Brazilian Research on Moral Competence

Lawrence Kohlberg introduced the concept of moral judgment competence in his doctoral thesis, which refers to the ability to make judgments based on principles and act accordingly. Georg Lind further developed this concept by creating the Moral Competence Test (MCT) to operationalize it. During our research, we noticed varying results in the MCT, with high scores in one dilemma and low scores in another. This led us to explore the phenomenon known as moral judgment segmentation, where the content of the dilemma influences the judgment competence. Subsequent studies focused on understanding the segmentation caused, particularly by the influence of religiosity. We found that religiosity indeed has an impact on moral judgment competence. However, we also discovered that the fundamental issue may lie in the dogmatic meaning of religion within our culture, presenting a challenge for education. This calls for a deeper exploration of how to address the influence of religiosity and its effects on moral judgment within our society.