirming it. Table
2 shows that Henry and Jessie tended to make heteronymous issue choices
obligated by external sources such as authority figures, law, or punishment but
Violet was more likely to select autonomously obligated choices such as
maintaining affiliation and appealing to one’s good intentions. For example, in
Part 3 of The Heinz Dilemma, Jessie and Henry decided that Heinz should
go to jail if he steals regardless of his intentions while Violet reasoned that
the judge should exonerate Heinz because his intentions were good. Likewise, in
The Foolish Brother, Violet chose maintaining a good relationship with a
sibling over reporting a foolish brother’s bad behavior at their father’s
request. Henry and Jessie determined, however, that if the father asks, the
brother must tell.
Table 2 Summary of Issue Choice by Informant
Issue Choice
|
Definition
|
Henry
|
Violet
|
Jessie
|
|||
Heteronymous Choices
|
|||||||
Authority (4)
|
authority
|
4
|
2
|
3
|
|||
Punishment (3)
|
retribution for wrongdoing
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|||
Law (3)
|
laws or rules
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|||
Fairness (2)
|
equality
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|||
Total
|
8
|
4
|
8
|
||||
Autonomous Choices
|
|||||||
Affiliation (4)
|
maintaining relationships
|
1
|
4
|
2
|
|||
Conscience (3)
|
good intentions
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
|||
Life (2)
|
quality of quantity of life
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|||
Fairness (2)
|
equity
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
|||
Contract (2)
|
keeping promises
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|||
Total
|
4
|
8
|
4
|
||||
Note. The number of times the issue was presented is in
parentheses. Fairness represented a choice between judging with equality or
equality.
Moral Judgments
Table 3 shows that all of the children tended to value
the norms authority, punishment, and law in support of their issue choices. For
example, Henry said that a mother can break a promise because, “If she changed
her mind then you just can’t go [to the concert]. That’s how it is. She [is] a
grown person.” Jessie agreed. “Cause your momma says you got to buy new clothes
[with your money], you got to buy new clothes. You can’t go to no concert.” A
scoutmaster has unlimited authoritybecause “he’s older than them” and “you do
what grownups tell you to do,” even if the request does not seem fair. Jessie
and Violet limited adult authority somewhat saying that only those who have an
intimate relationship with a child have this level of absolute authority
because, “That’s your child. Can’t nobody else say that.” In contrast, Henry
judged that an adult must always be obeyed, even if the person is a stranger or
might wish to hurt them. “She might want to kill them. So what? Don’t walk up
to her then.”
The children valued the norm punishment a total of 55
times even though it was offered as an issue choice only twice. In Father’s
Pen, all of them reasoned that the punished boy was the one who returned
his father’s pen and would not play with his father’s papers again. Similarly,
they concluded that a parent explaining the impropriety of his actions to a
child would do no good. The child would do it again unless he was punished.
They all stated that the nicest father is “one that punishes” and that the
fairest choice is to punish. Violet imposed a caring perspective on punishment
saying, “Your father won’t whip you if he don’t love you, but like he do whip
you and then he love you anyways.” She was also not as consistent as the other
two in her preference for punishment. For example, in Part III of The Heinz
Dilemma, Jessie and Henry judged that Heinz must be punished if he breaks
the law, but Violet decided that, “But for him, it’s like, I would have let him
go free because of the position that he was in.”
Table 3 Summary of Norms Valued by Interview and
Informant
Informant
|
Henry
|
Violet
|
Jessie
|
|||||||||||||||
Interview
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
|||||||||
Heteronymous Choices
|
||||||||||||||||||
Authority
|
15
|
13
|
14
|
22
|
3
|
0
|
12
|
11
|
1
|
|||||||||
Punishment
|
4
|
17
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
0
|
8
|
10
|
0
|
|||||||||
Property
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
10
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||||
Law
|
13
|
0
|
4
|
12
|
0
|
0
|
22
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||||
Equality
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
|||||||||
Total
|
83
|
60
|
78
|
|||||||||||||||
Autonomous Choices
|
|||||||||||
Affiliation
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
15
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
||
Equity
|
0
|
13
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||
Conscience
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||
Life
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
||
Contract
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
||
Total
|
17
|
29
|
15
|
||||||||
Upholding the law was also a popular norm choice, but
inconsistencies occurred when affiliation, or maintaining relationships, was
the opposing choice. For example, the researcher asked Jessie if Heinz’s love
for his wife would justify his stealing the drug to save her life. Jessie
softly responded, “Yeah,” but when the researcher tried to confirm her choice,
Jessie began shaking her head no as the researcher spoke. They researcher then
asked, “So, it doesn’t matter how much he loves her. He should not steal the
drug?” This time, Jessie nodded in agreement and softly responded, “Yeah. “ In
her words and actions, it seemed clear that Jessie was not really sure if Heinz
should obey the law or listen to his heart.
