John Snarey

• BS, MA, EdM, EdD (Harvard)
• Professor at Emory Univ

William James delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902, and his 20 lectures were published as The Varieties of Religious Experience. While the book is a classic in the psychology of religion, little to no attention has been given to the immediate context of James’s lectures or his state of mind and...

The neuroscience revolution has revived interpretations of religious experiences as wholly dependent on biological conditions. William James cautioned against allowing such neurological reductionism to overwhelm other useful perspectives. Contemporary psychologists of religion have raised similar cautions, but have failed to engage James as a full...

This article demonstrates William James’ place in the wider narrative of the phenomenology of religious experience and ultimately how his connection to Edmund Husserl can shed light on what James’ work can offer to current scholarship. James made vital contributions to the development of phenomenology and is a valuable resource for those looking to...

Snarey, J. (1982). The social and moral development of kibbutz founders and sabras: A longitudinal and cross-sectional cross-cultural study. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 392 pp. (Gutmann Library No. Sn19; Pusey Library No. HU90.11684.50). b. Printed (1983) by UMI Doctoral Dissertations, Ann Arbor, MI (Order No. 83-02-43...

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) completed his BA in psychology in just one year, and his subsequent doctoral dissertation launched his start as a developmental psychologist. His fast-track education and career, however, were each made possible by a prior decade of intellectual work and reflection about moral issues. This cognitive-ethical combination...

A representative EPI image depicts preservation of signal in ventral frontal and temporal lobes. (5.12 MB TIF)

Influence of individual variation in moral ability (ethics of justice) on neural responses related to moral sensitivity for justice issues (p<0.001, k> = 5). (0.05 MB DOC)

Moral sensitivity refers to the interpretive awareness of moral conflict and can be justice or care oriented. Justice ethics is associated primarily with human rights and the application of moral rules, whereas care ethics is related to human needs and a situational approach involving social emotions. Among the core brain regions involved in moral...

This article revisits Kohlberg’s cognitive developmental claims that stages of moral judgment, facilitative processes of social perspective-taking, and moral values are commonly identifiable across cultures. Snarey [Snarey, J. (1985). The cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research. Psychologic...

The empirical and theoretical consideration of ethical decision making has focused on the process of moral judgment; however, a precondition to judgment is moral sensitivity, the ability to detect and evaluate moral issues [Rest, J. R. (1984). The major components of morality. In W. Kurtines & J. Gewirtz (Eds.), Morality, moral behaviour, and moral...

Using a historical and biographical, then developmental, approach, this article examines William James's spiritual family history by reviewing key events in the life of his father, Henry James, Sr. It pays particular attention to Henry Sr's tumultuous relationship with his own father, William James of Albany, and Henry Sr's subsequent conversion to...

In response to Jane Kroger's "What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?" (this issue), this article questions the usefulness of the concept of soft structural stages as a tool for understanding James Marcia's ego identity status model. The authors begin by distinguishing a variety of developmental models along a continuum, ranging from cognit...

The 4 articles in this special issue make important contributions to both family and religious studies as well as to their interface. This commentary begins by considering 4 unifying themes present across all of the articles, including meaningful religion-family linkages, the importance of gender differences in the faith-family interface, the signi...

The 4 articles in this special issue make important contributions to both family and religious studies as well as to their interface. This commentary begins by considering 4 unifying themes present across all of the articles, including meaningful religion-family linkages, the importance of gender differences in the faith-family interface, the signi...

The 4 articles in this special issue make important contributions to both family and religious studies as well as to their interface. This commentary begins by considering 4 unifying themes present across all of the articles, including meaningful religion-family linkages, the importance of gender differences in the faith-family interface, the signi...

As the Introduction to this third edition of The Role of the Father in Child Development (see record 1996-06350-000 ) notes, "the third edition bears little resemblance to its ancestors" (p. vii). Gone are the encyclopedic initial chapter, the continuity of expert contributors' voices, and the raw edge of challenging conventional stereotypes of men...

This study examined ethical development among kibbutz adolescents from the perspective of Erik Erikson’s model of value orientation stages. The purpose was threefold: to examine the longitudinal patterns of value-orientation stage change, to assess the impact of kibbutz education on value orientation development, and to clarify the empirical relati...

