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Domain-general and domain-specific developmental assessments: Do they measure the same thing?

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Abstract

The concept of epistemological development is useful in psychological assessment only insofar as instruments can be designed to measure it consistently, reliably, and without bias. In the psychosocial domain, most traditional stage assessment systems rely on a process of matching concepts in a scoring manual generated from a limited number of construction cases, and thus suffer from bias introduced by an over-dependence on particular content. In contrast, the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (HCSS) employs criteria for assessing the hierarchical complexity of texts that are independent of specific conceptual content. This paper examines whether the HCSS and a conventional stage assessment system, Kohlberg’s Standard Issue Scoring System (SISS), measure the same dimension of performance. We scored 378 moral judgment interviews with both scoring systems. We then conducted a multidimensional partial credit analysis to determine the extent to which the two scoring systems assess the same dimension of performance. The disattenuated correlation between performance estimates on the SISS and HCSS is .92. Based on this and other evidence, we conclude that a single latent trait — hierarchical complexity — is the predominant dimension assessed by the two systems.

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... O uso de modelos Rasch em dados de estágios de desenvolvimento tem sido reportado em um número de pesquisas Bond & Fox, 2001;Dawson, 2000Dawson, , 2002Dawson, Xie & Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004;Dawson-Tunik, Commons, Wilson & Fischer, 2005;Dawson-Tunik et al., 2010;Demetriou & Kyriakides, 2006;Müller, Sokol, & Overton, 1999). Dentre os benefícios dos modelos Rasch pode-se apontar, de forma sintetizada, que esses modelos não demandam amostras representativas para estimação não-enviesada dos parâmetros dos itens, não demanda um grupo normativo para comparar os indivíduos da amostra de forma a dar significado aos escores, e não demanda a normalização dos escores para atingir propriedades intervalares de escala (Embreston & Reise, 2000). ...
... Portanto, no lugar de modelar os dados, o paradigma de Rasch foca na verificação do ajuste dos dados à um critério objetivo de medida fundamental, compatível com aqueles encontrados na Física (Andrich, 2004, p. 15). O uso dos modelos Rasch possibilita a construção de escalas objetivas, aditivas, com propriedades intervalares (Bond & Fox, 2001;Embreston & Reise, 2000), produzindo medidas lineares, proporcionando estimativas de precisão e a detecção de não-ajuste de itens e pessoas, permitindo a separação do objeto sendo medido do instrumento de medida (Panayides, Robinson & Tymms, 2010), além de possibilitar a verificação de sequências hierárquicas dos itens e das pessoas (Dawson, Xie & Wilson, 2003). ...
... Evidências de estágios de desenvolvimento são verificadas por meio da distribuição das dificuldades dos itens ao longo da variável latente (Dawson, 2000;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Bond & Fox, 2001;Müller, Sokol, & Overton, 1999), por meio das curvas características das categorias (Dawson-Tunik, 2004;Dawson-Tunik, Commons, ...
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Objetivo: O objetivo do presente estudo é verificar a validade estrutural do Teste de Desenvolvimento do Raciocínio Indutivo-3ª versão, por meio de estratégias complementares de análise fatorial confirmatória (testando modelos concorrentes), do modelo logístico simples de Rasch e do modelo Rasch estendido. Diferentes estratégias investigam diferentes aspectos da validade dos estágios de desenvolvimento, formando um guarda-chuva de evidências. Ao final do capítulo, uma nova definição probabilística de estágios de desenvolvimento é apresentada, a partir das evidências obtidas no estudo.
... The desire to create a universal scaling system which could be used to score multiple domains lead to Commons (2008) Model of Hierarchical Complexity (MHC) and Fisher's (1980) Dynamic Skills Theory (DST) both of which can measure levels or stages of development within any domain of development. Unlike domain-specific methods, domain-general methods are based on formal and mathematical logic, which affords them a logical basis for the evaluation of stages in a domain-neutral manner (Dawson, 2003). For both methods, the level of hierarchal complexity of the tasks or skills an individual can complete suggests the stage of performance within the domain evaluated. ...
... Assessments of the internal consistency of the LAS has shown a Cronbach Alpha of 0.95-0.97, indicating that the LAS gives a good measure of the underlying construct (Dawson, 2001(Dawson, , 2002(Dawson, , 2003. Further, the interrater agreement has proven to be higher than "85% agreement within 1/3 of a lectical level" (Dawson, n.d.). ...
... have reported the general psychometric properties of the HCSS. These studies (Dawson, 2001(Dawson, , 2002(Dawson, , 2003(Dawson, , 2004Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, Commons, & Wilson, 2005) report correlation coefficients of > 84% between the scores obtained from the HCSS and scores obtained from other instruments. These instruments include Armon and Dawson (2002) Good ...
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This research addressed the problem that currently there is no adult developmentally informed pre-engagement diagnosis instrument for change efforts available. Jaques’s (1996, 2002; Jaques & Clement, 1994) Requisite Organization theory was used as design approach for the creation of such a tool. This study aimed to describe what is involved in creating an instrument for assessing the individual stage of performance on select change effort tasks and for designing a set of guidelines to support consultants and change agents using the diagnostic results. Based on an action learning approach, an attempt was made to answer a set of research questions that focused on developing a developmentally informed pre-engagement diagnosis for change efforts and relevant use guidelines. To answer these questions, first, a task analysis was conducted to identify essential task domains. Next, it was necessary to learn how to score complexity based on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity (MHC). Third, it was essential to investigate what is involved in writing context specific vignettes. Finally, it was necessary to consider how RO theory could be used to develop a set of preliminary use guidelines. Detailed descriptions are provided for each step of the process used for creating a partial prototype of a developmentally informed pre-engagement diagnosis instrument and a set of preliminary use guidelines. Included are descriptions of the task analysis process, the domain setting process, the vignette, the hierarchical task item development process, and the use guidelines development process. Difficulties encountered and insights gained from each of these process steps are presented. Finally, process specific suggestions are provided for researchers interested in forwarding this research agenda. This research is significant in that it is the first attempt to develop an instrument for evaluating an individual’s stage of performance for essential task domains to match in-house resources to change efforts. Further, this study illustrates the complexity and resources required to develop a developmentally informed instrument based on the MHC. Finally, the finding put forth in this study will support further research aimed at understanding the influence of task domain stage of performance on change efforts.
... My colleagues and I have undertaken several studies of the reliability and validity of the LAS and its predecessors (Dawson, 2002a(Dawson, , 2003Dawson and Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, and Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004a). We have examined inter-analyst agreement rates, compared scores obtained with the LAS with scores obtained with more conventional scoring systems, and examined the scale's functioning through statistical modeling. ...
... Inter-analyst agreement rates have been high, 80% to 97% within half of a complexity level Dawson and Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004a). 7 Correspondences between other developmental scoring systems and the LAS are also high, revealing agreement rates of 85% or greater within ½ of a complexity level (Dawson, 2002aDawson, Xie, and Wilson, 2003). Employing Rasch scaling, which provides reliability estimates that are equivalent to Cronbach's alpha, we have consistently calculated reliabilities over .95 ...
... Employing Rasch scaling, which provides reliability estimates that are equivalent to Cronbach's alpha, we have consistently calculated reliabilities over .95 (Dawson, 2002a;Dawson, Xie, and Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004a). Overall, our research shows that the LAS is a valid and reliable general measure of intellectual development from early childhood through adulthood. ...
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concepts, a capability identified with the abstract mappings level in Fischer's (1980) developmental sequence of skill (complexity) levels; (3) that many of the conceptual elements of these arguments are formed at the complexity level preceding abstract mappings; and (4) that the difficulty of learning the energy concept is much greater for students who do not demonstrate the ability to construct abstract mappings.
... Conventional accounts of conceptual development are generally constructed by examining the behavior of individuals in small longitudinal samples. These accounts then form the basis for developmental assessment systems that often confound developmental level and conceptual content, such that particular concepts come to be overly identified with a given developmental level (Dawson, in press-a;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). ...
... In a third study, Dawson, Xie and Wilson (2003) conducted a multidimensional partial credit Rasch analysis of the relationship between scores obtained with the ...
... In brief, there is more than 100 years of work in developmental psychology, from Baldwin's (1895, 1906) seminal ideas and how they influenced major figures likePiaget (1932Piaget ( , 1954Piaget ( , 1970) and Vygotsky (1978), carried on throughKohlberg's (1969Kohlberg's ( , 1975Kohlberg's ( , 1984) work on stages of moral development and into a broad range of domain specific theorists such asPerry (1970Perry ( , 1981);Armon (1984);Selman (1971); King and Kitchener (1994) and Gilligan (1982). Domain general theories are rooted in the work of Fischer's (1980) dynamic skill theory and are complimented by assessment models developed byCommons, Trudeau, Stein, Richards, andKrause (1998) andDawson (2002;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). In addition, there is a strand of work on ego development with roots in the work ofLoevinger (1976), that has been built upon byKegan (1982Kegan ( , 1994) and CookGreuter (1999), among others. ...