Henry was also inconsistent in his preference for
upholding the law when affiliation was the opposing choice. In Part 1 of The
Heinz Dilemma, he adamantly proclaimed that stealing is wrong under any
circumstances but in Part 2, qualified this position saying that if Heinz and
Officer Brown “roll together”, the officer should not report the crime. While
Henry was not mature enough to understand the intimacy of marriage, he did know
about friendship. One should not report a friend’s wrongdoing. Similarly,
Violet reasoned that the boxcar children should run away from the baker and his
wife but also stated that people should always do “everything in their power”
to obey the law. Yet, “Sometimes you just have to not do it.”
Table 4 shows that avoiding blame and/or seeking
approval was the most frequently cited model element and that Henry and Jessie
referenced this model element more frequently than Violet. For example, when
asked why stealing is wrong, Jessie replied, “Cause it’s not right.” When
pressed to explain why, she reiterated saying, “Cause you can’t, can’t be doing
that. Cause that’d be wrong.” Obeying was the second most frequently cited
modal element. Ascout should do another scout’s chores at the scoutmaster’s
request, “[Jessie] Because she’s supposed to listen to her master.” Obedience
is necessary, “[Henry] to learn, to teach.” Neither child offered a terminal
value to support the decision. Quite simply, people should do right to avoid
blame and/or to obey. In contrast, Violet seemed more likely to provide a value
element and when any of the three asserted a terminal value, it was usually to
avoid punishment and/or other troubles or to seek personal reward. For example,
the child obeys his father, “[Henry] cause he didn’t want to get a whipping
again.” Stealing is wrong, “[Jessie] Cause people don’t like people to steal
and stuff, and you will go to jail.” Children should not break the law because,
“[Violet] When they young like that they don’t need to be going to jail . . .
And another thing is that if they gonna steal, all they gonna do is get beat up
and stuff . . . And he can get killed for that.”
Table 4 Summary of Moral Elements Used By Informant
and Interview
Informant
|
Henry
|
Jessie
|
Violet
|
||||||
Interview
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
I
|
II
|
III
|
Modal Elements
|
|||||||||
blame/approve
|
26
|
17
|
16
|
41
|
10
|
19
|
34
|
9
|
12
|
obey/consult
|
23
|
24
|
12
|
22
|
19
|
10
|
17
|
22
|
17
|
retribute/exonerate
|
2
|
7
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
0
|
a right
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
A duty
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
*Total
|
Henry
|
130
|
Violet
|
126
|
Jessie
|
119
|
|||
Egocentric Value Elements
|
|||||||||
avoid punishment
|
1
|
6
|
10
|
17
|
5
|
17
|
7
|
0
|
9
|
avoid trouble/ seek reward
|
4
|
9
|
2
|
14
|
3
|
1
|
10
|
2
|
0
|
Total
|
Henry
|
32
|
Violet
|
57
|
Jessie
|
28
|
|||
Cooperative Value Elements
|
|||||||||
consequences for others
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
social order
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
equality/equality
|
0
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
role taking
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Total
|
Henry
|
18
|
Violet
|
16
|
Jessie
|
3
|
Note. Since a moral judgment must have a model element to be
complete, this number also represents the total number of judgments rendered by
each informant.
