Abstract

This study investigated Korean adolescent's moral judgments in the social-conventional domain that have been neglected in previous studies. In this study, adolescent's evaluations of the importance of accepting social conventions such as caring for others in need and maintaining social legitimacy were examined. Differences by grade and gender in the judgments were also analyzed. Subjects of social conventional study were 864 students sampled from junior high and senior high schools and colleges located in the cities of Seoul and Pusan. For the study of social responsibilities, 576 subjects in the same grades were sampled from the schools in Daegu and Pusan areas. Subjects were asked to write their judgments on the behaviors that deviated from conventions and the reasons for accepting or rejecting them. Judgments on the importance of caring for others and maintaining legitimacy were evaluated by analyzing the responses on the 9-point scale. Adolescents revealed high level of resistance to the pressure of conventions and using Turiel's model as a reference displayed low developmental level of judgment. These results were discussed in terms of authority relationship between adults and adolescents and adequacy of conventional judgment. Adolescent's perceived importance of caring for others increased in late adolescence, varied with the degree of necessity and the intimacy of relationship. No gender difference was found. Evaluation on the importance of social legitimacy showed no difference between grades but displayed a significant interaction with intimacy of relationships and the degree of conflict. The results were discussed with reference to the studies by Eisenberg, Gilligan, Miller et al., and Kohlberg's theory of moral development.