Journal oj Personality and Social Psychology 1975, Vol. 31, No. 2, 199-205
Moral Judgment in Sociopathic and Normal Children Anthony Frank Campagna and Susan Harter Yale University Mental age- and IQ-matched normal and sociopathic children were administered Kohlberg's moral development interview and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. The results revealed that level of moral reasoning was higher for normal than for sociopathic children at both mental age levels. Within each group, high-mental-age children tended to have higher moral judgment scores than low-mental-age children, suggesting the presence of a general cognitive factor underlying moral development. The poorer performance of the sociopathic children was interpreted as supporting the formulation that sociopathy is related to an arrest in moral development. Discussion focused on the relative lack of opportunities for role-taking and identification in the families of sociopathic children.
Research in sociopathy has largely focused on the role of hereditary and neurological determinants, as well as environmental or "ecological," for example, social and cultural, forces (McCord & McCord, 1964). However, the cognitive aspects of the syndrome have been virtually ignored. Kohlberg's (1964, 1969) formulation of the development of moral reasoning, derived from Piagetian theory, would appear to be particularly appropriate to the analysis of cognitive-developmental factors in sociopathy. The present study applied this approach in examining the level of moral judgment among sociopathic and nonsociopathic children. Central to Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental analysis is the notion that moral development proceeds through an invariant sequence of six stages, each of which is qualitatively different from the former stages and represents more highly differentiated cognitive This study was supported by Research Grant HD03008 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States Public Health Service. The authors are grateful to the personnel at High Meadows, Hamden, Connecticut, without whose cooperation this study would not have been possible. Thanks also go to Barbara Davis, Marsha Alex, and Penny Trickett who administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children to all subjects and transcribed the interview protocols. The authors would also like to thank Jon Taylor who served as the second scorer of the moral maturity interview. Requests for reprints should be sent to Anthony Frank Campagna, who is now at Whiting Forensic Institute, Box 70, Middletown, Connecticut 064S7.
structures of moral reasoning. The "preconventional" levels focus on avoidance of negative physical consequences (Stage 1) and on a system of exchange and need satisfaction (Stage 2). The "conventional" levels of moral reasoning emphasize conformity to stereotypes of "nice" behavior meeting with social approval (Stage 3) and the adherence to law and maintenance of social order (Stage 4). At the "post-conventional" levels, Stage 5 focuses on changes in law to recognize both individual rights and social utility; in Stage 6, individual decisions of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles predominate. (See Kohlberg, 1969, for a complete description of the stage characteristics.) Kohlberg has empirically demonstrated the existence of this six-stage sequence of moral reasoning across a variety of moral issues, for example, interpersonal obligation, value of human life, law and social order, punitive justice, etc., and has validated this developmental progression cross-culturally. While cultural and environmental inputs may accelerate, impede, or even arrest the rate of moral development (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971; Kramer, 1969; Turiel, 1966), evidence indicates that they do not alter the sequence of stages or their basic form (Kohlberg & Kramer, 1969). Critical to the present study is Kohlberg's (19S8) finding that arrest at preconventional levels of moral development is related to social adjustment. He found that delinquent boys, all of whom had histories of antisocial be-
199
200
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTEE
havior, consistently used preconventional moral reasoning, in contrast to the more mature judgments of control subjects. Kohlberg attributed the delinquents' developmental arrest to experiential factors, citing as evidence such factors as the parents' tendency to be arbitrary, inconsistent, and frustrating in their child-rearing practices. Clinical evidence also indirectly supports the hypothesis that preconventional moral development is associated with overt antisocial behavior. Sociopaths or psychopaths (the terms are used interchangeably here) have often been characterized as hedonistic, with strong self-indulgent drives (McCord & McCord, 1964), as lacking an internalized sense of guilt and responsiveness to social criticism or evaluation, and as modifying their behavior only in response to brute force or credible threats of violence (Cleckley, 1959). Such hedonism and intractability are consistent with preconventional moral reasoning. Furthermore, the onset of sociopathy usually occurs between the ages of 10 and 13 (Cleckley, 1959). Kohlberg (1958) has shown this same period to be the time of transition from preconventional (Stages 1 and 2) to conventional (Stages 3 and 4) levels of moral judgment. Thus, arrest at the preconventional stages may be related to the emergence of sociopathic symptoms. While their normal peers develop a conventional "good-boy" morality, oriented toward conforming to and maintaining the expectations of others, the arrested children remain at a preconventional "might makes right" level. Their consequent behavior becomes progressively more age inappropriate, thereby increasing the likelihood that society will label them as deviant. While there has been some evidence (Kohlberg, 1958) demonstrating a relationship between sociopathy and preconventional moral reasoning, general level of cognitive development has not been controlled in studies comparing the moral reasoning of sociopathic and nonsociopathic subjects. Since certain cognitive structures appear necessary, although presumably not sufficient, for the emergence of higher levels of moral judgment, one possible explanation for differences between sociopathic and nonsociopathic sub-
jects is that the former are simply functioning at lower levels of general cognitive development. Thus, the present study was directed toward examining possible differences in moral reasoning of sociopathic and nonsociopathic boys, matched on cognitive-developmental level. Mental age (MA), rather than calendar age (CA), was chosen as the measure of cognitive-developmental level since MA represents a more precise index of those cognitive processes and reasoning abilities involved across a variety of problem-solving situations. The finding of group differences in moral judgments would suggest that certain life experiences, over and above those required for normal cognitive development, may be responsible for the attenuated levels of moral reasoning observed in sociopathic subjects. To determine whether the typical developmental changes in moral reasoning would be found among a normal, nonsociopathic sample as well as among sociopathic children, each diagnostic group included two MA levels, 10 and 13. A behavioral definition of sociopathy was used, given the difficulties inherent in formulations which rely on intrapsychic processes or inferred dynamics (see Cleckley, 1955, 1959, for an excellent statement of this problem). The major dependent measure was level of moral judgment derived from Kohlberg's interview technique and method of analysis. METHOD Subjects Subjects were 44 boys, 21 were sociopathic and 23 were normal. The sociopathic boys were residents at High Meadows, a state-operated treatment center for children manifesting different types of psychopathology. Their average length of participation in the High Meadows program was 18 months. The normal children were drawn from one elementary and one junior high school in the greater New Haven area. AH subjects were from working-class families, except for two sociopaths who were from professional families. The normal and sociopathic subjects were matched on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Full-Scale IQ and MA, and each diagnostic group was then divided into high- and low-MA levels. The means and standard deviations for MA, IQ, and CA for all subgroups are given in Table 1.