The Children’s Values and the Development of Cooperation
The development of a cooperative moral orientation is
represented in a gradual understanding of the rational rule as self-imposed
through mutual consent. The cognitive structures that support the development
of cooperation typically emerge at about age five and are usually fully
developed by about age nine or ten (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987a; Piaget,
1932/1965), except in cases when children have low SES or exhibit significant
levels of antisocial behavior. In these cases, researchers have found that
cooperation may develop differently or sometimes not at all (c.f. Astor, 1994;
Astor & Behre, 1997; Hardman, 2002; Colby et al., 1987; Gibbs, 2003,
fueling speculation that any factor that limits a child’s experiences of equal
participation and equality of opportunity in society might also slow and/or
truncate the development of cooperation and preclude the emergence of autonomy
in adolescence. All of the children who participated in the present study
ranged in age from nine to twelve, attended special education classrooms for
students with EBD, and had low SES and the interview results showed that 338
(90%) of their 375 judgments were normative order (221) or egocentric (117) in
orientation and that only 37 (10%) were cooperative. Henry and Jessie’s judgments
were characteristically punishment-obedience in orientation while Violet’s were
consistent with a personal reward orientation.
Henry and Jessie’s Values
The interview results showed that Henry and Jessie
expressed a normative order orientation motivated motivated by a desire to
avoid blame or seek approval and to obey authority or any law or rule backed by
punishment. This perspective allowed them to judge concisely and with
confidence most of the time. For example, when asked why people have to obey
the law, Jessie responded indignantly,
Because they have to! Then you go to jail if you break
the law! Then they have to! Then God will come down and tell you, you break the
law and stuff . . . God’s going to tell you. You don’t break the law no more
cause that would be wrong!
She could not explain why breaking the law is wrong
even though she was given many opportunities to do so. The formula was simple.
People must obey the law given to use by God or face certain punishment.
Likewise, Henry explained that a father should whip his disobedient son instead
of appealing to his good conscience because a whipping would make “him stop
from stealing and touching stuff he ain’t supposed to be touching. And keep you
from out of trouble.” Explaining would do no good; he would disobey again
without punishment. Neither of these examples contains a value element but on
occasions where one was provided, the terminal value was to avoid punishment,
which set the stage for a most interesting conflict in values.
For example, in Louise’s Dilemma, Jessie judged
that a mother must use punishment to coerce obedience but also reasoned that
her daughter should “Keep quiet,” lie if necessary, to avoid being “hollered at
and stuff. . . and put on punishment.” Similarly, Henry stated that it was
wrong for the boxcar children to run away from home because it is against the
law. They would be punished when caught but reversed his decision when he found
out that the baker’s wife was going to mistreat the older children and send the
youngest child Benny to an orphanage. Once again, Henry pensively reconsidered
the children’s choices saying,
If they take away the baby, then . . . they’ll take
him away. They don’t want him to go away. If they go home they might get
in trouble. Where he at, where she at? . . . [Should they run away if it is
against the law?] Yes. No. [No? Why?] Because it’s wrong and [pause]. No. Yes.
Yes. I say yes.
Running away is wrong and would be punished but so is
losing one’s little brother. Henry was confused, perhaps because he lacked
insight into the adverse consequences and psychological harm that might come to
Benny if the children did not run away. Thus, he could only conclude that
although running away is wrong, they must do it anyway. When punishment was eminent,
Henry and Jessie both became confused about what ought to be done and often
prescribed that which they knew was wrong. According to Henry, “They ain’t got
to [obey], but it’s what they’re supposed to do.”
Violet’s Values
Violet’s judgments differed from the other two in that
she more frequently chose affiliation as an issue or norm choice and justified
her choices with the value elements to avoid trouble in addition to punishment
and to seek personal reward. This moral stance allowed her to resolve the
conflict between valuing punishment and avoiding it as well by reasoning that
what serves one’s own best interest is the ultimate test of what one ought to
do. This pattern of reasoning became most apparent when she engaged in
perspective taking, attempts that usually amounted to nothing more than a
projection of her own wants and desires onto another. For example, when asked
if it is right for a mother to break a promise about how her daughter could
spend babysitting money, Violet replied
If I was the mother, yes, I would have told her no
because she probably paid for Judy’s school clothes every year and she gonna be
getting tired of that. She probably want to buy her[self] some new outfits or
something.
In this example, Violet reduced the moral context of a
broken promise to a simple matter of competing self-interests. Similarly, in The
Heinz Dilemma, she clearly calculated the assets and liabilities of each
choice, deciding at first that Heinz should not steal the drug.