... With the developmental approach from the immunity to change process, he was guided through a process of discovering his competing commitments, and this enabled his awareness to grow over time (with the support of coaching), so that he could selfauthor a solution from a more complex understanding of his internal dynamic. With the story of Espen in mind, the following section presents a simple analysis of his statements utilizing some of the key theories described above as being central to the program and using the Lectica model (Dawson, 2001;Dawson, Commons, & Wilson, 2005;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). The cognitive complexity of the statements made are broadly assigned to Lectical zones. ...
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The field of leadership development has suffered from a behavioral training approach. Bringing an adult cognitive developmental perspective to the field offers new possibilities. However, proponents of this approach often still find themselves on the margins of research and application in the field. This article provides an overview of how research and practice at the intersection of these two fields has progressed with some discussion of how it appears in relation to the larger field of leadership discourse. There is a brief survey of some of the more well-known approaches to applying adult development models to leadership development. To illustrate this, an example from client work done from this approach is highlighted in terms of some preliminary research on the impacts on leadership skills from utilizing an adult developmental model for leadership development programs. Concluding remarks identify the need to take advantage of more widespread practitioner application to further research in the field.
... As previously mentioned, we have conducted numerous comparisons of the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System with other developmental scoring systems (Dawson, 2002;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). These studies provide additional evidence of construct validity, in that they show that the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System and four other developmental assessment systems-Kohlberg and his colleague's (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987b) Standard Issue Scoring System, Armon's (1984) Good Life Scoring System, Kitchener and King's (1990) Reflective Judgment Scoring System, and a scoring system based on Perry's (1970) epistemological development sequence (Dawson, in press-a)-predominantly assess the same dimension of performance. ...
... Mean complexity order scores (for the cases in which these were calculated) ranged from 0 to 12. Complexity order means were then divided into one of three levels per complexity order: early transitional, late transitional, and consolidated. The use of three levels was justified by the consistent finding that we can have confidence in hierarchical complexity scores within about one third of a complexity order (Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). Dividing complexity order scores into three levels was not as simple as determining that three levels are meaningful, however, because no nonarbitrary classification scheme suggested itself. ...
Article
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The evaluation of developmental interventions has been hampered by a lack of practical, reliable, and objective developmental assessment systems. This article describes the construction of a domain-general computerized developmental assessment system for texts: the Lexical Abstraction Assessment System (LAAS). The LAAS provides assessments of the order of hierarchical complexity of oral and written texts, employing scoring rules developed with predictive discriminant analysis. The LAAS is made possible by a feature of conceptual structure we call hierarchical order of abstraction, which produces systematic quantifiable changes in lexical composition with development. The LAAS produces scores that agree with human ratings of hierarchical complexity more than 80% of the time within one-third of a complexity order across 6 complexity orders (18 levels), spanning the portion of the lifespan from about 4 years of age through adulthood. This corresponds to a Kendall’s tau of.93.
... This is commonly referred to as post-formal (Commons & Ross, 2008;Sinnott, 2003) or post-conventional thinking (Cook-Greuter, 1999;Kohlberg, 1979;Pfaffenberger et al., 2011). A common division among the stage-based approaches is between those engaging in the development of the domain of complex thinking (Basseches, 1984;Commons, 2008;Dawson et al., 2003;Fischer & Bidell, 2006) and the more holistic approaches of investigating meaning making (Kegan, 1982(Kegan, , 1994 and ego development theory (Loevinger, 1998;O'Fallon et al., 2020). ...
Article
Perspective taking is emphasized by several developmental theorists as a basic aspect of human development, although it hasn’t been properly defined beyond the conventional stages and 3rd person perspective. The aim of this analysis is to present a general theory of perspective taking, introduce six orders of perspective taking and apply them to the psychological, relational and physical aspects of reality. The analysis is formulated from principles of adult development and compared with stage descriptions of social perspective taking according to Selman, children’s understanding of space according to Piaget and Inhelder and stage descriptions from Ego development theory by Cook-Greuter. This theoretical formulation of perspective taking allows for generalization into an understanding of physical reality according to 4th and 5th person perspectives with examples in Einstein’s theory of special and general relativity and quantum mechanics, according to Bohr.
... Three Rasch-based models were specified under the IRT framework: the Bifactor, Subdimensional, and Composite models. These members of the Rasch models are increasingly employed in analysing cognitive developmental data [33], [34]. These models were compared in terms of the fit indices, the IRT model subscale correlations, and the reliability estimates. ...
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There has been a growing focus on exploring the existence of Generic Problem-Solving competence across various fields, leading to heightened attention in this area. However, most of the previous and current approaches are limited in terms of validity and reliability. Thus, this paper aims to propose a new approach based on The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing validity framework to investigate this matter. The investigation leads to the review of the conceptions of construct validity in educational measurement. The paper concentrates on the proposed validity exploration (VE) model, representing an elaborate enterprise and a serial, progressive procedure aligned with the content and structural validity aspects of The Standards framework. The PISA Computer-based Assessment was used as secondary data for this investigation.
... Research with various methods has produced evidence for the same scale, marked by clusters of discontinuities such as sudden changes in growth patterns and gaps in Rasch scaling. Analysis of growth curves has documented these patterns (Fischer & Rose, 1999;van Geert, 1998), andRasch (1980) scaling of interview and test data has shown remarkably consistent evidence of the same patterns of discontinuity (Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003), forming a scale of at least 10 levels of hierarchical complexity, as shown in Figure 7.3. The scale relates to the outline of developmental stages that Piaget (1983) described, but the levels on the scale are better grounded empirically, and performance varies across the scale instead of being fixed at one point at each age. ...
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Cognitive skills are dynamic systems of internalized action-in-context. As dynamic structures, cognitive skills show patterns of variability not predicted by notions of static stage structure. Cognitive development takes place through the construction of new skills when persons coordinate, or integrate existing structures into new, more inclusive skills in order to functions in new or changing contexts.
... showing that the General Stage Scoring System (Commons et al., 1995) measured the same dimension as the longitudinally validated domain-specific stage scoring systems of Armon and Kohlberg (Dawson, 2001;Dawson, 2002;Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). I further built upon the General Stage Scoring System (Commons et al., 1995) in a study on the development of evaluative reasoning about education (Dawson-Tunik, 2004). ...
... By virtue of the mathematical definition of tasks in the theory , each successive stage is more hierarchically complex than the previous one. Developers of the model used Rasch analysis to test the theory and validate orders of hierarchical complexity (Commons et al., 2007;Dawson, Commons, & Wilson, 2005;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). ...
... Even more intriguing is the well-argued and studied contention that domain general (rather than domain specific) development can be reliably measured. 28 Imagine the implications of that to medical school selection if it is trueand researchers in this area argue that it is. Given the increasing complexity of medical practice and the significant demands of an interdisciplinary environment, 29 growth and development in many "intelligences" are required to fulfill the CanMEDS roles. ...
Article
CJEM Debate Series: #BetterSelection – Medical school acceptance tests select the wrong doctors: We need fewer memorizers and more thinkers and communicators in modern medicine - Volume 20 Issue 4 - John M. Steeves, David A. Petrie, Paul R. Atkinson
... thoughts, roles, emotions, and actions) [27]. Thirdly, the term 'responsibility' is interpreted differently depending on one's stage of development [23,30]. ...
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Background: Occupational therapists need to know about people’s beliefs about personal responsibility for health to help them pursue everyday activities. Aim: The study aims to employ state-of-the-art quantitative approaches to understand people’s views of health and responsibility at different ages. Methods: A mixed method approach was adopted, using text mining to extract information from 233 interviews with participants aged 5 to 96 years, and then exploratory graph analysis to estimate the number of latent variables. The fit of the structure estimated via the exploratory graph analysis was verified using confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Exploratory graph analysis estimated three dimensions of health responsibility: (1) creating good health habits and feeling good; (2) thinking about one’s own health and wanting to improve it; and 3) adopting explicitly normative attitudes to take care of one’s health. The comparison between the three dimensions among age groups showed, in general, that children and adolescents, as well as the old elderly (>73 years old) expressed ideas about personal responsibility for health less than young adults, adults and young elderly. Conclusions: Occupational therapists’ knowledge of the concepts of health responsibility is of value when working with a patient’s health, but an identified challenge is how to engage children and older persons.
... The evaluation of cognitive processes by means of speech analysis has not been psychometrically validated, which could be achieved by analytical comparison with the Model of Hierarchical Complexity Commons, Trudeau, Stein, Richards, and Krause (1998), and empirically by scoring the same material by means of cognitive processes and the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (Commons et al., 2007;Dawson, 2002Dawson, , 2003Dawson, , 2004Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). The focus on how information is being organized and how the four types of cognitive processes are recurring in different orders originates from a Piaget constructivist view, and neo-Piagetian, respectively, which will be further elaborated in a comparison between SST and the neo-Piagetian Model of Hierarchical Complexity in a second article (Törnblom et al., 2018). ...
