Are moral judgement maturity and self-serving cognitive distortions or moral disengagement merely opposites, as recently claimed? Self-serving cognitive distortions and moral disengagement constitute (more or less interchangeable) neutralization techniques; they stem from the same theoretical background and refer to the same cognitive processes.…

We surveyed Australian adolescents and parents to test differences and congruence in perceptions of adolescent career development tasks (career planning, exploration, certainty, and world-of-work knowledge) and vocational identity. We found that, for adolescents (N = 415), career development tasks (not career exploration) explained 48% of the…

Forty-one subjects who score at the high and low extremes of the Psychosocial Maturity (PSM) Inventory were intensively interviewed. These interview data were analyzed to contrast the phenomenological and psychodynamic forces in the lives of these subjects that influence their current state of psychosocial maturity. Case material is presented.…

Middle school students (N=25) with exceptional educational needs were matched with regular students and assessed for their level of moral reasoning using the Objective Assessment of Moral Development. Results indicate exceptional students select types of reasoning typical of younger children, and become less like their peers with age. (RC)

Addresses event-related factors and cognitive-related factors as identifiers of the end of adolescence and the onset of adulthood. Adolescents were surveyed to determine what they believed were the most important attributes for becoming adults, and at what age their adulthood began. The majority of the sample identified cognitive factors as…

This report summarizes the research and development activities of two Work units of the Schools and Maturity program from March 1, 1973 to November 30, 1975. The two Work Units described are (1) Theory Construction and Test Development, and (2) Validation of Psychosocial Maturity Scales. Abstracts of technical reports and journal articles…

Examines changes in attitude toward traditional morality accompanying the change from adolescence to adulthood. Finds that while the transition to adulthood involved changes in attitude, these shifts were not consistent in nature. (FMW)