That doesn’t make no sense because even if he do get
the medicine and give it to his wife, he’s still not going to get away with
that. They gonna catch him eventually. . . If his wife do get unsick or she do
get well, he’s not gonna be able to see her.On the other hand, if he steals the
drug and his wife gets well, “If she works hard, she loves him to death too.
She will have to earn money to get him out. She’ll recover, or whatever. Try to
get him out, in a way.” The problem is to figure out how Heinz can cut the best
deal for himself.
In The Long Walk, Violet was asked to decide
how to fairly divide one lunch between two children when one child is younger
than the other. At first, she assumed the role of the older child and said that
she would split the lunch evenly with the younger one. The researcher then
forced a change in perspective and asked if that would be fair if she were the
younger child. Violet began to equivocate, “Either split it up with me or give
it all to me.” Probing still further, the researcher asked if it would be fair for
the older child to give all of the food to the younger child. Violet responded,
“Probably not for her, but for me, yeah.” Quite simply, what is fair for one
may not be fair for another; that is the nature of fairness. As she deliberated
each dilemma, Violet consistently prefaced her thoughts by repeating the same
phrases over and over again. “In a way . . , It could be wrong or could be
right . . . ,” and “It depends on what kind of situation it is.” The right
choice is the one that provides the most benefit to the actor.
The Development of Cooperation
The children did not always judge from a normative
order or egocentric moral orientation. In fact, 10% of their judgments were
cooperative in orientation and in all of these cases, affiliation was the issue
choice. For example, in The Foolish Brother, Violet advised that a boy
should not tattle on his brother because, “Well he should say the boy didn’t do
anything cause that’s his brother and he might do something like his brother
did and he wouldn’t want nobody to tell on him, what he did.” In Parts 1 and 2
of the Boxcar Children Dilemma, all of the children valued affiliation
over authority and law but Violet was the only one who valued affiliation
inPart 3, as well. As the story goes, the youngest girl of the four siblings
becomes ill and the children are faced with a choice between taking her to the
doctor and being discovered or caring for her themselves and risking her
recovery. Jessie and Henry were certain that the little girl must see a doctor,
even if it meant that the children would be found and sent to live with their
mean grandfather. Violet, however, arrived at a different conclusion, however,
deciding that the children should not take the little girl to the doctor. “Not
if they want to stay together.” In Violet’s case, the story of the boxcar
children seemed to inspire a nascent sense of solidarity, defined as the desire
to stand with others to protect collective as opposed to individual interests.
Right or wrong, we will equally bear the burdens and share the benefits of our
life together. Piaget (1932/1965) identified solidarity as a cognitive
phenomenon of critical importance in the development of moral autonomy because
it is a necessary prerequisite of understanding the rational rule as self-imposed
through mutual consent.
Building Relationships through Cooperation
Regardless of what children know about right or wrong
or how precisely they practice the rules that define appropriate social
behavior, their actions cannot be predicted with any certainty across all
social contexts. This does not mean that behavior and judgment are unrelated
but suggests instead that this relationship is mediated by the social context
itself (Damon, 1988). For example, all three of the children with EBD who
participated in the present study demonstrated cooperative behavior throughout
every interview without incident. They were eager to share their thoughts and
were always polite and respectful. They consistently maintained that any
behavior prohibited by society is wrong and that disobedience should be
punished, but an clear conflict in values emerged when they also determined
that one is not obligated to do right if disobedience would allow an escape
from punishment and other trouble or might result in personal reward.
Although punishment and other negative consequences
serve the purpose of defining the behaviors society sanctions, the results of
the present study indicate that avoiding these same consequences may motivate
children to do that which they know they should not. This conflict in values
bears particular significance in the education of children with EBD and at risk
peers since research in classrooms indicates that punishment, trouble, and few
opportunities for personal reward often define the moral context of the
classroom community for many of these students (e.g., Books, 1998; Jack et al.
1996; Kauffman, 2003; Walker et al., 2004). When the moral context is punitive
and unfriendly, children may perceive the classroom as harsh and uncaring, a
place where they have been defined as outcasts and must fend for themselves for
no one else will (Nucci, 2001). Egocentrism then serves as an adaptive response
to a hostile environment (Hardman, 2002).