Operational Definition of Sociopathy Sociopathy was defined in terms of overt behaviors and objective demographic characteristics, the
201
MORAL JUDGMENT IN SOCIOPATHIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN definition relying heavily on Robins's (1966) extensive study of sociopathic children. Robins identified 26 common antisocial behaviors and eight key demographic characteristics or "predictors" which discriminated between the childhood behaviors of unremitted sociopathic adults and both remitted sociopathic and other diagnostic groups. Antisocial behaviors included markedly impulsive behavior, vandalism, and pathological lying; the predictors included truancy and poor school performance, time spent in a correctional institution, and destructive acts against businesses. Robins found that maximum discrimination resulted from labeling as presociopathic all those children whose history showed (a) six or more antisocial behaviors and (b) seven or more demographic predictors. In the present study the antisocial behaviors and demographic predictors comprised the sociopathy checklist, and those children whose records revealed either of these two patterns comprised the sociopathic group. This procedure had the general advantage of a precise operational definition and made possible highly reliable judgments about the presence of relevant behaviors in the case history material.
Sociopathic Group Only boys were included, since very few girls resided at High Meadows (reflecting the relatively low incidence of sociopathy among females in the general population). Trained scorers reviewed the case history of each boy for evidence of behaviors on the sociopathy checklist. Twenty-one met Criterion A and were designated as the sociopathic group. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was administered to these subjects in order to obtain a current IQ and MA.
Normal Group Preliminary selection of normal fifth- and seventhgrade boys was made on the basis of IQ data obtained from the school records (although Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children were subsequently administered for the purpose of IQ and MA matching of subjects to the sociopathic group). To ensure that there was no hidden sociopathy among these boys, behavior reports were gathered from school records, psychological examiner's files, school principals, teachers, and guidance counselors. Children who had at least two antisocial behaviors and two predictors on the sociopathy checklist were eliminated from the pool. For the remaining children, the teachers completed a "classroom behavior checklist" devised for this study. The list comprised brief descriptions of 17 mildly troublesome behaviors, for example, lunchroom misconduct, lying, borrowing things without permission, fighting. For each child, the teacher rated the occurrence of each behavior on a 4-point scale: (1) never, (2) occasionally, but no more than average, (3) more so than average, (4) so frequently as to characterize much of the child's behavior in school. Any child with four or more behaviors occurring more frequently than average
TABLE 1 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR MA, IQ, AND CA FOR EACH GROUP MA
CA
IQ
Pron
Normal High MA Low MA Sociopathic High MA Low MA
i\I
SD
M
SD
M
SD
12.61 10.96
1.44 1.37
13.46 10.81
1.75 1.05
11
13.36 10.36
1.43 .56
106.64 95.58
9.73
VI. 11 10
13.39 10.00
1.14 1.17
101.18 93.40
14.09 14.01
8.65
Note. MA = menial age; CA = calendar age.
was eliminated. The remaining children had no serious and few minor antisocial behaviors, and none had ever had any psychiatric treatment or counseling. Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children were administered to 30 of these boys from which 23 were selected on the basis of IQ and MA scores comparable to the sociopathic group.
