The Relation Between Conservative Religious Ideology and Principled Moral Reasoning: A Review

Keywords

morality, Kohlbergs stages of moral development, conservatism, moral judgement, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, liberalism, Catholicism, normativity, research studies

Abstract

The present article briefly reviews published and unpublished research which has investigated the relation between conservative religious ideology and moral reasoning development. The findings indicated that more extremely conservative religious individuals, but not moderately conservative or liberal religious individuals, tend to score lower than average on the P% score of the Defining Issues Test (DIT). Studies which shed light on why conservative religious individuals score low on the DIT are discussed.

Original Publication Citation

Richards, P.S. (1991). The relation between conservative religious ideology and principled moral reasoning: A review. Review of Religious Research, 32, 359-368.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1991-6

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6678

Publisher

Review of Religious Research

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Counseling Psychology and Special Education

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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