Moral judgement abilities of the university students and the comparison of their moral judgement abilities and their levels of self-realization

iiiABSTRACTMORAL JUDGEMENT ABILITIES OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ANDTHE COMPARISON OF THEIR MORAL JUDGEMENT ABILITIES ANDTHEIR LEVELS OF SELF-REALIZATIONGönül KARAKAVAK ÇIRAKPost-Graduate Thesis, Department of Educational SciencesMentor: Prof. Dr. Turan AKBAŞJune 2006, 161 pagesThis study intends to analyze the moral judgment abilities of the universitystudents, factors affecting this ability, and whether there is a significant differencebetween their moral judgment ability and self-realization levels in a comparativemanner.The participants of the study comprise 638 students attending the 1stand 4thgrades at the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences,and Faculty of Engineering during the 2004-2005 academic year, who are selectedthrough stratified cluster sampling method.?Defining Issues Test-DIT? was used in order to measure the level of moraldevelopment, which is the dependent variable of this study. Moreover ?PersonalOrientation Inventory? was used in order to measure the level of self-realization, one ofthe independent variables, and also a "Personal Information Form? developed by theresearcher was used in order to define participant characteristics including sex, age,faculties, grades, educational status of their parents, type of the school they graduated,and the residential unit they live in.As a result of the study, an analysis of the factors affecting the "Moral JudgmentAbility Scores" of the students revealed that, among various factors, ?for the mother tobe literate or primary school graduate", to be in the "poor" category in terms of self-realization, and "for the men" to fall into the "traditional" group in terms of MoralJudgment Ability scores are risk factors.ivIt is found out that there is a significant difference between Moral JudgmentScores of the university students according to their scores from Time Management andIntrinsic Motivation Sub-Scales of Personal Orientation Inventory, but there is nosignificant difference between the Moral Judgment Ability scores of first and fourthgraders.Key words: Moral Development, Moral Judgment Ability, Self-realization.