Procedure Kohlberg's moral development interview has been fully described elsewhere (Kohlberg, 1958; Turiel, 1966). The interview consists of 12 hypothetical situations of moral conflict and standard probe questions for each story. A subset of four stories was selected for use in the present study. The central conflict in each story was as follows: (a) a boy laboriously earns money to finance a summer camping trip; his father demands the money for his own use; should the boy refuse? (b) a man's wife is dying of cancer; the only drug that may save her is priced beyond his means; should he steal it? (c) a woman is dying in pain from an incurable disease; she begs her doctor to end her life with a painless anesthetic; should the doctor respect her wishes? (d) an escaped convict becomes a wealthy industrialistphilanthropist and initiates programs of significant social benefit; a tailor discovers his true identity; should the tailor report him to the police? This group of stories has been found to be appropriate with children ages 8 to 16 (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971). The children were interviewed by the first author who read each story aloud. After each story, he asked the probe questions and tape-recorded the child's responses. Tapes were then transcribed, coded to preserve anonymity, and scored independently by two judges working blindly. The global scoring method (Kohlberg, 1958), which yields a summary measure of moral development, was employed. Scoring is based on themes which represent 25 fundamental moral issues which Kohlberg has identified, for example, interpersonal obligation, value of human life, law and social order, issues of affection, punitive justice. Each response was categorized according to the issue it represented and then given a stage score, representing the developmental level of the response. Both "pure-" and "mixed-" stage scores were obtained. Pure stage scores indicate moral reasoning at one of the six
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTER
202
TABLE 2 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR GRAND GLOBAL MORAL MATURITY MEASURE Group
Normal High MA Low MA Sociopathic High MA Low MA
n
M
SD
11
12
237.64 221.58
24.06 31.42
11 10
171.36 157.90
31.98 14.15
stages of development and are represented by an integer, 1 through 6. Mixed-stage scores indicate a transitional level of development and are represented by two integers, for example, 1(2), 2(3). The dominant stage, outside the parentheses, is more heavily used than the stage inside the parentheses. Scores were then converted to moral maturity scores (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971) as follows: transitional scores were weighted 2 for the major stage, 1 for the less dominant stage, and the sum divided by 3, the total number of weights; pure stage scores were unweighted. All scores were then multiplied by 100 and rounded to convert them to an integer scale from 100 to 600.1 Three different global moral maturity scores were computed for each subject: (a) a global story score by first averaging the moral maturity scores across the issues mentioned for each story and then averaging these means across stories; (b) a global issue score by first averaging the scores across stories for each issue and then averaging these means across issues; (c) a grand global score by simply averaging all scores without respect to issue or story.
slightly higher than that, r= .71, reported by Rest, Turiel, & Kohlberg, 1969, for subjects in this same age range.) Table 2 presents the mean and standard deviation of the grand global score for each subgroup. A Group X MA analysis of variance of the grand global measure yielded a significant main effect for group, F (1,40) = 58.79, p < .001, and a main effect for MA which approached significance, F (1, 40) = 3.03, p < .10. The interaction was not significant. The group effect reflected the fact that the moral judgment scores were lower for sociopathic, X = 165.0, than for normal children, X = 229.3. These mean moral maturity scores convert into stage scores of 2 ( 1 ) for the sociopathic and 2(3) for the normal children. As can be seen in Table 2, diagnostic group differences were evident at both MA levels. The overall MA difference obtained reflects the tendency for high-MA subjects to have higher moral maturity scores, J? = 204.5, than low-MA subjects, X = 189.7.
Group Differences on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale jor Children Although the sociopathic and normal children were matched on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Full-Scale IQ, separate analyses were performed to determine if there RESULTS were differences in verbal IQ, performance IQ, and subtest scores, all of which are preMoral Maturity Scores sented in Table 3. The normal children had a Preliminary analyses indicated high inter- significantly higher verbal IQ than the sociocorrelations among the three moral develop- pathic children, although the tendency for the ment measures: grand global, global story, latter to have higher performance IQs than and global issue, all rs > .95. Thus, for sub- the former did not reach significance (see sequent analyses the most stable of these Table 3). measures, the grand global index, was emFurther comparisons of the subtest scale ployed. The interjudge reliability of this scores revealed that the normal children scored score, based on rank order correlations, was significantly higher than the sociopathic ones .78 for the normal children and .73 for the on all verbal subtests and on two performsociopathic children.2 (These values are ance subtests, coding and mazes (see Table 1 Moral maturity score equivalents for Stages 1, 3). The tendency for sociopathic children to 1(2), 2(1), and 2 are 100, 133, 167, and 200, re- score higher than the normal children on spectively; for Stages 2(3), 3(2), and 3, they are three performance subtests, picture comple233, 267, 300, etc. up through Stage 6. 2 Protocols were scored blind, and the interrater tion, block design, and object assembly, apreliabilities were based on the judgments of two inde- proached significance. pendent raters, one of whom was not directly inTo examine the possibility that the sociovolved in the study. The mean difference between pathic children's lower moral maturity scores judges in moral maturity ratings across all sabjects was only 29.6, in which a difference of 100 in were related to their poorer verbal skills, an this scoring system represents one whole stage. analysis of covariance of the moral maturity
MORAL JUDGMENT IN SOCIOPATHIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN scores, with Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Verbal IQ partialled out, was performed. Consistent with the original analysis, significant effects for group, F ( 1 , 3 9 ) = 54.35, / > < .001, and for MA, F ( 1 , 3 9 ) = 4.30, p < .05, were found with no significant interaction. These findings indicated that moral judgment scores of normal children were higher than sociopathic children even when the effects of differential verbal abilities were controlled. In addition, the high-MA children in both diagnostic groups had higher moral maturity scores than the low-MA children when scores were adjusted for verbal IQ. DISCUSSION The major finding of the present study was that the moral reasoning of sociopathic children was less mature than that of MAmatched normal children, at two MA levels. While the sociopathic group demonstrated solidly preconventional reasoning at stage 2(1), the normal group reached a transitional stage, 2(3), between preconventional and conventional levels of moral development. These differences in level of moral judgment cannot be attributed to differences in general level of cognitive development (CA or MA), IQ, or social class since these variables were controlled across diagnostic groups. Thus, while moral judgment was found to be moderately related to developmental level, the more striking finding was that certain factors associated with sociopathy attenuated the performance of the sociopathic group to below that expected on the basis of their cognitive level. There is some evidence to suggest that such group differences may be related to differential opportunities for identification and role-taking. Developmentalists have emphasized the general importance of these experiences to moral development (Kohlberg, 1958, 1964; Kohlberg & Kramer, 1969; Piaget, 1932), although their specific impact has not been fully elucidated. Kohlberg's (1958) data suggest, however, that familial and environmental conditions which restrict role-taking opportunities and discourage identification are associated with lower terminal levels of moral development. It has also been found that identification and role-taking are less likely to
203
TABLE 3 MEAN WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN IQ AND SCALE SCORES TOR EACH GROUP Measure
Full scale IQ Verbal IQ Performance IQ Verbal subtests Information Comprehension Arithmetic Similarities Vocabulary Digit span Performance subtests Picture completion Picture arrangement Block design Object assembly Coding Mazes *MS. **« =
Normal
Sociopathic
t
100.87 102.52 102.05
97.48 90.23 105.33
.86* 2.73**** .71*
9.52 9.09 9.61 11.31 10.26 10.26
8.05 7.57 8.24 9.57 8.76 8.10
1.92*** 2.38*** 2.00*** 2.02*** 2.01*** 3.04****
9.61 9.48 9.74 10.39 12.26 9.87
10.76 10.24 11.05 11.66 10.19 7.19
1.46** .88* 1.23** 1.31** 2.70**** 4.15****
.10.
