The Influence of the Environment of Origin on Moral Development Assessed by Kohlberg's Theory Download PDF

Moral development is a complex problem for the solution of which many theories have been proposed. This aspect has multiple social implications being responsible for social behaviour, especially in crises such as pandemics, wars, or borderline situations. The assessment of moral discernment is a common practice in forensic science because it determines whether a person who has committed a crime is capable of being responsible for his or her actions and thus can be held accountable. The use of ethical models to assess moral development is a common method. We used Heinz's dilemma to assess the degree of development of a population group. We tried to determine whether different individual factors influence how subjects respond to ethical issues. Factors such as education level, gender, and religion do not have a statistically significant impact on moral problem-solving. Factors such as gender and education level do not seem to influence how subjects respond to moral dilemmas. The environment of origin seems to have a statistically significant influence on the moral development of the participants. Further studies are needed to determine the cause of these statistical correlations and to determine other possible factors influencing moral decisions