A cooperative moral orientation develops in a
friendly, nurturing social context deliberately focused on building mutually
respecting, trusting relationships among peers and with authority figures. It
is in this social context that children acquire the courage to tell the truth
and do what they know is right in spite of the consequences (Nucci, 2001;
Piaget, 1932/1965). Recent research indicates that friendships play an
important role in supporting children’s social cognitive development because
they provide a buffer against the adverse consequences associated with feeling isolated
and rejected (Aunola & Nurmi, 2007; Dodge et al., 2003). The results of the
present study also showed that when the children’s judgments were anchored in
affiliation, cooperative moral motives emerged and the children expressed
concern about the wants and needs of others. Yet friendly is not a word
typically used to describe the social context of classroom for many children
with EBD. On the contrary, many of these children experienced years of
alienation and rejection prior to their placement in a special education
program for students with EBD and after placement, they will likely remain
sequestered from the mainstream of school society in a highly restrictive
educational setting for the duration of their schooling (e.g., Kauffman &
Landrum, 2009; Rutherford et al., 2004).
Regardless of placement, best practices in special
education prescribe the use of positive behavioral intervention supports
(PBIS), not punishment, to facilitate the inclusion and reintegration of
students with EBD in the general education classroom (e.g., Walker et al.,
2004). PBIS grew out of applied behavior analysis, but theory and research on
the development of moral judgment implies that the provision of PBIS in diverse
educational settings may also support the development of community building
values such as civility, cooperation, care, trust, and respect for the rights
of others. In a benevolent but diverse learning community, children’s
conceptions of fairness, human welfare, and rights are naturally stimulated as
they acquire a critical moral orientation toward their own conduct, the conduct
of others, and prevailing societal norms and internalize the intent of societal
conventions and social organization (Nucci, 2001). Thus it seems that PBIS may
do more than facilitate the learning and practice social conventions but may
also transform a harsh, uncaring classroom into the kind of inclusive learning
community children with and at risk for EBD need to internalize community
building values that support the development of cooperation and a gradual
understanding of the rational rule self-imposed through mutual consent.
Limitations and Future Research
The focus of this research was to describe the values
expressed in the moral judgment of three children with EBD. Caution should be
observed, however, in generalizing case study results to persons or situations
other than those included in the study (Gall et al., 1996). The results
describe the moral judgment of the three children who participated in the
present study only in response to the 12 dilemmas presented and may or may not
indicate how these children would have responded given a different set of
dilemmas. In addition, the reliability of the analysis was high as measured by
agreement between the researcher and an external auditor on a small sample of
interview data, but there is no method for evaluating the reliability of
judgment with respect to predicting behavioral responding in real life events
(Colby & Kohlberg, 1987a). The children explained only what they thought they
might do which may or may not be what they actually would do in any given
situation. This limitation does not mean that the results of this and other
similar research efforts have no relevance with respect to the relationship
between behavior and the development of moral judgment, for that is not the
case. In fact, functional behavioral assessments are widely used in special
education to determine behavioral intent by observing the connections between
behavior and its consequences (Alberto & Troutman, 2006). Moral dilemma
interviews are conducted for the same purpose but in this case, intent is
revealed by exposing the child’s perceptions of the connections between
behavior and its consequences (Piaget, 1932/1965). The difference lies in the
point of analysis, behavior versus judgment, but the underlying assumption is
the same. Behavior is motivated by judgment.
Case study research is also limited with respect to
determining causal effects but the results of the present study seem to suggest
that unraveling the mysterious relationship between behavior and judgment may
be more complex than simply applying more rigorous research methodology. The
problem seems similar to the one faced by the three blind men who were trying
to determine what an elephant looks like by separately investigating the front,
middle, and hind parts of the enormous creature using only their sense of
touch. It was not until they engaged in respectful dialogue about what each had
discovered that they were finally able to form an accurate mental picture of
the animal. Likewise, the results of the present study indicate that
understanding the relationship between behavior and judgment will not be
accomplished without first accepting the challenge of integrating two very
different perspectives of child development, one focused on behavioral change
and the other on cognitive transformation. The present study represents only a
small but necessary first step in perhaps opening that dialogue, but with
continued study of the moral judgment of children with EBD, the research
community may be able to develop a clearer picture of the assumed relationship
between judgment and behavior and at the same time, improve current methods of
intervention in and prevention of EBD via inclusive classrooms that afford every
child the opportunity to become a productive, well respected citizen in a
diverse community of learners.