*** p = .05. *#;'•**p = .005.
occur under conditions of a distant, nonrewarding model (Bandura & Huston, 1961; Bandura & Walters, 1963) and lack of parental affection (Sears, 1953). The records of the sociopathic children in the present study revealed many of these conditions. In dealing with their child, parents were frequently described as quite inconsistent, vacillating continually between total permissiveness and harsh restrictiveness. In many cases, the histories indicated that the sociopathic child's needs and desires were ignored, actively frustrated, or arbitrarily overindulged. Finally there were indications that the sociopathic children frequently were the focus of parents' displaced hostility and acting out of their own personal difficulties. These observations are consistent with those of Robins (1966) who found similar parental characteristics (discipline which was lax or inconsistent, no supervision, or overly restrictive) for children who met the criteria for sociopathy used in the present study. More systematic research is necessary, however, to determine which of these possible antecedent conditions are related to attenuated moral development and to what extent differential opportunities for role-taking and identification are the mediating variables critical to such development. Direct comparisons
204
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTER
of MA-matched sociopathic and normal children on specific measures of identification and role-taking should be performed to determine whether sociopathic children are, in fact, less able to identify with others or to assume roles other than their own. The relationship between the hypothesized parental characteristics and child-rearing practices to moral development, as well as to identification, should also be examined more directly. The present study also revealed group differences on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children subtests. Sociopathic children scored lower than normal children on all six verbal subtests, reflecting the former's generally weaker skills in such areas as verbal concept formation, social judgment, abstract number concepts, and fund of general information. It could be argued that such differences accounted for the obtained group differences in moral reasoning since the latter were based on verbal data. The findings do not support this interpretation, however, since the normal children demonstrated significantly more mature moral judgment than the sociopathic children even when the contribution of verbal IQ was controlled. This suggests that factors other than differential verbal skills were involved. On the nonverbal subtests, the poorer performance of the sociopathic children on coding and mazes is consistent with findings indicating their deficiency on tasks requiring impulse control, sustained effort and attention (Bender, 1947; Gibson, 1964), the anticipation of consequences (Snortum, 1968), and the ability to plan accordingly (Wirt & Briggs, 1960). The present study also bears on one frequent criticism of clinical assessment techniques. The claim is often made that specific, circumscribed test responses have little or no relation to behavior in the real world. While validation studies typically seek to predict patterns of behavior from test responses, the direction of prediction was reversed in the present study. Clear-cut, well-defined behaviors, labeled sociopathic, predicted overall level of performance on Kohlberg's moral development interview for children at preconventional and transitional levels of moral reasoning. This finding suggests that person-
ality constructs can be successfully operationalized in terms of precise statements of related behaviors, providing additional validity for these constructs. REFERENCES Bandura, A., & Huston, A. Identification as a process of incidental learning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, 63, 311-318. Bandura, A., & Walters, R. Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963. Bender, L. Psychopathic behavior disorders in children. In R. Lindner & R. Seliger (Eds.), Handbook of correctional psychology. New York: Philosophical Press, 1947. Cited by W. McCord & J. McCord, The psychopath: An essay on the criminal mind. New York: Van Nostrand, 1964, p. 10. Blatt, M., & Kohlberg, L. The effects of classroom moral discussion on the development of moral judgment. In L. Kohlberg & E. Turiel (Eds.), Recent research in moral judgment. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. Cleckley, H. The mask of sanity. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby, 1955. Cleckley, H. Psychopathic states. In S. Arieti (Ed.), American handbook of psychiatry. Vol. 1. New York: Basic Books, 1959. Gibson, H. The spiral maze: The psychomotor test with implications for the study of delinquency. British Journal of Psychology, 1964, 55, 219-225. Kohlberg, L. The development of modes of moral thinking and choice in the years ten to sixteen. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1958. Kohlberg, L. Development of moral character and moral ideology. Review of Child Development Research. Vol. 1. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1964. Kohlberg, L. Stage and sequence: The cognitivedevelopmental approach of socialization. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969. Kohlberg, L., & Kramer, R. Continuities and discontinuities in childhood and adult moral development. Human Development, 1969, 12, 93-120. Kramer, R. Progression and regression in adolescent moral development. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Santa Monica, Calif.: March 26, 1969. Cited by L. Kohlberg & R. Kramer, Continuities and discontinuities in childhood and adult moral development. Human Development, 1969, 12, 93-120. McCord, W., & McCord, J. The psychopath: An essay on the criminal mind. New York: Van Nostrand, 1964. Piaget, J. The moral judgment, of the child. Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1932. Rest, J., Turiel, E., & Kohlberg, L. Level of moral development as a determinant of preference and
MORAL JUDGMENT IN SOCIOPATHIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN comprehension of moral judgments made by others. Journal of Personality, 1969, 37, 22S-2S2. Robins, L. Deviant children grown up. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1966. Sears, P. Child-rearing factors relating to playing sex-typed roles. American Psychologist, 1953, 8, 431. (Abstract) Snortum, J. Probability learning and gambling behavior in the psychopathic deviate. Journal of General Psychology, 1968, 79, 47-57.
