Imaginative Role-Playing as a Medium for Moral Development

Dungeons & Dragons Provides Moral Training

Bibliographic Data

ID9022355
AuthorsJ C Wright (0000-0001-7878-0252, College of Charleston, corresponding author), Daniel E Weissglass (0000-0001-8617-1967, College of Charleston), Vanessa Casey (College of Charleston)
Year2017
Volume60
Issue1
Pages99-129
Publication date2017-01-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Humanistic Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1678 • E-ISSN: 1552-650X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022167816686263
OpenAlexW2580298712
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited52

This study investigates the use of imaginative role-play games to sponsor positive development in young adult moral reasoning. Twelve college students participated in six approximately 4-hour gaming sessions using a customized game system based on Dungeons & DragonsTM (D&D, 1974, 4th ed.). The games contained embedded social/moral dilemmas (e.g., whether to torture a prisoner for information) that participants encountered and had to work through as a group. Significant growth in moral development, as measured with the Defining Issues Test and the Self-Understanding Interview was demonstrated in the gaming groups, but was not replicated in two control groups, who did not participate in the gaming sessions. This suggests that imaginative role-play gaming structures can function as an engaging, interactive “moral training ground,” a medium that promotes moral development, and highlights the difference between antisocial and prosocial violence

Control (management · Defining Issues Test · Moral behavior · Moral development · Moral disengagement · Moral reasoning · Prosocial behavior · Social cognitive theory of morality · Test (biology · Torture · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Child and Animal Learning Development · Psychology · Social Psychology