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Alternative ways of organizing are emerging, questioning and challenging conventional assumptions regarding organizational structures, managerial roles, and leadership. In addition, new emerging industries, such as the Internet industry, possibly fuel the development of new ways of organizing. This article examines and discusses stratified systems theory in terms of its key concepts, constructs, support, and limitations, as well as discussing its perspectives and underlying assumptions, applicability in academic research, and usefulness for practitioners. The theory is positioned as a modernistic approach and an early attempt, and, in some ways, a contribution to the integration of leadership and organizational theory, and of theory and practice. From the practitioner’s perspective, this article provides no general academic support for the proposed value of applying the theory and its extension for organizational design and improvement. However, applicability of the theory in contemporary research has some support, but there are differences in its support, and limitations to the key concepts and constructs should be considered. This article calls for further research exploring the support and limitations of the key concepts and constructs from theories within the field of adult development, and furthermore, research that explores what is really new regarding hierarchical structures, managerial roles, and leadership in new types of organizations. Finally, research that explores how organizational design can shape and leverage leadership development is called for.
... The LAS metric is particularly valuable in the cases of open-ended questions and dilemmas (Stein & Heikkinen, 2009), and is considered domain-general. Hence, the scoring is not bound to a particular task or domain (Dawson & Wilson, 2004 Dawson, Xie & Wilson, 2003;Stein & Heikkinen, 2009). ...
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This study addresses the current debate about the beneficial effects of text processing software on students with different working memory (WM) during the process of academic writing, especially with regard to the ability to display higher-level conceptual thinking. A total of 54 graduate students (15 male, 39 female) wrote one essay by hand and one by keyboard. Our results show a beneficial effect of text processing software, in terms of both the qualitative and quantitative writing output. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to detect distinct performance groups in the sample. These performance groups mapped onto three differing working memory profiles. The groups with higher mean WM scores manifested superior writing complexity using a keyboard, in contrast to the cluster with the lowest mean WM. The results also point out that more revision during the writing process itself does not inevitably reduce the quality of the final output.
... It also produces linear measures, gives estimates of precision, allows the calculation of quality of fit indexes and enables the parameters' separation of the object being measured and of the measurement instrument (Panayides, Robinson & Tymms, 2010). Rasch modeling enables the reduction of all items of a test into a common developmental scale (Demetriou & Kyriakides, 2006), collapsing in the same latent dimension person's abilities and item's difficulty (Bond & Fox, 2001;Embreston & Reise, 2000;Glas, 2007), as well as enables verification of the hierarchical sequences of both item and person, which is especially relevant to developmental stage identification (Golino et al, 2014;Dawson, Xie & Wilson, 2003). ...
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Qualitative research supports a developmental dimension in views on teaching and learning, but there are currently no quantitative tools to measure the full range of this development. To address this, we developed the Epistemological Development in Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (EDTLQ). In the current study the psychometric properties of the EDTLQ were examined using a sample (N= 232) of teachers from a Swedish University. A confirmatory factor and Rasch analysis showed that the items of the EDTLQ form a unidimensional scale, implying a single latent variable (eg epistemological development). Item and person separation reliability showed satisfactory levels of fit indicating that the response alternatives differentiate appropriately. Endorsement of the statements reflected the preferred constructivist learning-teaching environment of the response group. The EDTLQ is innovative since is the first quantitative survey to measure unidimensional epistemological development and it has a potential to be used as an apt tool for teachers to monitor the development of students as well as to offer professional development opportunities to the teachers.
... Not only are there definitional correspondences among analogous levels described by Commons, Fischer, and Piaget, there is empirical evidence of correspondences between complexity levels, skill levels, and orders of hierarchical complexity and at least three domain-based systems, including Kitchener and King's (Dawson, 2002b;King, Kitchener, Wood, & Davison, 1989;Kitchener & King, 1990;Kitchener, Lynch, Fischer, & Wood, 1993) stages of reflective judgment, Armon's good life stages (Dawson, 2002a), Perry's stages of epistemological development , and Kohlberg's moral stages (Commons et al., 1989;Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). These correspondences suggest that, as a community, this group of developmental researchers is moving toward a consensus regarding the detection and aspects of the definition of developmental stages. ...
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This project examines the shape of conceptual development from early childhood through adulthood. To do so we model the attainment of developmental complexity levels in the moral reasoning of a large sample (n= 747) of 5- to 86-year-olds. Employing a novel application of the Rasch model to investigate patterns of performance in these data, we show that the acquisition of successive complexity levels proceeds in a pattern suggestive of a series of spurts and plateaus. We also show that there are six complexity levels represented in performance between the ages of 5 and 86; that patterns of performance are consistent with the specified sequence; that these findings apply to both childhood and adulthood levels; that sex is not an important predictor of complexity level once educational attainment has been taken into account; and that both age and educational attainment predict complexity level well during childhood, but educational attainment is a better predictor in late adolescence and adulthood.
... Dawson and colleagues have offered data on inter-analyst agreement rates, cross-metric comparisons of scores on the same data, scale reliability characteristics, and construct validity. Inter-analyst agreement rates in early studies were high relative to contemporaneous norms; 80% to 97% within one half of a complexity level (Dawson, 2003;Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, Commons, Wilson, & Fischer, 2005;Dawson-Tunik, 2004). Agreement rates between certified analysts The transition to principles allows for multiple complex abstractions -"inspiring," "visionary" and "deeply committed"-each of which could be elaborated (in a longer example) as abstract systems in their own right, to be repackaged as a single principled notion of a "servant leader." ...
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Problem: A range of developmental models have been applied in research on leader development. Such applications often advocate “whole” person approaches to leader growth. They seek to expand social, cognitive, and behavioral capacities, and often reference perspective taking. Many of these approaches define developmental levels in terms of specific content, ideas, and domain-specific capacities. In some models, people are said to be at a given level because they demonstrate a certain kind of perspective taking, and they are also expected to demonstrate that kind of perspective taking because they are at a given level. This circularity largely prevents the investigation of how different capacities change together (or not) over time. Purpose: Using an approach that avoids this kind of circularity it was possible to examine perspectival skills and developmental level independently. I tested three hypotheses about the relationship between change in developmental level and change in perspective taking, seeking, and coordination. It was predicted that these constructs would exhibit patterns of synchronous and asynchronous change, with the former being most prominent. Method: The sample consisted of 598 civil leaders who completed a developmental assessment called the LecticalTM Decision Making Assessment (LMDA) up to 4 times over a 9-month leadership development program. The LDMAs yielded separate scores for Lectical level—a domain-general index of hierarchical complexity—and perspective taking, seeking, and coordination. Perspective taking and seeking scores were disaggregated into component scores for salience, accessibility, and sophistication. Ten scores were analyzed with Latent growth modeling techniques. Four types of models were fit to these data: (a) Univariate latent growth curve models, (b) multivariate parallel process models, (c) univariate latent difference scores models, and (d) bivariate latent difference scores models. Results: All hypotheses were partially confirmed. Change trajectories for most scores were non linear, characterized by dips and spurts. The rate of change in perspective scores was not related to rate of change for Lectical score or initial Lectical score. Initial Lectical score was positively related to initial perspective scores. Lectical score was a leading indicator of subsequent change in seeking and seeking salience. Lectical change positively impacted seeking change, whereas Lectical score positively impacted seeking salience change. Conclusions: The relationship between change in these constructs is more complex than typically portrayed. Evidence suggests that these variables change more independently of each other than claimed in earlier research. Patterns of asynchronous change were three times more common than synchronous change, and Lectical score predicted change in only some aspects of perspectival capacity.Implications for theory, method, and pedagogy, along with study limitations and avenues for future research are discussed.
... It is marked by clusters of discontinuities, such as abrupt changes in growth patterns and clusters of items in scaling (Fischer & Rose, 1994;Fischer & Silvern, 1985;van Geert, 1998). Rasch (1980) scaling of interview and test data have provided consistent evidence of common patterns of discontinuities Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003), forming a scale of 13 levels of hierarchical complexity. The scale also relates to the outline of developmental stages that Piaget (1983) described, but performance is not fixed at one age but instead varies across the scale, marked by clusters of behaviors demarking discontinuities. ...
... In fact, problems of increasing complexity require both an increasing relational thought to cover all of the aspects or facets involved and an increasing abstractness to conceive or construct general principles that would govern all aspects or facets involved. Thus, it is perfectly reasonable that recent research suggests that there may be a common system of hierarchical complexity where different lines of development may be reduced (Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson & Wilson, 2003). In conclusion, this study suggests that different models of development that captured different aspects of it all appear to be alternative perspectives on the same complex developmental process. ...
... Research with various methods has produced evidence for the same scale, marked by clusters of discontinuities such as sudden changes in growth patterns and gaps in Rasch scaling. Analysis of growth curves has documented these patterns (Fischer & Rose, 1999;van Geert, 1998), andRasch (1980) scaling of interview and test data has shown remarkably consistent evidence of the same patterns of discontinuity (Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003), forming a scale of at least 10 levels of hierarchical complexity, as shown in Figure 7.3. The scale relates to the outline of developmental stages that Piaget (1983) described, but the levels on the scale are better grounded empirically, and performance varies across the scale instead of being fixed at one point at each age. ...