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Turiel, E. An experimental test of the sequentiality of developmental stages in the child's moral judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966, 3, 611-618. Wirt, R., & Briggs, P. Delinquency prone personalities: II. The sociopathic personality: Diagnosis. Minnesota Medicine, 1960, 43, 784-785. (Received July 2, 1973)
Moral Judgment in Sociopathic and Normal Children Anthony Frank Campagna and Susan Harter Yale University Mental age- and IQ-matched normal and sociopathic children were administered Kohlberg's moral development interview and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. The results revealed that level of moral reasoning was higher for normal than for sociopathic children at both mental age levels. Within each group, high-mental-age children tended to have higher moral judgment scores than low-mental-age children, suggesting the presence of a general cognitive factor underlying moral development. The poorer performance of the sociopathic children was interpreted as supporting the formulation that sociopathy is related to an arrest in moral development. Discussion focused on the relative lack of opportunities for role-taking and identification in the families of sociopathic children.
Research in sociopathy has largely focused on the role of hereditary and neurological determinants, as well as environmental or "ecological," for example, social and cultural, forces (McCord & McCord, 1964). However, the cognitive aspects of the syndrome have been virtually ignored. Kohlberg's (1964, 1969) formulation of the development of moral reasoning, derived from Piagetian theory, would appear to be particularly appropriate to the analysis of cognitive-developmental factors in sociopathy. The present study applied this approach in examining the level of moral judgment among sociopathic and nonsociopathic children. Central to Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental analysis is the notion that moral development proceeds through an invariant sequence of six stages, each of which is qualitatively different from the former stages and represents more highly differentiated cognitive This study was supported by Research Grant HD03008 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States Public Health Service. The authors are grateful to the personnel at High Meadows, Hamden, Connecticut, without whose cooperation this study would not have been possible. Thanks also go to Barbara Davis, Marsha Alex, and Penny Trickett who administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children to all subjects and transcribed the interview protocols. The authors would also like to thank Jon Taylor who served as the second scorer of the moral maturity interview. Requests for reprints should be sent to Anthony Frank Campagna, who is now at Whiting Forensic Institute, Box 70, Middletown, Connecticut 064S7.
structures of moral reasoning. The "preconventional" levels focus on avoidance of negative physical consequences (Stage 1) and on a system of exchange and need satisfaction (Stage 2). The "conventional" levels of moral reasoning emphasize conformity to stereotypes of "nice" behavior meeting with social approval (Stage 3) and the adherence to law and maintenance of social order (Stage 4). At the "post-conventional" levels, Stage 5 focuses on changes in law to recognize both individual rights and social utility; in Stage 6, individual decisions of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles predominate. (See Kohlberg, 1969, for a complete description of the stage characteristics.) Kohlberg has empirically demonstrated the existence of this six-stage sequence of moral reasoning across a variety of moral issues, for example, interpersonal obligation, value of human life, law and social order, punitive justice, etc., and has validated this developmental progression cross-culturally. While cultural and environmental inputs may accelerate, impede, or even arrest the rate of moral development (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971; Kramer, 1969; Turiel, 1966), evidence indicates that they do not alter the sequence of stages or their basic form (Kohlberg & Kramer, 1969). Critical to the present study is Kohlberg's (19S8) finding that arrest at preconventional levels of moral development is related to social adjustment. He found that delinquent boys, all of whom had histories of antisocial be-
199
200
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTEE
havior, consistently used preconventional moral reasoning, in contrast to the more mature judgments of control subjects. Kohlberg attributed the delinquents' developmental arrest to experiential factors, citing as evidence such factors as the parents' tendency to be arbitrary, inconsistent, and frustrating in their child-rearing practices. Clinical evidence also indirectly supports the hypothesis that preconventional moral development is associated with overt antisocial behavior. Sociopaths or psychopaths (the terms are used interchangeably here) have often been characterized as hedonistic, with strong self-indulgent drives (McCord & McCord, 1964), as lacking an internalized sense of guilt and responsiveness to social criticism or evaluation, and as modifying their behavior only in response to brute force or credible threats of violence (Cleckley, 1959). Such hedonism and intractability are consistent with preconventional moral reasoning. Furthermore, the onset of sociopathy usually occurs between the ages of 10 and 13 (Cleckley, 1959). Kohlberg (1958) has shown this same period to be the time of transition from preconventional (Stages 1 and 2) to conventional (Stages 3 and 4) levels of moral judgment. Thus, arrest at the preconventional stages may be related to the emergence of sociopathic symptoms. While their normal peers develop a conventional "good-boy" morality, oriented toward conforming to and maintaining the expectations of others, the arrested children remain at a preconventional "might makes right" level. Their consequent behavior becomes progressively more age inappropriate, thereby increasing the likelihood that society will label them as deviant. While there has been some evidence (Kohlberg, 1958) demonstrating a relationship between sociopathy and preconventional moral reasoning, general level of cognitive development has not been controlled in studies comparing the moral reasoning of sociopathic and nonsociopathic subjects. Since certain cognitive structures appear necessary, although presumably not sufficient, for the emergence of higher levels of moral judgment, one possible explanation for differences between sociopathic and nonsociopathic sub-
