Abstract

In the context of Kohlberg's and Gilligan's models of moral judgment, three studies investigated the relation of gender and type of moral dilemma to moral judgment. In Study 1, 30 male and 30 female participants listed the main issues they saw to be involved in descriptions of real-life dilemmas. The types of issue listed were determined by both the dilemma and within-person factors, but the latter were not gender-related. In Study 2, 15 male and 15 female participants made moral judgments regarding some of the dilemmas. In Study 3, 40 male and 40 female participants made moral judgments about dilemmas on Kohlberg's test and about two antisocial and two prosocial real-life moral dilemmas they had experienced. There were no overall gender differences in moral judgment. Moral judgment varied across dilemmas. A new approach to the study of real-life moral judgement is discussed