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Appendix
Interview I
Colby & Kohlberg (1987b)
The Heinz Dilemma
Part 1. In another country, a woman was near death from a
special kind of cancer. There was one kind of medicine that the doctors thought
might save her. The medicine was called radium and a druggist in the
woman’s town had recently discovered how to make the medicine. The
medicine was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what it
cost him to make the medicine. He paid $400 for the radium, but charged
$4000 for a small dose of the medicine. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz,
went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but
he could only get together about $2000, which is half of what the medicine
costs. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to
sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I
discovered the medicine and I’m going to make money from it.” So having tried
every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man’s
store to steal the medicine for his wife. (p. 1, life versus law)
Part 2. Heinz did break into the store. He stole the
medicine and gave it to his wife. In the newspapers the next day there
was an account of the robbery. Mr. Brown, a police officer who knew
Heinz, read the account. He remembered seeing Heinz running away from the store
and realized that it was Heinz who stole the medicine. Mr. Brown wonders
whether he should report that Heinz was the robber. (p. 2, conscience
versus law)
Part 3. Officer Brown did report Heinz. Heinz was arrested
and brought to court. A jury was selected. The jury’s job is to find whether a
person is innocent or guilty of committing a crime. The jury finds Heinz
guilty. It is up to the judge to determine the sentence. (p. 2, conscience
versus punishment)
Louise’s Dilemma
Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised
her that she could go to a special rock concert coming to their town if she
saved up from baby-sitting and lunch money so she would have enough money to
buy a ticket to the concert. She managed to save up the $15 dollars it cost
plus another $5. But then her mother changed her mind and told Judy that
she had to spend the money on new clothes for school. Judy was disappointed and
decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a ticket and told her
mother that she had only been able to save $5. That Saturday she went to
the performance and told her mother that she was spending the day with a
friend. A week passed without her mother finding out. Judy then
told her older sister, Louise, that she had gone to the performance and had
lied to her mother about it. Louise wonders whether to tell their mother
what Judy did. (p. 281, authority versus contract)
Interview 2
(Piaget, 1932/1965)
Father’s Pen
A boy was playing in his room, while his daddy was
working in town. After a little while the boy thought he would like to
draw. But he had no paper. Then he remembered that there were some lovely
white sheets of paper in one of the drawers of his father’s desk. So he
went quite quietly to look for them. He found them and took them away.
When the father came home he found that his desk was untidy and finally
discovered that someone had stolen his paper. He went straight into the
boy’s room, and there he saw the floor covered with sheets of paper that were
all scribbled over with colored chalk. Then the father was very angry and
gave his boy a good whipping.
Now I shall tell you a story that is nearly the same,
but not quite (the story is repeated shortly, except for the last sentence).
Only it ends up differently. The father did not punish him. He just
explained to him that it wasn’t right of him. He said, “When you’re not
at home, when you’ve gone to school if I were to go and take your toys, you
wouldn’t like it. So when I’m not there, you mustn’t go and take my paper
either. It is not nice for me. It isn’t right to do that.
Now a few days later these two boys were each of them
playing in their yards. The boy who had been punished was in his yard, and
the one who had not been punished was playing in his yard. And then each
of them found a pen. It was their fathers’ pen and each of them
remembered that his father had said that he had lost his pen and that it was a
pity because he wouldn’t be able to find it again. So then they thought
that if they were to steal the pen, no one would ever know, and there would be
no punishment.
Well now, one of the boys kept the pen for himself and
the other took it back to his father. Guess which one took it back—the one who
had been well punished for having taken the paper or the one who was only
talked to? (pp. 219-220, conscience versus punishment)
Mother’s Scissors
A mother tells her three boys that they mustn’t play
with the scissors while she is out. But, as soon as she is gone the first
one says, “Let’s play with the scissors.” Then the second boy goes to get some
newspapers to cut out. The third one says, “No, Mother said we mustn’t. I
will not touch the scissors.” When the mother comes home, she sees all the bit
of cut-up newspaper on the floor. So she sees that someone has been
touching her scissors, and she punishes all three boys. Was that fair?
(pp. 234, punishment versus fairness)
Doing Chores
Once there was a camp of Boy Scouts (or Girl Scouts).