jects is that the former are simply functioning at lower levels of general cognitive development. Thus, the present study was directed toward examining possible differences in moral reasoning of sociopathic and nonsociopathic boys, matched on cognitive-developmental level. Mental age (MA), rather than calendar age (CA), was chosen as the measure of cognitive-developmental level since MA represents a more precise index of those cognitive processes and reasoning abilities involved across a variety of problem-solving situations. The finding of group differences in moral judgments would suggest that certain life experiences, over and above those required for normal cognitive development, may be responsible for the attenuated levels of moral reasoning observed in sociopathic subjects. To determine whether the typical developmental changes in moral reasoning would be found among a normal, nonsociopathic sample as well as among sociopathic children, each diagnostic group included two MA levels, 10 and 13. A behavioral definition of sociopathy was used, given the difficulties inherent in formulations which rely on intrapsychic processes or inferred dynamics (see Cleckley, 1955, 1959, for an excellent statement of this problem). The major dependent measure was level of moral judgment derived from Kohlberg's interview technique and method of analysis. METHOD Subjects Subjects were 44 boys, 21 were sociopathic and 23 were normal. The sociopathic boys were residents at High Meadows, a state-operated treatment center for children manifesting different types of psychopathology. Their average length of participation in the High Meadows program was 18 months. The normal children were drawn from one elementary and one junior high school in the greater New Haven area. AH subjects were from working-class families, except for two sociopaths who were from professional families. The normal and sociopathic subjects were matched on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Full-Scale IQ and MA, and each diagnostic group was then divided into high- and low-MA levels. The means and standard deviations for MA, IQ, and CA for all subgroups are given in Table 1.
Operational Definition of Sociopathy Sociopathy was defined in terms of overt behaviors and objective demographic characteristics, the
201
MORAL JUDGMENT IN SOCIOPATHIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN definition relying heavily on Robins's (1966) extensive study of sociopathic children. Robins identified 26 common antisocial behaviors and eight key demographic characteristics or "predictors" which discriminated between the childhood behaviors of unremitted sociopathic adults and both remitted sociopathic and other diagnostic groups. Antisocial behaviors included markedly impulsive behavior, vandalism, and pathological lying; the predictors included truancy and poor school performance, time spent in a correctional institution, and destructive acts against businesses. Robins found that maximum discrimination resulted from labeling as presociopathic all those children whose history showed (a) six or more antisocial behaviors and (b) seven or more demographic predictors. In the present study the antisocial behaviors and demographic predictors comprised the sociopathy checklist, and those children whose records revealed either of these two patterns comprised the sociopathic group. This procedure had the general advantage of a precise operational definition and made possible highly reliable judgments about the presence of relevant behaviors in the case history material.
Sociopathic Group Only boys were included, since very few girls resided at High Meadows (reflecting the relatively low incidence of sociopathy among females in the general population). Trained scorers reviewed the case history of each boy for evidence of behaviors on the sociopathy checklist. Twenty-one met Criterion A and were designated as the sociopathic group. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was administered to these subjects in order to obtain a current IQ and MA.
Normal Group Preliminary selection of normal fifth- and seventhgrade boys was made on the basis of IQ data obtained from the school records (although Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children were subsequently administered for the purpose of IQ and MA matching of subjects to the sociopathic group). To ensure that there was no hidden sociopathy among these boys, behavior reports were gathered from school records, psychological examiner's files, school principals, teachers, and guidance counselors. Children who had at least two antisocial behaviors and two predictors on the sociopathy checklist were eliminated from the pool. For the remaining children, the teachers completed a "classroom behavior checklist" devised for this study. The list comprised brief descriptions of 17 mildly troublesome behaviors, for example, lunchroom misconduct, lying, borrowing things without permission, fighting. For each child, the teacher rated the occurrence of each behavior on a 4-point scale: (1) never, (2) occasionally, but no more than average, (3) more so than average, (4) so frequently as to characterize much of the child's behavior in school. Any child with four or more behaviors occurring more frequently than average
TABLE 1 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR MA, IQ, AND CA FOR EACH GROUP MA
CA
IQ
Pron
Normal High MA Low MA Sociopathic High MA Low MA
i\I
SD
M
SD
M
SD
12.61 10.96
1.44 1.37
13.46 10.81
1.75 1.05
11
13.36 10.36
1.43 .56
106.64 95.58
9.73
VI. 11 10
13.39 10.00
1.14 1.17
101.18 93.40
14.09 14.01
8.65
Note. MA = menial age; CA = calendar age.
was eliminated. The remaining children had no serious and few minor antisocial behaviors, and none had ever had any psychiatric treatment or counseling. Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children were administered to 30 of these boys from which 23 were selected on the basis of IQ and MA scores comparable to the sociopathic group.
