No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Care reasoning in real-life moral conflicts
Abstract
This article examines real‐life moral conflicts from the perspective of the ethic of care. Fifty‐six (Time 1) and 57 (Time 2) real‐life dilemmas provided by students representing different fields of study were analysed in terms of level of care reasoning according to Skoe's Ethic of Care Interview. The results showed that antisocial temptation and transgression dilemmas tended to invoke lower levels of care reasoning than conflicting‐demands and social‐pressure dilemmas. Participants reporting temptation dilemmas had the least developed care reasoning. The results suggest that subjects identified at different care levels perceive different types of real‐life moral conflict, and that the function of care reasoning varies according to the type of moral conflict.
... Thus, the MJI might produce the post-conventional level of moral development as methodological artifact. Several authors [13]-[16] have noted that Kohlberg's " philosophical " dilemmas are infrequent in real life. In the Warks and Krebs' [14] classification of moral dilemmas the "philosophical" ones are sometimes discussed but rarely experienced, whereas the commonly experienced dilemmas are encompassed in the following categories: antisocial (reaction to transgressions, reaction to temptations); social pressure; prosocial (reaction to conflicting demands; reaction to the needs of others). ...
... These results are in line with the position of post-Kohlbergian authors such as Blasi [27], [28], and Rest and colleagues [7], [21], who have pointed out that in moral dilemmas the behaviour choice does not only depend on the knowledge of what is good but also on the comparison between moral and other values that individuals pursue. They also corroborate the assumptions of the pragmatic-contextual approach to morality – [14]-[16], [19], [22], [39], [43], [44] according to which moral judgment is sensitive to situational variables and individuals' concerns. Moral reasoning and behaviour are also affected by gender and age group: in particular, young people gave higher scores to non-moral thoughts than adults, while women gave higher scores to altruistic thinking and lower scores to selfish thinking than men. ...
... Thus, the MJI might produce the post-conventional level of moral development as methodological artifact. Several authors [13][16] have noted that Kohlberg's " philosophical " dilemmas are infrequent in real life. In the Warks and Krebs' [14] classification of moral dilemmas the "philosophical" ones are sometimes discussed but rarely experienced, whereas the commonly experienced dilemmas are encompassed in the following categories: antisocial (reaction to transgressions, reaction to temptations); social pressure; prosocial (reaction to conflicting demands; reaction to the needs of others). ...
This study aimed at assessing whether and to what extent moral judgment and behaviour were: 1. situation-dependent; 2. selectively dependent on cognitive and affective components; 3. influenced by gender and age; 4. reciprocally congruent. In order to achieve these aims, four different types of moral dilemmas were construed and five types of thinking were presented for each of them – representing five possible ways to evaluate the situation. The judgment criteria included selfishness, altruism, sense of justice, and the conflict between selfishness and the two moral issues. The participants were 250 unpaid volunteers (50% male; 50% female) belonging to two age-groups: young people and adults. The study entailed a 2 (gender) x 2 (age-group) x 5 (type of thinking) x 4 (situation) mixed design: the first two variables were between-subjects, the others were within-subjects. Results have shown that: 1. moral judgment and behaviour are at least partially affected by the type of situations and by interpersonal variables such as gender and age; 2. moral reasoning depends in a similar manner on cognitive and affective factors; 3. there is not a gender polarity between the ethic of justice and the ethic of cure/ altruism; 4. moral reasoning and behavior are perceived as reciprocally congruent even though their congruence decreases with a more objective assessment. Such results were discussed in the light of contrasting theories on morality. Keywords—Contextual-pragmatic approach to morality, ethic of care, ethic of justice, Kohlbergian approach, moral behaviour, moral reasoning.
... Johnston (1988) found boys would not use care orientation unless they believed the relationship between the characters could be salvaged. More recent research has shown that pro-social dilemmas that involve concerns about others' welfare tend to invoke care-based arguments, whereas anti-social dilemmas that involve transgressions and temptations tend to invoke justice-based arguments (Wark & Krebs, 1996Haviv & Leman, 2002;Juujarvi, 2006b). The Kohlberg level of justice reasoning for real-life moral dilemmas tends to vary according to the type of dilemma (Krebs et al, 1991;Wark & Krebs, 1996Haviv & Leman, 2002). ...