Each one had to do his/her bit to help with the work and leave things tidy. One
had to do the shopping, another washed up, and another brought in wood or swept
the floor. One day there was no bread and the one who did the shopping had
already gone. So other Scoutmaster asked one of the Scouts who had already done
his/her job to go and fetch the bread. What did he/she do? (p. 277,
authority versus contract)
The Foolish Brother
Once, long ago, and in a place very far away from
here, there was a father who had two sons. One was very good and
obedient. The other was a good sort, but he often did foolish things. One day
the father goes off on a trip and says to the first son, “You must watch
carefully, and when I come back you can tell me what your brother does.” The
father goes off on a trip and says to the first son, “You must watch carefully
to see what your brother does, and when I come back you shall tell me.”
The father goes away and the brother goes and does something foolish.
When the father comes back he asks the first boy to tell him everything. What
ought the boy to do? (p. 290, authority versus affiliation)
The Long Walk
Two boys, a little one and a big one, once went for a
long walk in the mountains. When lunch time came they were very hungry
and took their food out of their bags. But they found that there was not enough
for both of them. What should have been done? Give all the food to the
big boy or to the little one, or the same to both? (p. 310, equality
versus equity)
Interview III
(Warner, 1977)
The Boxcar Children Dilemma
Part 1
One warm night four children stood in front of a
bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from. The
baker’s wife saw them first, as they stood looking in at the window of her
store. The little boy was looking at the cakes, the big boy was looking
at the loaves of bread, and the two girls were looking at the cookies. Now the
baker’s wife did not like children. She did not like boys at all. So she
came to the front of the bakery and listened, looking very cross.
“The cake is good, Jessie,” the little boy said. He
was about five years old.
“Yes, Benny,” said the big girl. “But bread is better
for you. Isn’t it, Henry?”
“Oh, yes,” said Henry. “We must have some bread, and
cake is not good for Benny and Violet.”
“I like bread best, anyway,” said Violet. She
was about ten years old, and she had pretty brown hair and brown eyes.
“That is just like you, Violet,” said Henry, smiling
at her, “Let’s go into the bakery. Maybe they will let us stay here for
the night.”
The baker’s wife looked at them as they came in.
“I want three loaves of bread, please,” said Jessie.
She smiled politely at the woman, but the woman did
not smile. She looked at Henry as he put his hand in his pocket for the money.
She looked cross, but she sold him the bread. Jessie was looking around, too,
and she saw a long red bench under each window of the bakery. The benches had
flat red pillows on them.
“Will you let us stay here for the night?” Jessie
asked. “We could sleep on those benches, and tomorrow we would help you wash
the dishes and do things for you.”
Now the woman liked this. She did not like to wash
dishes very well. She would like to have a big boy to help her with her
work.
“Where are your father and mother?” she asked.
“They are dead,” said Henry.
“We have a grandfather in Greenfield, but we don’t
like him,” said Benny.
Jessie put her hand over the little boy’s mouth before
he could say more.
“Oh, Benny, keep still!” she said.
“Why don’t you like your grandfather?” asked the
woman.
“He is our father’s father, and he didn’t like our
mother,” said Henry. “So we don’t think he would like us. We are afraid
he would be mean to us.”
“Did you ever see him?” asked the woman.
“No,” answered Henry.
“Then why do you think he would be mean to you?” asked
the woman.
“Well, he never came to see us,” said Henry. “He
doesn’t like us at all.”
“Where did you live before you came here?” asked the
woman.
But not one of the four children would tell her. (pp.
7-11, affiliation versus authority)
Part 2
“We’ll get along all right,” said Jessie. “We
want to stay here for only one night.”
“You may stay here tonight,” said the woman at last.
“And tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”
Henry thanked her politely.
We are all pretty tired and hungry,” he said.
The children sat down on the floor. Henry cut
one of the loaves of bread into four pieces with his knife, and the children
began to eat.
“Delicious!” said Henry.
“Well, I never!” said the woman.
She went into the next room and shut the door.
“I’m glad she is gone,” remarked Benny, eating. “She
doesn’t like us.”
“Sh, Benny!” said Jessie. “She is good to let us sleep
here.”
After supper the children lay down on their red
benches, and Violet and Benny soon went to sleep. But Jessie and Henry could
hear the woman talking to the baker.