Procedure Kohlberg's moral development interview has been fully described elsewhere (Kohlberg, 1958; Turiel, 1966). The interview consists of 12 hypothetical situations of moral conflict and standard probe questions for each story. A subset of four stories was selected for use in the present study. The central conflict in each story was as follows: (a) a boy laboriously earns money to finance a summer camping trip; his father demands the money for his own use; should the boy refuse? (b) a man's wife is dying of cancer; the only drug that may save her is priced beyond his means; should he steal it? (c) a woman is dying in pain from an incurable disease; she begs her doctor to end her life with a painless anesthetic; should the doctor respect her wishes? (d) an escaped convict becomes a wealthy industrialistphilanthropist and initiates programs of significant social benefit; a tailor discovers his true identity; should the tailor report him to the police? This group of stories has been found to be appropriate with children ages 8 to 16 (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971). The children were interviewed by the first author who read each story aloud. After each story, he asked the probe questions and tape-recorded the child's responses. Tapes were then transcribed, coded to preserve anonymity, and scored independently by two judges working blindly. The global scoring method (Kohlberg, 1958), which yields a summary measure of moral development, was employed. Scoring is based on themes which represent 25 fundamental moral issues which Kohlberg has identified, for example, interpersonal obligation, value of human life, law and social order, issues of affection, punitive justice. Each response was categorized according to the issue it represented and then given a stage score, representing the developmental level of the response. Both "pure-" and "mixed-" stage scores were obtained. Pure stage scores indicate moral reasoning at one of the six
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTER
202
TABLE 2 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR GRAND GLOBAL MORAL MATURITY MEASURE Group
Normal High MA Low MA Sociopathic High MA Low MA
n
M
SD
11
12
237.64 221.58
24.06 31.42
11 10
171.36 157.90
31.98 14.15
stages of development and are represented by an integer, 1 through 6. Mixed-stage scores indicate a transitional level of development and are represented by two integers, for example, 1(2), 2(3). The dominant stage, outside the parentheses, is more heavily used than the stage inside the parentheses. Scores were then converted to moral maturity scores (Blatt & Kohlberg, 1971) as follows: transitional scores were weighted 2 for the major stage, 1 for the less dominant stage, and the sum divided by 3, the total number of weights; pure stage scores were unweighted. All scores were then multiplied by 100 and rounded to convert them to an integer scale from 100 to 600.1 Three different global moral maturity scores were computed for each subject: (a) a global story score by first averaging the moral maturity scores across the issues mentioned for each story and then averaging these means across stories; (b) a global issue score by first averaging the scores across stories for each issue and then averaging these means across issues; (c) a grand global score by simply averaging all scores without respect to issue or story.
slightly higher than that, r= .71, reported by Rest, Turiel, & Kohlberg, 1969, for subjects in this same age range.) Table 2 presents the mean and standard deviation of the grand global score for each subgroup. A Group X MA analysis of variance of the grand global measure yielded a significant main effect for group, F (1,40) = 58.79, p < .001, and a main effect for MA which approached significance, F (1, 40) = 3.03, p < .10. The interaction was not significant. The group effect reflected the fact that the moral judgment scores were lower for sociopathic, X = 165.0, than for normal children, X = 229.3. These mean moral maturity scores convert into stage scores of 2 ( 1 ) for the sociopathic and 2(3) for the normal children. As can be seen in Table 2, diagnostic group differences were evident at both MA levels. The overall MA difference obtained reflects the tendency for high-MA subjects to have higher moral maturity scores, J? = 204.5, than low-MA subjects, X = 189.7.