This study examined ethical development among kibbutz adolescents from the perspective of Erik Erikson's model of value orientation stages. The purpose was threefold: to examine the longitudinal patterns of value-orientation stage change, to assess the impact of kibbutz education on value orientation development, and to clarify the empirical relati...

Ethics education should aim to promote students' maturity across a broad spectrum of moral functioning, including moral reasoning, moral affect and moral behaviour. To identify the most effective strategy for promoting the comprehensive moral maturity of high school students, we enrolled students in one of four groups: an introductory ethics class,...

Smith and Parekh's 1996 study underscored the importance of studying the influence of racism upon moral development. Alternative interpretations of their findings suggest fruitful directions for research.

This study explores the ability of variations in the natural environment to predict variations in the religious-ethical views espoused by different cultural groups. Drawing from the theoretical perspectives of William James and Max Weber, it was hypothesized that societies with environmental conditions of potentially life-jeopardizing water scarcit...

To explore the possible association of parental divorce and adolescent's moral development, 103 college students aged 17 to 22 were tested for stage of moral development and parental relations. Students' gender and prior closeness with parents were not significantly associated with variations in their current level of moral development. There was a...

Reviews a book which describes the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form. Compares the test to that of Lawrence Kohlberg, pointing out benefits and drawbacks of the test, and concludes the test represents a notable advance in the measurement of Kohlberg's first four stages of moral development. (TM)

Debates over possible gender differences in moral development have not considered the maturational issue that, during early adolescence, girls are generally about two years ahead of boys in cerebral cortical and social-cognitive functioning. To support Gilligan’s thesis that Kohlberg’s model is biased toward males, less mature boys would need only...

This book illuminates the realities of fathering by presenting the results of a unique empirical study conducted over four decades and covering four generations. Through case studies and data analysis, John Snarey demonstrates that men's care for their families reaps immense and long-lasting benefits—for themselves, for their offspring, and for fut...

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books , 1992, Vol 37(7), 695-696. Reviews the book, Adult Development, Vol. 2: Models and Methods in the Study of Adolescent and Adult Thought edited by Michael L. Commons, Cheryl Armon, Lawrence Kohlberg, Francis A. Richards, Tina A. Grotzer, and Jan D. Sinnott (1990). A growing number...

This is a report of a 4-year follow-up evaluation study of the impact that a comprehensive service agency had on preventing repeat pregnancies among adolescents. The sample included 52 black, urban adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, who were pregnant with their first child at the time they became affiliated with the nonprofit agency. This particular...

Traditionally, Durkheimian and Piagetian perspectives on moral education have been regarded as standing in opposition to one another, but Lawrence Kohlberg's recent work, published posthumously, shows that an integrated socialization-developmental approach to moral character education is possible. This article contrasts the socialization approach o...

Reviews the book, Lawrence Kohlberg's Approach to Moral Education by F. Clark Power, Ann Higgins, and Lawrence Kohlberg (see record 1989-97436-000 ). This intriguing book reports the results of longitudinal evaluation studies of Kohlberg's "just community" high school interventions. Power, Higgins, and Kohlberg provide rich, animated ethnographic d...

building on the theoretical work of Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936) and on a previous review of cross-cultural moral development research (Snarey, 1985), this chapter develops the thesis that Kohlberg's model of moral development does not adequately represent a communitarian or Gemeinschaft voice examines the usefulness of Tönnies' typology for exp...

Adults' social status, particularly their occupations, is a powerful predictor of their level of moral and ego development. This association's inevitability was tested by examining the relationship of personal development with social status among 3 groups of workers. Results showed that kibbutz workers' moral and ego development were not significan...

Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development differentiates moral types from moral stages; moral types are designated as Type A, heteronomous, and Type B, autonomous. This is a report of a six-year longitudinal cross-cultural study of moral types. The sample included kibbuz-educated Israeli adolescents, equally divided between kibbutz-born and c...

Adults' social status, particularly their occupations, is a powerful predictor of their level of moral and ego development. This association's inevitability was tested by examining the relationship of personal development with social status among 3 groups of workers. Results showed that kibbutz workers' moral and ego development were not significan...

