American International Journal of Social Science

The Impact of Gender on the Principled Moral Reasoning of Kuwait Education Students
Djilali Bouhmama, Ph.D; Fawzeah Obied Al-Masoud, Ph.D.

Abstract
Using Lawrence Kohlberg’s cognitive moral development theory as the guiding theory, the present study was designed to investigate the principled moral reasoning of 67 undergraduate students at the University of Kuwait (27 males and 40 females). Their age ranged from 19 to 24 (Mean age = 18.64 years, SD = 1.20 years). A major purpose of the study was to explore the impact of gender on their moral reasoning .Moral reasoning of the participants in the study was measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a widely employed tool for measuring moral reasoning .The data collected were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of, means, and standard deviations; and inferential statistics of independent samples t-test. The results indicate that the sample scored lower in principled moral reasoning than undergraduate students in general. However, they scored predominantly at stage 4 in Kohlberg’s moral judgment theory. Results also indicate that there are no significant differences in principled moral reasoning of the participants according to their gender.

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