Group Differences on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale jor Children Although the sociopathic and normal children were matched on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Full-Scale IQ, separate analyses were performed to determine if there RESULTS were differences in verbal IQ, performance IQ, and subtest scores, all of which are preMoral Maturity Scores sented in Table 3. The normal children had a Preliminary analyses indicated high inter- significantly higher verbal IQ than the sociocorrelations among the three moral develop- pathic children, although the tendency for the ment measures: grand global, global story, latter to have higher performance IQs than and global issue, all rs > .95. Thus, for sub- the former did not reach significance (see sequent analyses the most stable of these Table 3). measures, the grand global index, was emFurther comparisons of the subtest scale ployed. The interjudge reliability of this scores revealed that the normal children scored score, based on rank order correlations, was significantly higher than the sociopathic ones .78 for the normal children and .73 for the on all verbal subtests and on two performsociopathic children.2 (These values are ance subtests, coding and mazes (see Table 1 Moral maturity score equivalents for Stages 1, 3). The tendency for sociopathic children to 1(2), 2(1), and 2 are 100, 133, 167, and 200, re- score higher than the normal children on spectively; for Stages 2(3), 3(2), and 3, they are three performance subtests, picture comple233, 267, 300, etc. up through Stage 6. 2 Protocols were scored blind, and the interrater tion, block design, and object assembly, apreliabilities were based on the judgments of two inde- proached significance. pendent raters, one of whom was not directly inTo examine the possibility that the sociovolved in the study. The mean difference between pathic children's lower moral maturity scores judges in moral maturity ratings across all sabjects was only 29.6, in which a difference of 100 in were related to their poorer verbal skills, an this scoring system represents one whole stage. analysis of covariance of the moral maturity
MORAL JUDGMENT IN SOCIOPATHIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN scores, with Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Verbal IQ partialled out, was performed. Consistent with the original analysis, significant effects for group, F ( 1 , 3 9 ) = 54.35, / > < .001, and for MA, F ( 1 , 3 9 ) = 4.30, p < .05, were found with no significant interaction. These findings indicated that moral judgment scores of normal children were higher than sociopathic children even when the effects of differential verbal abilities were controlled. In addition, the high-MA children in both diagnostic groups had higher moral maturity scores than the low-MA children when scores were adjusted for verbal IQ. DISCUSSION The major finding of the present study was that the moral reasoning of sociopathic children was less mature than that of MAmatched normal children, at two MA levels. While the sociopathic group demonstrated solidly preconventional reasoning at stage 2(1), the normal group reached a transitional stage, 2(3), between preconventional and conventional levels of moral development. These differences in level of moral judgment cannot be attributed to differences in general level of cognitive development (CA or MA), IQ, or social class since these variables were controlled across diagnostic groups. Thus, while moral judgment was found to be moderately related to developmental level, the more striking finding was that certain factors associated with sociopathy attenuated the performance of the sociopathic group to below that expected on the basis of their cognitive level. There is some evidence to suggest that such group differences may be related to differential opportunities for identification and role-taking. Developmentalists have emphasized the general importance of these experiences to moral development (Kohlberg, 1958, 1964; Kohlberg & Kramer, 1969; Piaget, 1932), although their specific impact has not been fully elucidated. Kohlberg's (1958) data suggest, however, that familial and environmental conditions which restrict role-taking opportunities and discourage identification are associated with lower terminal levels of moral development. It has also been found that identification and role-taking are less likely to
203
TABLE 3 MEAN WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN IQ AND SCALE SCORES TOR EACH GROUP Measure
Full scale IQ Verbal IQ Performance IQ Verbal subtests Information Comprehension Arithmetic Similarities Vocabulary Digit span Performance subtests Picture completion Picture arrangement Block design Object assembly Coding Mazes *MS. **« =
Normal
Sociopathic
t
100.87 102.52 102.05
97.48 90.23 105.33
.86* 2.73**** .71*
9.52 9.09 9.61 11.31 10.26 10.26
8.05 7.57 8.24 9.57 8.76 8.10
1.92*** 2.38*** 2.00*** 2.02*** 2.01*** 3.04****
9.61 9.48 9.74 10.39 12.26 9.87
10.76 10.24 11.05 11.66 10.19 7.19
1.46** .88* 1.23** 1.31** 2.70**** 4.15****
.10.
*** p = .05. *#;'•**p = .005.
occur under conditions of a distant, nonrewarding model (Bandura & Huston, 1961; Bandura & Walters, 1963) and lack of parental affection (Sears, 1953). The records of the sociopathic children in the present study revealed many of these conditions. In dealing with their child, parents were frequently described as quite inconsistent, vacillating continually between total permissiveness and harsh restrictiveness. In many cases, the histories indicated that the sociopathic child's needs and desires were ignored, actively frustrated, or arbitrarily overindulged. Finally there were indications that the sociopathic children frequently were the focus of parents' displaced hostility and acting out of their own personal difficulties. These observations are consistent with those of Robins (1966) who found similar parental characteristics (discipline which was lax or inconsistent, no supervision, or overly restrictive) for children who met the criteria for sociopathy used in the present study. More systematic research is necessary, however, to determine which of these possible antecedent conditions are related to attenuated moral development and to what extent differential opportunities for role-taking and identification are the mediating variables critical to such development. Direct comparisons
204
ANTHONY FRANK CAMPAGNA AND SUSAN HARTER
of MA-matched sociopathic and normal children on specific measures of identification and role-taking should be performed to determine whether sociopathic children are, in fact, less able to identify with others or to assume roles other than their own. The relationship between the hypothesized parental characteristics and child-rearing practices to moral development, as well as to identification, should also be examined more directly. The present study also revealed group differences on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children subtests. Sociopathic children scored lower than normal children on all six verbal subtests, reflecting the former's generally weaker skills in such areas as verbal concept formation, social judgment, abstract number concepts, and fund of general information. It could be argued that such differences accounted for the obtained group differences in moral reasoning since the latter were based on verbal data. The findings do not support this interpretation, however, since the normal children demonstrated significantly more mature moral judgment than the sociopathic children even when the contribution of verbal IQ was controlled. This suggests that factors other than differential verbal skills were involved. On the nonverbal subtests, the poorer performance of the sociopathic children on coding and mazes is consistent with findings indicating their deficiency on tasks requiring impulse control, sustained effort and attention (Bender, 1947; Gibson, 1964), the anticipation of consequences (Snortum, 1968), and the ability to plan accordingly (Wirt & Briggs, 1960). The present study also bears on one frequent criticism of clinical assessment techniques. The claim is often made that specific, circumscribed test responses have little or no relation to behavior in the real world. While validation studies typically seek to predict patterns of behavior from test responses, the direction of prediction was reversed in the present study. Clear-cut, well-defined behaviors, labeled sociopathic, predicted overall level of performance on Kohlberg's moral development interview for children at preconventional and transitional levels of moral reasoning. This finding suggests that person-
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