... Research with various methods has produced evidence for the same scale, marked by clusters of discontinuities such as sudden changes in growth patterns and gaps in Rasch scaling. Analysis of growth curves has documented these patterns (Fischer & Rose, 1999;van Geert, 1998), andRasch (1980) scaling of interview and test data has shown remarkably consistent evidence of the same patterns of discontinuity (Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003), forming a scale of at least 10 levels of hierarchical complexity, as shown in Figure 7.3. The scale relates to the outline of developmental stages that Piaget (1983) described, but the levels on the scale are better grounded empirically, and performance varies across the scale instead of being fixed at one point at each age. ...
... Este ciclo de desarrollo de instrumentos se itera hasta lograr una consistencia suficiente entre las intenciones y los resultados empíricos (véase Wilson, 2005, para más detalles), luego de lo cual ya es posible investigar la evidencia de confiabilidad y validez del instrumento, y, eventualmente, usarlo de forma directa. Imágenes como estas han demostrado ser valiosas para mejorar la confiabilidad, validez y utilidad de las mediciones psicométricas en una amplia gama de campos, desde educación (Black, Wilson, & Yao, 2011) a salud (Best, 2008;Ewert, Allen, Wilson, Üstün, & Stucki, 2010;Smith, 2005;Wilson, Allen, & Li, 2006) y psicología (Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Kaiser & Wilson, 2000). Los éxitos a la fecha sugieren la necesidad de realizar más estudios para establecer si y cómo los mapas de constructo funcionan como objetos de demarcación en zonas de intercambio, y cómo su uso en este sentido podría expandirse y mejorarse. ...
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Existen puntos de vista marcadamente distintos en muchos contextos, desde la ciencia, pasando por las aulas, hasta el mercado. Lo que podría ser sorprendente es que pueden hallarse tanto disonancias divergentes como armonías convergentes en sistemas productivos del mundo real. El valor de los resultados de evaluación generalizables depende de que estos sean innovadores a la vez que estandarizados. Estas tensiones aparentemente opuestas pueden reconciliarse en términos de objetos de demarcación, entidades compartidas por distintas comunidades que los usan y los ven de modo bastante diferente. Más aún, desde hace largo tiempo se ha considerado que la ciencia ocurre dentro de un continuo que va desde el pensar y el actuar cotidiano a la lógica y a los métodos formales; por lo tanto, no debiera ser una sorpresa que este rango se manifieste también en la investigación psicométrica. Describimos métodos y resultados en los cuales ejemplares modelados psicométricamente, conocidos como mapas de constructo y mapas Wright, funcionan como objetos de demarcación y sirven de base para analogías productivas en la evaluación educacional de las siguientes formas: (a) preservando estructuras relacionales, (b) generando mapeos isomorfos entre sistemas y (c) facilitando la sistematicidad, comprendida como sistemas de mapeo de estructuras relacionales de orden superior (Nersessian & Chandrasekaran, 2009). En este contexto conceptual, presentamos una aplicación del Sistema de Evaluación BEAR [BEAR Assessment System] y su software asociado, los que facilitan la traducción de estructuras relacionales entre sistemas, apoyando así las alianzas prácticas entre la enseñanza, la legislación, la evaluación y desarrollo curriculares, la psicometría y las tecnologías de la información (TI).
... This cycle of instrument development iterates until sufficient consistency is reached between the intentions and the empirical results (see Wilson (2005) for details on this), and the instrument is then ready for the investigation of its reliability and validity evidence, and, eventually, for direct use. Images such as these have proven valuable in improving the reliability, validity, and utility of psychometric measures across a wide range of fields, from education (Black, Wilson, & Yao, 2011) to health care (Best, 2008;Ewert, Allen, Wilson, Üstün, & Stucki, 2010;Smith, 2005;Wilson, Allen, & Li, 2006) and psychology (Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Kaiser & Wilson, 2000). Successes to date prompt further inquiry as to if and how construct maps may function as boundary objects in trading zones, and how their use in this regard might be expanded and enhanced. ...
Article
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Markedly diverse viewpoints are in play in many varied contexts, from science to the classroom to the marketplace. Perhaps surprisingly, both divergent dissonances and convergent harmonies are routinely found together in productive real-world systems. The value of generalizable assessment outcomes hinges on their being both innovative and standardized. These apparently opposite tensions can be reconciled in terms of boundary objects, entities shared by different communities that use and view them quite differently. Further, science has long been seen as taking place on a continuum from everyday thinking and acting to formal logic and methods, so it should not be surprising to find this range manifest as well in psychometric research. We describe methods and results in which psychometrically modeled exemplars known as construct maps and Wright maps function as boundary objects and serve as a basis for productive analogies in educational assessment by (a) preserving relational structures, (b) making isomorphic mappings between systems, and (c) facilitating systematicity, understood as mapping systems of higher order relational structures (Nersessian & Chandrasekaran, 2009). In this conceptual context, we present an application of the BEAR Assessment System and its accompanying software, facilitating translations of relational structures across systems in support of practical alliances of teaching, policy-making, assessment and curriculum development, psychometrics, and information technology (IT).
... We have undertaken several studies of the reliability and validity of the LAS and its predecessors (Dawson, 2002(Dawson, , 2003Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004). We have examined inter-analyst agreement rates, compared scores obtained with the LAS with scores obtained with more conventional scoring systems, and examined the functioning of the scale through statistical modeling. ...
Conference Paper
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A number of leadership theories emphasize the role of conceptions of leadership in leader/follower interactions and the concomitant need to understand what leaders and followers are thinking (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978; Lord & Emrich, 2000). In an attempt to move toward a measure of leadership reasoning, we employed a research methodology called developmental maieutics to investigate the development of conceptions of leadership in a sample of children, adolescents, and adults. All respondents participated in open-ended clinical interviews designed to probe their conceptual understandings. The interviews were transcribed and submitted to two independent analyses. First, interviews were scored with a general developmental assessment system, the Lectical™ Assessment System (Dawson-Tunik, 2005). Next, the interviews were submitted to a detailed analysis of their conceptual content. The combined results were employed to construct an account of the development of leadership conceptions.
... Examples of theories of the intellectual development of students are Baxter Magolda (2000), Belenky et al. (1986), King and Kitchener (1994), and Perry (1970). The theories and models advanced in this field were for a long time limited to their respective domains, but a series of validation studies has shown that the hierarchical complexity scoring system assesses a unidimensional developmental trait (Commons 2008a;Dawson 2002Dawson , 2003Dawson , 2004Dawson, Xie, and Wilson 2003), which enables analysis of complexity in any information and domain. Currently, there are three theories/models that make this claim: the Fischer skill theory (Fischer and Bidell 2006), the Lectical Assessment System (Dawson and Stein 2008) and MHC. ...
Article
An important aspect of higher education is to educate students who can manage complex relationships and solve complex problems. Teachers need to be able to evaluate course content with regard to complexity, as well as evaluate students’ ability to assimilate complex content and express it in the form of a learning outcome. One model for evaluating complexity is the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The aim of this analysis is to address the limitations of the SOLO taxonomy in detecting the more subtle differences of the learning outcomes and to clarify the concept of learning modes. This is done by analysing the SOLO taxonomy by means of the model of hierarchical complexity (MHC). The two models are compared by examining their respective theoretical background, the definitions and descriptions of the stages of each model, as well as through evaluating examples illustrating the SOLO levels using MHC. The two models can be viewed as compatible, with MHC also being able to put the SOLO taxonomy in an adult development context, thereby emphasising the importance of developing the students’ access to complex thinking.
... This process is described more thoroughly elsewhere (Dawson, 2002(Dawson, , 2003Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Dawson-Tunik, 2004). ...
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Complex standardized testing infrastructures have come to shape most educational systems. With so many people taking so many tests, we must seriously begin to ask, what are we measuring? and what is worth measuring? This chapter presents the work of a research group that has begun to use the latest in computer technology and learning science to build tests that are both standardized and formative, grounded in research about learning, and richly educative. Fischer’s Dynamic Skill Theory provides a framework for modeling the diverse learning sequences and developmental pathways that characterize how real individuals in real-world contexts learn and develop. Dawson’s Lectical™ Assessment System is a psychometrically validated domain-general developmental assessment system. These two sophisticated outgrowths of contemporary learning science are being employed in an effort to design a new kind of testing infrastructure, an effort known as the DiscoTest™ Initiative. In this chapter we describe these efforts and explore how these specific advances in research and design will change the practice of testing, beyond using standardized tests as mere sorting mechanism and toward the use of tests as educative aids.
... Teorin förklarar ökande komplexitet i beteenden vilket inkluderar hur människor tänker, talar och handlar. Teorin är praktiskt användbar genom ett välvaliderat bedömningssystem, Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (HCSS) (Commons, Rodriguez, et al., 2007;Dawson, 2002Dawson, , 2003Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). ...