The developmental dynamics of achieving egoautonomy in adolescent girls have not been adequately explored. This is a report of a qualitative study that investigated the relationship between female adolescent ego development and parent behavior from the perspective of the adolescent girl's view of her parents. The thesis of the study was that in ord...

Little empirical research has focused on whether comprehensive service programs for pregnant teenagers and teenage parents have helped to prevent or reduce the occurrence of subsequent pregnancies. This 4-year follow-up study evaluated what impact 8 services provided by a nonprofit agency have had on preventing repeat pregnancies, including increas...

In a survey of 237 hospital workers involved in the care of AIDS patients at a major AIDS inpatient-care facility, negative attitudes toward AIDS and AIDS patients (AIDS-phobia) and AIDS-related job stress (AIDS-stress) were common. In multivariate analyses, AIDS-phobia is significantly higher among older staff, those having low contact with AIDS p...

Personality theorists have for many years dealt with the question of how adults successfully cope with the somatic, psychological, and social losses that are often characteristic of the final age period of the life cycle. Some have proposed that “successful” aging depends upon developing new strategies for adapting to the challenges of this period....

Over the last two decades, a persistent but unresolved question within structural-developmental psychology has involved the relationship between ego development (I), as defined by Jane Loevinger, and moral judgment development (M), as defined by Lawrence Kohlberg (e.g., Erickson, 1977a, 1977b; Hauser, 1976; Kohlberg, 1964, 1966, 1984, 1986; Lambert...

Of a sample of 343 married men, prospectively studied for four decades, 52 (15.2%) experienced infertility in their first marriage. Styles of coping with their difficulty in achieving parenthood were considered across three longitudinal phases: initial substitutes, subsequent parenting resolutions, and final marital outcomes. The ability of coping...

Of a sample of 343 married men, prospectively studied for four decades, 52 (15.2%) experienced infertility in their first marriage. Styles of coping with their difficulty in achieving parenthood were considered across three longitudinal phases: initial substitutes, subsequent parenting resolutions, and final marital outcomes. The ability of coping...

To assess the psychosocial responses of hospital workers to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), 237 hospital employees were interviewed. Information was obtained on frequency and nature of contact with AIDS patients; knowledge about AIDS; attitudes about AIDS and about homosexuality; and stresses related to AIDS care. Four indices were deve...

In spite of a commitment to equality, the kibbutz is a male-dominated society with highly differentiated sex roles. Has this gap between ideals and reality created sex role strain for kibbutz-born adolescents and adults? Previous kibbutz studies have suggested that sex role strain may be the most intense among adult kibbutz women. Based on Erik Eri...

Kohlberg and others have proposed that cognitive development is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for social-moral development and, in turn, that social-moral development is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for ego development. This study examined these propositions within the cross-cultural context of an Israeli kibbutz. Cogniti...

This is a report of social mobility in 278 inner-city men studied for 4 decades and over 3 generations. 63.3% of the men and 59.8% of their children were upwardly mobile. 8 variables captured 28% of the explained variance in upward social mobility: IQ, mother's education, mother's occupation, boyhood ego strength, and four ego defense mechanisms--i...

Reports an error in "Cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research" by John R. Snarey (Psychological Bulletin, 1985[Mar], Vol 97[2], 202-232). The subheadings in Table 5 are incorrect and should be reversed. The first subheading should read "Countries for Which Studies Did Not Report Significant...

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 97(3) of Psychological Bulletin (see record 2008-10967-001). The subheadings in Table 5 are incorrect and should be reversed. The first subheading should read "Countries for Which Studies Did Not Report Significant Differences," and the second subheading should read "Countries for...

This article reports a longitudinal assessment of the effectiveness of an Israeli kibbutz in facilitating social-moral development among kibbutz-born and nonkibbutz-born youth. The sample included 92 Israeli adolescents divided primarily into three sub-groups: (1.) kibbutz-born and kibbutz-educated youth; (2.) city-born and city-educated youth; and...

Over the past 15 years, children and adults around the world have been asked if Heinz should steal a drug to save his dying wife, if Njoroge should disobey the rules to help a lost child, or some other similar moral dilemma. These cross-cultural studies have been undertaken to test Lawrence Kohlberg's theory, which posits a universal model of moral...