DELINQUENCY AND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS AS A FUNCTION OF LEVEL OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• NCJ Number: 4313
• Journal: Journal of Social Psychology Volume: 86 Dated: (APRIL 1972) Pages: 257-260
• Author(s): E M FODOR
• Date Published: 1972
• Length: 4 pages
• Corporate Author: Journal Press
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

LOW LEVEL OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT IS RELATED TO YIELDING BEHAVIOR AMONG BOTH DELINQUENTS AND NON-DELINQUENTS.

Abstract

FORTY DELINQUENT AND 40 NONDELINQUENT ADOLESCENT BOYS WERE ADMINISTERED THE KOHLBERG INTERVIEW AND THEIR LEVEL OF MORAL THOUGHT WAS ASSESSED. DELINQUENTS, AS PREDICTED, RECEIVED SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER MORAL JUDGMENT SCORES (SIGNIFICANT AT THE .001 LEVEL) THAN DID NONDELINQUENTS. DELINQUENTS WHO AT SOME POINT IN THE KOHLBERG INTERVIEW YIELDED TO ATTEMPTS BY THE EXPERIMENTER TO DISSUADE THEM FROM MORAL DECISIONS THEY HAD JUST MADE RECEIVED LOWER MORAL JUDGMENT SCORES (SIGNIFICANT AT THE .05 LEVEL) THAN DID DELINQUENTS WHO CONSISTENTLY RESISTED SUCH INFLUENCE.