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Vi utbildar studenter för att de ska ha möjlighet att lösa mycket komplexa samhällsproblem,men hur vet vi att de har utvecklat de former av tänkande och handlande som krävs? Forskning visar att vuxna tänker, talar och handlar utifrån olika nivåer av komplexitet, och att utbildning i hög grad påverkar människors förmågor. Model of Hierarchical Complexity(MHC) är en teori som beskriver hur komplext information sätts samman och hur komplext personer resonerar i en fråga, vanligtvis på någon av nivåerna konkret, abstrakt, formellt, systematiskt eller metasystematisk. Syftet med denna artikel är att introducera MHC och visa på dess relevans som verktyg inom högre utbildning. Med hjälp av teorin är det möjligt att analysera både hur komplex en uppgift är och hur studenter klarar av att lösa den, vilket speglar förståelse inom ett ämne. Med modellen som mått på komplexitet tydliggörs svårighetsgraden i det som ska läras och på vilken nivå studenterna klarar att ta till sig kunskapsinnehållet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras hur studenter kan stödjas att utvecklasina förmågor till komplext resonerande och därmed skapa kvalitet i både lärande och undervisningOne of the aims of higher education is to teach students to solve complex problems, but what is the complexity of problems and the reasoning of students? The Model of Hierarchical Complexity (MHC) is a theory applicable to all domains in which information is organized and accounts for increases in behavioral complexity which includes cognitive or reasoning complexity. The paper is a theoretical introduction to MHC as a tool for teaching in higher education. The model clarifies and shows the gap between the complexity in the subject and the students understanding of the same subject. We also discuss how to support the development of more complex reasoning in students.
... Not only are there definitional correspondences among analogous levels described by Commons, Fischer, and Piaget, there is empirical evidence of correspondences between complexity levels, skill levels, and orders of hierarchical complexity and at least three domain-based systems, including Kitchener and King's (Dawson, 2002b;King, Kitchener, Wood, & Davison, 1989;Kitchener & King, 1990;Kitchener, Lynch, Fischer, & Wood, 1993) stages of reflective judgment, Armon's good life stages (Dawson, 2002a), Perry's stages of epistemological development (Dawson, 2004), and Kohlberg's moral stages (Commons et al., 1989;Dawson & Gabrielian, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). These correspondences suggest that, as a community, this group of developmental researchers is moving toward a consensus regarding the detection and aspects of the definition of developmental stages. ...
Article
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The study used the model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) to test the theory that different domains in development would develop in synchrony, allowing an individual to solve tasks from various domains using the same mental structure for each task. The MHC instruments used were the empathy, helper person, counselor patient, breakup, caregiver, algebra, balance beam, infinity and laundry instruments. The instruments can be categorized as belonging to two different subdomains, the social subdomain, and the logic/mathematics/physical sciences subdomain. Instruments in this social subdomain measure developmental stage in a variety of social contexts. These social contexts included empathy for person after an accident, guidance and assistance by a helper, counseling patients, understanding romantic breakups, and caring for children and infants. The other subdomain is composed of mathematical (algebra & infinity), logical (laundry), and physical science (balance beam). In order to conclude how related the performances were, three analyses were carried out. First, Rasch analysis yielded person scores akin to person stage scores. Second, regression analysis was conducted to assess how well the order of hierarchical complexity (OHC) of the items predicted the Rasch difficulty of the items. Third a principal axis factoring was carried out with the person Rasch scores for every instrument. Irrespective of domains, if each instrument loaded on the first factor with all the factor scores over .7 and if the first factor accounted for more than 70% of the variance, then that would show that all instruments were part of a single domain. In each case the MHC accounted for a large amount of variance with r values over .7. The principal axis factoring showed that person scores on each instrument loaded on the first factor (90.51% of the variance). All the factor scores on the first factor were over .85. There were very low loadings only on the second factor (4.947% of the variance). This implies that the instruments from the social subdomain and instruments from the logic/mathematics/physical sciences belong to a single domain.
... In the first part of the data analysis the dichotomous Rasch Model is used, using the software Winsteps 3.70.1 (Linacre, 2012). It produces linear measures, gives estimates of precision, allows the detection of lack of fit or misfit, enables the parameters' separation of the object being measured and of the measurement instrument (Panayides, Robinson & Tymms, 2010) and enables the verification of hierarchical sequences of both item and person, being especially relevant to developmental stage identification (Dawson, Xie & Wilson, 2003). After verifying the fit to the dichotomous Rasch Model, the structure of the items' difficulties is visually verified through the Wright (variable) map. ...
... This process of consolidation, transition, and consolidation will produce a step-like curve when viewed over time or when surveying large populations at different cognitive levels. Dawson, Xie, and Wilson (2003) ...
Article
This dissertation investigates the cognitive processes businesspeople use to resolve ethical dilemmas. I assert that to accurately represent the ethical decision making process, it is necessary to move beyond ethical decision making models that rely solely on rational choice and utility theory. I develop a behavioral model of ethical decision making that extends and improves upon existing models in two ways. First, I apply dual-process cognition theories to account for the fact that not all decisions are made in a deliberative and effortful manner (which I call "deep choice"). At times decisions are made based on intuition, heuristics, stereotypes, and other non-deliberative processes (which I call "shallow choice"). Second, I include the influence of emotions on the ethical decision process. Many managers attempt to remove emotions from the workplace, but emotions influence the decision process and must be acknowledged in a descriptive ethical decision making model. A key observation stemming from this revised model is that the ethical considerations of an action may not be actively evaluated in a decision, but may instead be "bundled" with a shallow choice. This makes it critical to understand how organizations can influence the creation, content, and use of shallow choice. A discussion of ethical choice necessarily involves a dialog regarding the methods used to evaluate the quality of the ethical decision. I critique the current measurement instruments and suggest five guideposts to help overcome the duality of the need to apply universal principles and the necessity to respond to the particular situation when resolving an ethical dilemma.I clarify and explain dual-process cognition and the proposed model by using them to explain trust formation in organizations. I also apply the model to describe how managers cope with the time pressure that is so prevalent in business today. I suggest workers engage in ethical satisficing, that is, they accept solutions that surpass some minimal ethical threshold, but which do not represent the most ethical response available. I also establish a foundation upon which a theory of ethical satisficing can be built.Lastly, I discuss implications of the proposed model and future research opportunities.
... • In-basket tests revealed statistically significant differences in managerial performance between conventional and post-conventional action logics with engagement by those assessed at post-conventional in practices of inquiry and collaboration representing the most significant difference (Merron et al., 1987). Dawson, Xie, and Wilson (2003). The SCT is empirically derived from thousands of responses and more than 20 years of cycles of theory and validation (Cook-Greuter, 1994. ...
... Assessments of the developmental level of one skill in one conceptual domain (e.g., logical reasoning) will not necessarily predict the developmental level of skills in a different domain (e.g., classification) or even in conceptually similar tasks (e.g., classification of familiar versus unfamiliar objects). One can chart developmental sequences only for skills within particular tasks, domains, and within particular social contexts and assessment conditions (Dawson, Xie, and Wilson, 2003;Fischer et al., 1993;see Table 3 in "Introduction to the Model of Hierarchical Complexity," this issue). ...
Article
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Individuals do not operate “at a stage of development.” They operate at a range of different levels of hierarchical complexity depending on skill area, task, context, degree of support, and other variables. It is thus necessary to postulate the concept of domain to refer to the particular conceptual, behavioral, or affective area within which activity operates. The concept raises questions and implications for theory building and application. Such issues are elaborated by discussing a variety of domains and social contexts. A postformal case example of leadership in higher education illuminates the concept of domains and the interrelationships among domains.
... Of the 20 participants, 15 were assessed in individual interviews before and after the seminar to determine the complexity of their ideas in epistemology, problemsolving, and learning. An established scale for assessing the developmental level of complexity was used to assess concepts in each of these three domains (Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003;Fischer, 1980). ...
Article
This article explores the unique and personal experience of learning within a broader framework of development called skill theory. The framework offers a perspective for recognizing within a diversity of experiences a stable order of increasing complexity in skills that individuals display as they execute or demonstrate changes in their understanding. This order is described in terms of a scale, or ruler, that quantifies across domains the achievement of greater levels of complexity in ability. In particular, we explore the process adults follow as they attempt to understand and apply ideas from science and leadership to allow the reader to witness how individual experiences can map onto a “universal” scale of learning and development.
... Research with various methods has produced evidence for the same scale, marked by clusters of discontinuities such as sudden changes in growth patterns and gaps in Rasch scaling. Analysis of growth curves has documented these patterns (Fischer & Rose, 1999;van Geert, 1998), andRasch (1980) scaling of interview and test data has shown remarkably consistent evidence of the same patterns of discontinuity (Dawson, 2003;Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003), forming a scale of at least 10 levels of hierarchical complexity, as shown in Figure 7.3. The scale relates to the outline of developmental stages that Piaget (1983) described, but the levels on the scale are better grounded empirically, and performance varies across the scale instead of being fixed at one point at each age. ...