She said, “I’ll keep the three older children. They
can help me. But the little boy must go to the Children’s Home. He is too
little. I cannot take care of him.”
The baker answered, “Very well. Tomorrow I’ll take the
little boy to the Children’s Home. We’ll keep the others for awhile, but we
must make them tell us who their grandfather is.”
Jessie and Henry waited until the baker and his wife
had gone to bed. Then they sat up in the dark.
“Oh, Henry!” whispered Jessie. “Let’s run away from
here!”
“Yes, indeed,” said Henry. “We’ll never let Benny go
to a Children’s Home. Never, never! We must be far away by morning, or
they will find us. But we must not leave any of our things here.”
Jessie sat still, thinking.
“Our clothes and a cake of soap and towels are in the
big laundry bag,” she said. “Violet has her little workbag. And we have two
loaves of bread left. Have you your knife and the money?”
“Yes,” said Henry. “I have almost four dollars.”
“You must carry Benny,” said Jessie. “He will cry if
we sake him up. But I’ll wake Violet.
“Sh, Violet! Come! We are going to run away again. If
we don’t run away, the baker will take Benny to a Children’s Home in the
morning.”
The little girl woke up at once. She sat up and rolled
off the bench. She did not make any noise.
“What shall I do? She whispered softly.
“Carry this,” said Jessie. She gave her the
workbag.
Jessie put the two loaves of bread into the laundry
bag, and then she looked around the room.
“All right,” she said to Henry. “Take Benny now.”
Henry took Benny in his arms and carried him to the
door of the bakery. Jessie took the laundry bag and opened the door very
softly. All the children went out quietly. They did not say a word.
Jessie shut the door, and then they all listened. Everything was very
quiet. So the four children went down the street. (pp. 11-15, affiliation
versus law)
Part 3
It was morning, but the sun was covered by clouds. She
sat up and looked all around her, and then she looked at the sky. It
seemed like night, for it was very dark. Suddenly it began to thunder,
and she saw that it was really going to rain.
“What shall we do? Where shall we go?” thought Jessie.
“Then she saw something ahead of her in the
woods. It was an old boxcar.
“What a good house that will be in the rain!” she
thought.
She ran over to the boxcar. There was no engine, and
the track was old and rusty. Ti was covered with grass and bushes because
it had not been used for a long time.
“It is a boxcar,” Jessie said. “We can get into it and
stay until it stops raining.
Henry took Benny’s hand, and they all ran through the
woods after Jessie.
The stump of a big tree stood under the door of the
boxcar and was just right for a step. Jessie and Henry jumped upon the
old dead stump and rolled back the heavy door of the car. Henry looked in.
“There is nothing in here,” he said. “Come,
Benny. We’ll help you up.”
Violet went in next, and, last of all, Jessie and
Henry climbed in.
“What a beautiful place!” said Violet.
“Henry!” cried Jessie. “Let’s live here!”
“Live here?” asked Henry.
“Yes! Why not?” said Jessie “This boxcar is a fine
little house. It is dry and warm in the rain.
“We could wash in the brook,” said Violet.
“Please, Henry,” begged Jessie. “We could have the
nicest little home here, and we could find some dishes, and make four beds and
a table, and maybe chairs!” (pp. 27-31)
Jessie laughed and laughed until she almost cried.
Violet laughed until she did cry.
Then she could not stop crying. She cried and cried.
At last Jessie made up her mind that Violet was really sick.
“You must go to bed, Violet,” she said. She
helped her carefully into the boxcar and put pine needles all around her and
under her. Then she wet a handkerchief in the cold water of the
brook and laid it on her little sister’s hot head.
“If Violet is very sick, she ought to go to the
hospital,” said Jessie.
“Yes, I know that,” said Henry. “And we don’t want her
to goo to a hospital if we can help it. We should have to tell her name.”
“Yes,” said Jessie. “Then Grandfather could find us.”
The two older children sat up with Violet. They put
cold water on her head. But after dark Violet shook all over, and Jessie was
frightened. She covered Violet all over with pine needles, but still she
shook. They could not get her warm. (pp. 121-122, affiliation versus life)
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Ada file jurnalnya nggak kak ini ? Kalau ada aku minta bolehkah ?
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