Reflective Judgment

Concepts of Justification and Their Relationship to Age and Education

Patricia M. King Karen Storm Kitchener

How? Thesis

A study during which subjects of different age and educational level are measured against Reflective Judgment Model, as well as Differences in concepts ofadditional test of other factors justification are derived from different hypothesized to affect reflective assumption about reality andjudgment scores. knowledge, and this changes over age/educational level.

Background
The widely divergent means by which people justify their points of view and defend it to other people.

Stage1
Developed by King & Kitchener, (1977)

Who made the pyramid?

Reflective Judgement Models

God made it.
7 levels
Outlines levels of complexity in assumption about knowledge and reality, and how it related to forms of judment

Personal authorities does not have answer or when there is disagreement among them about the true answer.

Stage2

I dont get how could experts have different result on this case! Well, one of them definitely did it wrong. If they did it the right way, theyll come up with the same results

1) There are more than 1 alternatives, and 2) even egitimate authorities disagree with themselves

Stage3

Umm, pyramids made by the Egypt? It was made by aliens. Well, thats what you know and this is what I know. Any answer is possible. We definitely have to find out more about that.

Ones need for a more defensible principle

Stage4

So basically you dont know how pyramids were made. No, not exactly like that. I was not there, I dont know how they did it, but Im pretty sure the Egypt made it. Other people said that it is impossible for human race at the time. Do you think they are wrong? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If they think thats the truth, then its cool.

Better understanding of inquiry lead to understanding that one point of view can be more reasonable that the others because of

Stage5

Yet you seem very flabbergasted with the the word alien. Of course I am. Nobody ever meet an alien yet. Well, of course nobody ever met an alive Egyptian too, but there is artifacts that proves their knowledge already. I know they said it is not enough, but I think its just because more evidence havent been found yet.

A more complex, integrative thinking

Stage6

Do you think there are such thing as unbiased, objective, reporting? I dont think so. By choosing what kind of issue to be printed, youve made your choice, and from that, selecting minor facts to go into the news involve some kind of subjectivity, Of course, there are possibilities like news for natural disaster to be reported objectively, but even choosing to report on that has to be subjective.

Tentative judgments in this stage develop into ability to synthesize elements into coherent point of view

Stage7

What kind of news should we believe then

I think you have to be very skeptical about what you read even for popular consumption , and we have to consider many points of view. Partly its reliance on people you think you can rely on, who seem to be reputable journalists, who make measured judgments, then reading widely and estimating where the reputable people line up or where the weight of the evidence lies.

Research Questions

1. Do reflective judgment stages differ across age/educational levels, with older, better educated subjects scoring at higher reflective judgment stages than younger subjects with less education? 2. If so, can these differences be accounted for by other factors which are also related to intellectual development?

Four such factors were investigated: 1. verbal ability 2. formal operations 3. verbal fluency 4. socio-economic status

Method, Measures & Procedure

Reflective Judgment

Male

2 0 2 0 Highsch ool Junior

2 0 2 0 College Junior

2 0 2 0 Graduate Students

Verbal Ability

Female

Formal Operati on

Verbal Fluency

SocioEconomic Status

RESULT

90% of high school students scores between 2.00 and 3.00 M = 2.77

85% of college students scored between 3.00 and 4.5 M = 3.65

70% of graduate students scored about 5 M = 5.67

These result support the hypothesis that older subjects with more education reason at higher stages of reflective judgment than younger subjects with less education

RESULT

CONCLUSION

Reflective judgment scores differ across three age/educational levels., with older, better-educated subjects held more complex and sophisticated assumptions about the justification of beliefs than did younger subjects with less education. These differences in reflective judgment level across groups could not be statistically accounted for by other theoretical or potentially confounding factors related to intellectual development: verbal ability, formal operations, socioeconomic status, and verbal fluency. They can be credited to maturation, education or combination of both.

IMPLICATION

To educational institutions. To understand how mature adults make their judgments.

Extensive explanations on how the study is done. STRENGTH Address sensitive issues in a not judgmental way.

The description of reflective judgment levels may hard to understand for readers that are not educated enough in this subject. More information needed on scoring protocol. WEAKNESS