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Human activity is both organized and highly variable. Analysis of the variation illuminates the dynamic order in development, learning, and emotional change. Action is nowhere near as stable as the static conceptions of psychology predict. Dynamic structural analysis provides a framework and tools for analyzing the variation and detecting the order in it – the dynamic organization of self-constructed, socially embedded skills and activities (actions, thoughts, and emotions). Key discoveries and tools include: (1) the emergence of a series of cognitive abilities that form a universal scale for development and learning, (2) methods for analyzing microdevelopment and learning pathways, (3) tools for depicting emotional development, including affective splitting and cultural shaping, and (4) a model connecting cognitive growth with brain development. Keywords: brain development; cognition; dynamic structuralism; emotion; microdevelopment; skill theory; variation
Chapter
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
Chapter
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
Chapter
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
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This work is protected by Copyright. You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own non-commercial research or study. Any other use requires permission from the copyright owner. The Copyright Act requires you to attribute any copyright works you quote or paraphrase. The 21st century is characterised by high levels of complexity. In order to influence organisational outcomes, leaders must enact leadership processes while contending with these complex conditions. This thesis aims to contribute to theory, empirical research, and practice pertaining to leaders’ ability to navigate organisational complexity. This aim was underpinned by three research questions which were addressed by four empirical studies. Studies 1 and 2 address the first research question, which focuses on whether cognitive-developmental scores awarded by the Lectical Assessment System™ (LAS) and ego development scores awarded by the ego development scoring system, satisfy Kohlberg’s hard stage requirements (which define the primary form of complexity considered in this thesis). Hard stage requirements specify that developmental stages must be unidimensional, invariantly sequenced, qualitatively distinct, structured wholes, and hierarchically integrated. Hard stage requirements were operationalised for psychometric evaluation via the unidimensional Rasch model. Cognitive-developmental scores were provisionally demonstrated to satisfy all hard stage requirements. Ego development scores were demonstrated to satisfy the requirement of invariant sequence. However, they violated most other requirements even though they were tested on different samples and through various analytical procedures. Ego development scores seem to reflect a cumulative form of development that is more strongly related to the number of perspectives taken or unique words employed by test-takers. There are three potential implications. First, findings may suggest that one of the main theoretical postulates of cognitive-developmental theory has been successfully operationalised for the purpose of measurement. However, this does not appear to be the case for ego development. Second, findings may suggest that cognitive-developmental scores, but not ego development scores, may legitimately be used to make inferences about leaders’ ability to navigate complexity. Third, there are implications which are peculiar to cognitive and ego development, respectively. Study 3 addresses the second research question, which focuses on whether the hierarchical complexity of leaders’ reasoning skills satisfies the task demands of their roles. Findings suggest a statistically significant increase in the hierarchical complexity of reasoning skills from mid-leaders to upper leaders to senior leaders but not from senior leaders to executive leaders. Findings also suggest a significant complexity gap between leaders’ reasoning skills and the task demands of their roles, particularly for senior and executive-level leaders. Study 4 addresses the third research question, which focuses on whether the hierarchical complexity of leaders’ reasoning skills develops during participation in various leader development programs. Findings suggest leaders develop their reasoning skills, even though direct causal attributions could not be made. The rate of development appears to increase with more frequent and formative use of cognitive-developmental assessments but not with increased contact time. Given the size of the complexity gap and the rate at which hierarchical complexity appears to develop, leader development may need to be augmented by collective leadership development processes to reduce the impact of the complexity gap in individuals.
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Organizations can be seen as social systems with hierarchical structures and roles at different levels of complexity with correspondingly different complexity of tasks. This article applies the perspectives of two theories from the field of adult development, namely, the model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) and ego development theory (EDT) to analyze stratified systems theory (SST). Although the theories are not regarded as strictly comparable and commensurable on account of differences in basic assumptions and methods of the theories, the analysis leads to the conclusion that descriptions of role complexity and individual capabilities in SST, to some extent, correspond to descriptions of developmental levels according to the MHC and EDT. Both comparisons support the notion that task and leadership complexity increases with organizational level, and thereby demonstrates support for the existence of qualitatively different levels of leadership. However, based on the methodological choices of the study, it is beyond the scope of the article to validate the key concepts, constructs in SST, as well as provide support or nonsupport for the proposed value of application in practice. Furthermore, we point out the lack of a more thorough analysis and comparison between the theories built on rich empirical material. Nevertheless, we conclude that the MHC, EDT and SST are fruitful lenses that can further the understanding of organizations as social systems with hierarchical structures.
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In this paper, we employ a methodology called developmental maieutics to trace the development of relativism in two samples. The first is a group of 108 children, adolescents, and adults who were interviewed to elicit their conceptualizations of truth in the social and physical worlds. The second sample is composed of schoolboys interviewed about their moral judgments during the 1950s, early 1960s, and 1990s. The interviews of individuals in the first sample were employed to construct a description of the development of reasoning about truth and reality across the lifespan. We found a clear progression in the development of these concepts over the course of the lifespan, with distinctive pathways for reasoning about the material world and reasoning about the social world. The interviews of individuals in the second sample were employed to examine possible differences in forms of moral relativism expressed by adolescent males interviewed in the 1950s and 1990s. We found no evidence of cognitive developmental differences between the moral judgment performances of same-aged adolescents growing up in the 1950s and 1990s. However, we did find evidence of a 4 to 10 fold increase in indicators of moral relativism in the youth of the 1990s. This manifested in two forms, subjective relativism—the assertion that right and wrong are relative to personal beliefs or opinions—and contextual relativism—the assertion that right and wrong are relative to culture, socialization, or worldviews.
Chapter
Since the end of the nineteenth century, three fields of psychology have attempted to understand the human mind: Cognitive, differential and developmental psychology. Each of these fields was and still is driven by different epistemological assumptions regarding the nature of the human mind, has adopted different priorities in regard to the aspects of the mind to be studied, and has used different methods for the investigation of the phenomena of interest. Specifically, cognitive psychology focused primarily on the more dynamic aspects of mental functioning to explain how information from the environment is recorded, represented, stored and processed for the purpose of understanding, problem solving and decision making in real time. Thus, the primary aim of research and theory in this field was to model the flow and processing of information in the mind. In general, according to this tradition, the human mind is an information processing system operating under limited representational and processing resources. Therefore, three aspects of the mind are of utmost importance in this tradition: Representational capacity, control of processing and efficiency. Change in the information processing tradition is conceived as increasing automatization of performance on a given task. This is equivalent to saying that, with experience and practice, the control of performance shifts from the monitoring and regulation of central control processes to the forces underlying the dynamic organization of task-specific performance and the inter-connection of the components involved in this performance with the task-relevant environmental stimuli (Broadbent 1971; Logan and Gordon 2001; Posner and Boies 1971).
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The aim of the present study was to describe, test and validate a method for disclosing significant response patterns from questionnaire data, and for classifying individual response profiles into a sequence of significant patterns. The method is based on pattern recognition statistics and probability calculations. The results from the population tested show that the method can disclose characteristic profiles of different value systems, and that these systems can be arranged in a hierarchical order similar to the conventional levels of ego development. It is suggested that this method is applicable to any multiple choice-questionnaire containing a number of items where the response alternatives represent a sequential order, for example, of different levels of development within a psychological domain. The method might be a valuable tool for acquiring information on the distribution of different levels of adult development in large populations, such as in communities and large organizations.
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The paper first summarizes basic findings of the ongoing interdisciplinary research project on differences in neural processing of individualistic vs. collectivistic oriented test persons (managers vs. non-managers). Test persons had to perform abstract moral decisions within a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) setting. The obtained neurobiological and behavioral data were compared between the above mentioned extreme groups. In this paper the Integration of dominant psychological trait theories (BIG-5) and theories of adult development (AD) will be first established on a theoretical level via a synopsis of Furnhams (1996) findings on the integration of different psychological trait theories and neuropsychoeconomic dual process theories primarily related to the importance of intuition in decision making (Kahneman, 2003). A characteristic pattern of a combination of traits will be presented as a possible marker for a high System 1 activation. This pattern will be tested as a signifier for a concording higher development in AD as well. This theoretical approach will be validated by empirical data from the project in which the researchers combined the extreme group analysis with the application of psychological tests as e.g. NEO-FFI and WUSCT.
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This study investigated the relationship between goal-striving, goal-aspiration, metacognition, and eudaimonic well-being (EWB). Inspired by Aristotle's teaching, the rationale for this study is that eudaimonic well-being is achievable through self-actualizing processes such as goal-striving and goal-aspiration and by exercise of reason. Goal-striving, metacognition (as a way of exercise of reason), and goal-aspiration (as an indicator of eudaimonic pursuits) were explored in relation to EWB. A mediation analysis of a sample of 513 university students (M age = 25.07, SD = 7.21) indicated that metacognition partially mediated the relationship between goal-striving and EWB for the full sample (p < .001) and goal-aspiration moderated this relationship. High goal-aspiration indicated a full mediation while low goal-aspiration indicated only a partial mediation. The finding suggests that metacognition which is a teachable competence and goal-aspiration which is a trainable desire can play a determining role in individuals' self-actualization and EWB.
