Reflective Judgment Concepts of Justification and Their Relationship to Age

and Education

Karen Storm Kitchener

Patricia M. King

Background

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

Differences in concepts of justification are derived from different assumption about reality and knowledge, and this changes over age/educational level.

Thesis

How?

A study during which subjects of different age and educational level are measured against Reflective Judgment Model, as well as additional test of other factors hypothesized to affect reflective judgment scores.

Reflective Judgement Models

Developed by King &

Kitchener, (1977)

Outlines levels of complexity in

assumption about knowledge and

reality, and how it related to forms of

judment

7 levels

Who made the pyramid?

God made it.

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

Stage1

I don’t 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, they’ll come up with the same results

Stage2

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

Stage3

One’s need for a more defensible principle

Umm, pyramids made by the Egypt? It was made by aliens.

Well, that’s what you know and this is what I know. Any answer is possible. We definitely have to find out more about that.

Stage4

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

No, not exactly like that. I was not there, I don’t know how they did it, but I’m pretty sure the Egypt made it.

So basically you don’t know how pyramids were made.

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 that’s the truth, then it’s cool.

Stage5

A more complex, integrative thinking

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 it’s just because more evidence haven’t been found yet. …

Do you think there are such thing as unbiased,

objective, reporting?

I don’t think so. By choosing what kind of issue to be printed, you’ve 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.

Stage6

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

What kind of news should we believe then

Stage7

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 it’s 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.

Four such factors were investigated:1. verbal ability 2. formal operations3. verbal fluency 4. socio-economic

status

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?

Research Questions

Socio-Economic

Status

Formal Operat

ion

Verbal Ability

Reflective JudgmentMethod,

Measures &

Procedure

Highschool

Junior

College Junior

Graduate

Students

Male

Female

20

20

20

20

20

20

Verbal Fluency

RESULT90% of high

school students scores

between 2.00 and 3.00M = 2.77

85% of college

students scored

between 3.00 and 4.5

M = 3.65

70% of graduate students

scored about 5

M = 5.67These result support the

hypothesis that older subjects with more education

reason at higher stages of reflective judgment than

younger subjects with less education

RESULT

CONCLUSIONReflective 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, socio-economic status, and verbal fluency.

They can be credited to maturation, education or combination of both.

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

STRENGTHExtensive explanations on how the study is done.

Address sensitive issues in a not judgmental way.

WEAKNESS

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.