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The present work presents two exploratory studies about the construction and validation of the Inductive Reasoning Developmental Test (irdt), a forty-eight items test based on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity. The first version of the test was administered to a convenience sample composed by 167 Brazilian people (50.3% men) aged between 6 to 58 years (m = 18.90, sd = 9.70). The Rasch Model was applied, and the result shows reliability of .97 for the full scale. The Infit mean was .87 (sd = .28; Max = 1.69; Min = .39), and the person reliability was .95. The one sample t-tests showed significant spacing of Rasch scores between items of adjacent orders of hierarchical complexity, with large effect size. The second study was conducted in order to overcome some of the test’s limitations found in the first study. The revised irdt were administered to a convenience sample composed of 188 Brazilian people (57.7% women) aged between 6 and 65 years (m = 21.45, sd = 14.31). The reliability for the full scale was .99, and its Infit mean was .94 (sd = .22; Max = 1.46; Min = .56). The person reliability was .95. The one sample t-tests showed significant spacing of Rasch scores between items of adjacent orders of hierarchical complexity, with large effect size. The paper finishes with a discussion about the necessity and importance to focus on the vertical complexity of the items in any test designed to identify developmental stages.
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Feldman seeks to align his theoretical project with Piaget’s ‘‘secret ambition’’ as expressed in this quotation. He sensibly suggests that Piaget’s four broad stages of psychological development should be re-articulated in light of ‘‘our best current understanding of how cognitive development proceeds from birth through early adulthood’’ (p. 4). He wants to ensure that these stages remain at the core of the psychological analysis of development, seeking to amend Piaget’s original formulation by bringing about some needed theoretical repair work. We applaud Feldman’s efforts to take Piaget’s deep analysis seriously and improve upon it and note that many other scholars share this broad goal. We agree that the theoretical issues Feldman highlights are central to an understanding of cognitive development in general and developmental stages in particular—including reflective abstraction, figurative and operative knowledge, taking of consciousness, stage transitions and emergence, structure d’ensemble, variability, and within-stage sequences. However, we find Feldman’s formulation of stages in terms of these issues to be neither coherent nor consistent.
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This long‐term study found that moral reasoning as conceptualised by Kohlberg (1981, 1985) can develop into adulthood. Predominantly white, well‐educated, middle‐class participants were interviewed four times at 4‐year intervals (N = 44). Stage development was sequential and continued throughout the life span, although its occurrence decreased with advancing age in a curvilinear fashion. Post‐conventional reasoning was demonstrated by seven adults. Stage of moral reasoning correlated with age strongly in children and moderately in adults, and was moderately correlated with education in all age groups. Additionally, advance in moral reasoning stage was correlated with increase in education in adults. Although no systematic gender differences were found across age groups, men in the younger adult group had significantly higher scores than women.
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In this paper, four sets of data, collected by four different research teams over a period of 30 years are examined. Common item equating, which yielded correlations from .94 to .97 across datasets, was employed to justify pooling the data for a new analysis. Probabilistic conjoint measurement (Rasch analysis) was used to model the results. The detailed analysis of these pooled data confirms results reported in previous research about the ordered acquisition of moral stages and the relationship between moral stages and age, education, and sex. New findings include: (1) empirical evidence that transitions between “childhood” and “adult” stages of development involve similar mechanisms; (2) support for the notion of stages as qualitatively distinct modes of reasoning that display properties consistent with a notion of structure d’ensemble; and (3) evidence of a stage between Kohlberg’s stages 3 and 4. Consistent with reports from earlier research, the relationship between age and moral development is curvilinear. The relationship between educational attainment and moral development is linear, suggesting that educational environments have an equivalent impact across the course of development. Older males have slightly higher scores than older females after age and education are taken into account (accounting for 0.3% of the variance in moral ability).
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Skill theory provides tools for predicting developmental sequences and synchronies in any domain at any point in development by integrating behavioral and cognitive-developmental concepts. Cognitive development is explained by skill structures called "levels," together with transformation rules relating these levels to each other. The transformation rules specify the developmental steps by which a skill moves gradually from one level of complexity to the next. At every step in these developmental sequences, the individual controls a particular skill. Skills are gradually transformed from sensory-motor actions to representations and then to abstractions. The transformations produce continuous behavioral changes; but across the entire profile of a person's skills and within highly practiced task domains, a stagelike shift in skills occurs as the person develops to an optimal level. The theory suggests a common framework for integrating developmental analyses of cognitive, social, language, and perceptual-motor skills and certain behavioral changes in learning and problem solving. (6 p ref)
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Studied the development of social-moral judgments in 92 Israeli kibbutz adolescents (64 of whom were interviewed longitudinally over 2–9 yrs from ages 12 yrs to 24–25 yrs) from the perspective of L. Kohlberg's theory (1958, 1981) of moral judgment development. The study evaluated the validity of Kohlberg's model and moral judgment interview in a cross-cultural context. In addition, it assessed the cultural uniqueness of social-moral reasoning among kibbutzniks. Findings support the validity of Kohlberg's structural-developmental understanding of moral judgment. Stage change was found to be upward, gradual, and without significant regressions. Analyses showed internal consistency of the stages as operationally defined in the standardized scoring manual. The distribution of stage scores among Ss, overall, was unusually high when compared to the results of parallel studies in the US and Turkey. The most important cultural variation involved the use of Stages 4/5 and 5 (global stage and postconventional stage). While all the stages were present among Ss, not all elements of kibbutz postconventional reasoning were present in Kohlberg's model or scoring manual (e.g., the communal emphasis and collective moral principles). (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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a critical review of the literature relating sociomoral reasoning to drug abuse is presented from both theoretical and methodological bases / a new theoretical model is presented along with preliminary data from a recent pilot study / it is argued that sociomoral reasoning will influence the decision to engage in drug abuse only if the individual perceives the moral component in such behavior values and drug abuse / decision-making and drug abuse / moral reasoning and antisocial and illegal behavior / moral reasoning and drug and alcohol abuse / a phenomenological model of the relation between drug use and sociomoral reasoning (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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In this study of K. W. Fischer's (1980) skill theory and the development of reflective judgment (K. S. Kitchener and P. M. King; see record 1982-00976-001), 156 students, 14–28 yrs old, were tested. Two-thirds responded to the Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI) and the Prototypic Reflective Judgment Interview (PRJI) twice, with the 2 administrations approximately 2 wks apart. The remaining one-third were tested at 2-wk intervals only on the RJI. The PRJI was designed to provide support for optimal level reflective judgment responses, whereas the RJI measured functional level. Ss scored significantly higher on the PRJI than they did on the RJI at both testings, and there was a significant age effect on both measures. Age differences on the 2 measures could not be statistically accounted for by a measure of verbal ability. The PRJI data also provided evidence for spurts in development between ages 18 and 20 and between ages 23 and 25–26. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Dynamic systems theory conceives of development as a self-organizational process. Both complexity and order emerge as a product of elementary principles of interaction between components involved in the developmental process. This article presents a dynamic systems model based on a general dual developmental mechanism, adapted from Piaget and Vygotsky. The mechanism consists of a conservative force, further strengthening the already-consolidated level, and a progressive force, consolidating internal contents and procedures at more advanced levels. It is argued that this dual mechanism constitutes one of the few basic laws of learning and change, and is comparable to the laws of effect and of contiguity. Simulation studies suggest that this dual mechanism explains self-organization in developmental paths, including the emergence of discrete jumps from one equilibrium level to another, S-shaped growth, and the occurrence of co-existing levels.
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A multidimensional Rasch-type item response model, the multidimensional random coefficients multinomial logit model, is presented as an extension to the Adams & Wilson (1996) random coefficients multinomial logit model. The model is developed in a form that permits generalization to the multidimensional case of a wide class of Rasch models, including the simple logistic model, Masters' partial credit model, Wilson's ordered partition model, and Fischer's linear logistic model. Moreover, the model includes several existing multidimensional models as special cases, including Whitely's multicomponent latent trait model, Andersen's multidimensional Rasch model for repeated testing, and Embretson's multidimensional Rasch model for learning and change. Marginal maximum likelihood estimators for the model are derived and the estimation is examined using a simulation study. Implications and applications of the model are discussed and an example is given.
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Kohlberg's claim that moral development proceeds through an invariant sequence of stages was examined experimentally by attempting to induce regression and stage skipping. Fifth- through seventh-grade children were tested to determine their cognitive, perspective-taking, and moral development. Those children with the stages of cognitive and perspective-taking development held by Kohlberg to be prerequisite to further moral development were exposed, in a brief role-playing situation, to 1 of the treatment conditions: 1-stage-below reasoning, 1-stage-above reasoning, 2-stages-above reasoning, neutral treatment, or no treatment. Moral-reasoning posttests followed 1 and 7 weeks later. Results supported the sequentiality claim as development was always to the next higher stage. However, contrary to the view that exposure to 1-stage-above reasoning represents the optimal means to induce development, it was found that 2-stages-above reasoning was just as effective.
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In cross-cultural research the validity and universality of stages of preconventional reasoning in Kohlberg's theory of moral development has often been taken for granted, while in developmental research a growing bulk of evidence yields indications that the theoretical assumptions underlying preconventional morality may not be adequate to the data. In order to further clarify the problems raised by this research, data collected from Icelandic and German subjects about a Kohlberg dilemma were analysed. In order to probe the structure of stage 2 in particular, only those interview protocols were taken into account which were given stage 2 global scores in Kohlberg's Joe/Judy dilemma. Qualitative analyses of subjects' reasoning showed a substantial amount of arguments which could not be matched to criterion judgements in the standard scoring manual. Structurally these arguments could be interpreted in terms of stage 2 reasoning. With regard to content, however, they showed genuine normative and relationship concerns which do not fit the individualistic and instrumental exchange notion of stage 2. The findings evidence that there may be more variety in early moral reasoning than demonstrated by published research. An action-theoretical framework is proposed in order to achieve a reformulation of preconventional moral reasoning.
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This long-awaited two-volume set constitutes the definitive presentation of the system of classifying moral judgment built up by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates over a period of twenty years. Volume 1 reviews Kohlberg's stage theory, and the by-now large body of research on the significance and utility of his moral stages. Issues of reliability and validity are addressed. The volume ends with detailed instructions for using the reference sections, which are presented in Volume 2. Volume 2, in an especially designed "user-friendly" format, includes the scoring systems for three alternate, functionally equivalent forms of Kohlberg's moral judgment interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Investigated (a) how the reliability of an instrument for assessing developmental stages is established and (b) the relation between reliability and sequentiality of the stages. It is argued that reliability of the instrument cannot be established directly by traditional methods but must be inferred from a validation of the stage sequence. Short-term longitudinal data were obtained for 50 5-8 yr olds on the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview. For each of 2 6-mo intervals, it was not possible to reject the null hypothesis that progressive change and regressive change were equally likely. Over 1 yr, however, significant progressive change was found, most of which consisted of slight advancements toward the next stage in Kohlberg's sequence. It is argued that the considerable short-term fluctuation obtained may be due either to measurement error or to genuine fluctuation in the individual's judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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the Reflective Judgment model describes seven sets of assumptions about knowledge and related concepts of justification that adolescents and adults use when they reason about and resolve ill-structured problems in the intellectual domain the nature and content of adult cognitive development / the relationship between the qualitative changes observed in the thinking of adults and more-traditional formulations of adult cognition, e.g., intelligence / in the past ten years, Reflective Judgment research has begun to address these issues / three of them will be discussed here / what does the model describe / what is the evidence for development in Reflective Judgment / what is the relationship between age and educational level and development in Reflective Judgment a brief discussion of the relationship between formal operations and Reflective Judgment will be included (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The study of cognitive development should move beyond grand metaphoric theories to the specification of patterns of data for each central developmental construct.
Chapter
Since Rasch’s introduction of his item response models (Rasch, 1960), there has been a proliferation of extensions and alternatives, each of which has a different name and different matching software package. As Adams, Wilson, & Wang (1997) pointed out, the proliferation of models has, in some ways, been a hindrance to practitioners. This paper presents a generalized item response model that provides a unifying framework for a large class of Raschtype models. The advantages of a single framework include mathematical elegance, generality in a single software package, and a facilitation of the development, testing, and comparison of new models. The unified model is a multidimensional item response model, the specification of which is achieved through the use of design matrices chosen to represent the parametrization of the model. In the paper we discuss the estimation of the parameters of the model, the testing of model fit, and we illustrate how standard models (such as the simple logistic, the rating scale, and facets models) and alternative user-defined models are specified.
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A number of models of young adult cognitive development postulate stage characteristics. However, with few exceptions, only weak stage-related claims have been tested. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the stage properties of the Reflective Judgment model using six-year longitudinal data on three groups of young adults. The secondary purpose was to examine cohort effects on Reflective Judgment scores. Kitchener and King's (1981) Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI) was used as a measure of Reflective Judgment. RJI mean scores increased significantly (p < .01), Davison's test of sequentiality (1979) supported the sequence of the model, stage reversals could be attributed to error, and, using a conservative definition, stage skipping occured in only 14% of the cases. The overall correlation between RJI score and age was .79. Subjects' modal score was consistent across problems 75% of the time. A cohort effect was also found. The data support the sequentiality of the Reflective Judgment stages and the consistency of subjects across problems.
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Kohlberg’s moral stage scale is but one of a number of “Piagetian” developmental scales proposed during the latter part of this century. Kohlberg claimed that his moral stages fulfilled the criteria for “hard” Piagetian stages—invariant sequence, qualitative change, and structured wholeness. He also argued that his scoring system measures a dimension of thought with a unique structure. To explore these contentions, we compare the concepts that define Kohlbergian stages with those associated with orders of hierarchical complexity as determined with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System, a generalized content-independent stage-scoring system. We conclude that the sequence of conceptual development specified by Kohlberg generally matches the sequence identified with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System, and that contract and authority concepts identified with a methodology that employs the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System match the concepts that define theoretically analogous Kohlbergian stages above Kohlberg’s stage 2. However, we argue that Kohlberg’s stages 1 and 2 do not accurately describe the development of moral concepts in young children.
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Several issues concerning Gilligan's model of moral orientations and Kohlberg's models of moral stages and moral orientations were examined in a longitudinal study with 233 subjects (from 78 families) who ranged in age from 5 to 63 years. They participated in 2 identical interviews separated by a 2-year interval. In each interview, they discussed hypothetical dilemmas and a personally generated real-life dilemma, which were scored for both moral stage and moral orientation (both Gilligan's and Kohlberg's typologies). Results revealed few violations of the stage sequence over the longitudinal interval, supporting Kohlberg's moral stage model. Sex differences were almost completely absent for both Gilligan's and Kohlberg's moral orientations, although there were clear developmental trends. Hypothetical and real-life dilemmas elicited different moral orientations, especially in terms of Kohlberg's typology. The interrelations between the 2 models of moral orientations were generally weak, indicating that they are not synonymous.
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This study explored the theoretical prediction that class and propositional reasoning skills emerge as a function of the developing ability to coordinate increasingly complex negation and affirmation operations. Children from Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 (7-, 9-, 11-, and 13-year-olds) were presented with problems from each domain. Rasch analyses of the children's responses were consistent with the hypothesis that both types of problems measured a single underlying dimension (i.e., the coordination of affirmation and negation operations). Qualitatively distinct levels of class and propositional reasoning were identified along this dimension, adding support to the notion that children's reasoning follows a logical developmental sequence. Planned comparisons supported the order-theoretical prediction that different groups of items account for solution differences between grade levels. Results also indicated that children encounter significant difficulties when they have to reason on the basis of negative information.
Article
In social psychological research the stage metaphor has fallen into disfavor due to concerns about bias, reliability, and validity. To address some of these issues, I employ a multidimensional partial credit analysis comparing moral judgment interviews scored with the Standard Issue Scoring System (SISS) (Colby and Kohlberg, 1987b), evaluative reasoning interviews scored with the Good Life Scoring System (GLSS) (Armon, 1984b), and Good Education interviews scored with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (HCSS) (Commons, Danaher, Miller, and Dawson, 2000). A total of 209 participants between the ages of 5 and 86 were interviewed. The multidimensional model reveals that even though the scoring systems rely upon different criteria and the data were collected using different methods and scored by different teams of raters, the SISS, GLSS, and HCSS all appear to measure the same latent variable. The HCSS exhibits more internal consistency than the SISS and GLSS, and solves some methodological problems introduced by the content dependency of the SISS and GLSS. These results and their implications are elaborated.
Article
L. Kohlberg (1969) argued that his moral stages captured a developmental sequence specific to the moral domain. To explore that contention, the author compared stage assignments obtained with the Standard Issue Scoring System (A. Colby & L. Kohlberg, 1987a, 1987b) and those obtained with a generalized content-independent stage-scoring system called the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (T. L. Dawson, 2002a), on 637 moral judgment interviews (participants' ages ranged from 5 to 86 years). The correlation between stage scores produced with the 2 systems was .88. Although standard issue scoring and hierarchical complexity scoring often awarded different scores up to Kohlberg's Moral Stage 2/3, from his Moral Stage 3 onward, scores awarded with the two systems predominantly agreed. The author explores the implications for developmental research.
The Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System
  • T L Dawson
The Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System: How to score anything. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Society for Research in Adult Development
  • M L Commons
  • D Danaher
  • P M Miller
  • T L Dawson
Ideals of the good life: Evaluative reasoning in children and adults. Unpublished doctoral dissertation
  • C Armon
Individual variability and consistency in cognitive development: New evidence for the existence of central conceptual structures
  • R Case
  • Y Okamoto
  • B Henderson
  • A Mckeough
The general model of Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System: Refinements and additions. Paper presented at the annual symposium of the
  • T L Dawson
  • M L Commons
  • M Wilson
  • Y Xie
A general model of stage theory
  • M L Commons
  • F A Richards
  • F J Ruf
  • M Armstrong-Roche
  • S Bretzius
New tools, new insights: Kohlberg’s moral reasoning stages revisited. Paper presented at the Twenty-Seventh Annual Symposium of the
  • Dawson
Dynamic systems: Continuities and discontinuities with Piaget’s theory of equilibration
  • D A Stevens
The polytomous Saltus model: A mixture model approach to the diagnosis of developmental differences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation
  • K L Draney
The development of conceptions of masculinity and femininity
  • D Z Ullian