... Some studies (Linn 1995;Juujarvi, 2006a) have further found that complex real-life dilemmas involving conflicting rights or social pressure against one's own moral values -akin to Kohlberg's hypothetical dilemmas -invoke high-level justice reasoning. Very recently, Juujarvi's (2006b) results (using Skoe's ECI) show that antisocial temptation and transgression dilemmas tended to invoke lower levels of care reasoning than conflicting-demands and social-pressure dilemmas. Participants reporting temptation dilemmas had the least developed care reasoning. ...
Many issues in business ethics centre on the meaning and scope of the notion; duty of care. Three major ethical frameworks have different ideas about this which are examined in the paper. While Contractarianism and Kohlberg's Cognitive Moral Development framework are well aired in the business ethics literature, Care Theory is not. This paper therefore considers the possible contribution it could make to the theory and practice of ethical business behavior.
... Care-related conflicts can also be socio-cognitively complex ones, e.g. including conflicting demands and social pressure to behave against one's own values, thus requiring advanced perspective taking (Helkama, 2004;Juujärvi, 2006b). Consistent with this, role taking in real-life dilemmas has been found to be related to levels of care reasoning (Skoe et al., 1996;Juujärvi, 2003). ...
... Care-related conflicts, however, are not limited to face-to-face situations and may involve several claimants. On the Care, justice and empathy 485 other hand, justice-related conflicts may be socio-cognitively simple (Helkama, 2004;Juujärvi, 2006b). Therefore the ability to take the perspective of another seems to be equally essential for both modes of moral reasoning. ...
The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between care and justice reasoning, dispositional empathy variables and meta‐ethical thinking among 128 students from a university of applied sciences. The measures were Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview, the Defining Issues Test, Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Meta‐Ethical Questionnaire. The results showed that levels of care reasoning were positively related to the post‐conventional schema and negatively related to the personal interest schema in justice reasoning. Age, meta‐ethical thinking, the post‐conventional schema and perspective taking predicted care reasoning. Sympathy was positively related to both modes of moral reasoning among men and predicted their care reasoning. The results point out common elements for care and justice reasoning, underscore the importance of perspective taking for moral reasoning and indicate that the relationship between affective‐based empathy and moral reasoning is gender‐specific and far more complex than previous theories suggest.
... Johnston (1988) found boys would not use care orientation unless they believed the relationship between the characters could be salvaged. More recent research has shown that pro-social dilemmas that involve concerns about others' welfare tend to invoke care-based arguments, whereas anti-social dilemmas that involve transgressions and temptations tend to invoke justice-based arguments (Wark & Krebs, 1996Haviv & Leman, 2002Juujarvi, 2006b). The Kohlberg level of justice reasoning for real-life moral dilemmas tends to vary according to the type of dilemma (Krebs et al, 1991;Wark & Krebs, 1996Haviv & Leman, 2002). ...
... Some studies (Linn 1995;Juujarvi, 2006a) have further found that complex real-life dilemmas involving conflicting rights or social pressure against one's own moral values -akin to Kohlberg's hypothetical dilemmas -invoke high-level justice reasoning. Very recently, Juujarvi's (2006b) results (using Skoe's ECI) show that antisocial temptation and transgression dilemmas tended to invoke lower levels of care reasoning than conflicting-demands and social-pressure dilemmas. Participants reporting temptation dilemmas had the least developed care reasoning. ...
Many issues in business ethics centre on the meaning and scope of the notion; duty of care. Three major ethical frameworks have different ideas about this which are examined in the paper. In particular, the recent claims of Contractarianism in the Academy of Management Review are critically analysed and found wanting to a serious degree. The extent to which Kohlberg's paradigm shares the shortcomings of Contractarianism is then reviewed. It is argued that while Kohlberg is universalist, therefore a recognizably ethical moral framework, it shares with Contractarianism the disadvantage of a problematic a priori rationality in terms of its specifically ethical judgments. Finally, Care Theory is shown recently to have begun to acquire the universalist credentials it previously lacked and not to be subject to the shortcomings of the other two paradigms in some key aspects; but that it still has conceptual development work to do in order to become a practical framework for global business ethics. Such work was inconceivable when Care Theory was relativistic and particularistic, but it now begins to be conceivable as a practical proposition.
... Taking care of the customer produces quality in any service profession. The ethic of care includes development stages that describe an increasing understanding of the dynamics and responsibilities of human relationships, such as the relationship between customer and employee (Juujärvi 2006a;2006b;2006c). Without knowledge and application of the ethic of care, ethical problems related to assistance and nursing tasks cannot be solved fully. ...
In August 2006, Laurea concluded an extensive curriculum reform, which led to the creation of a shared competence-based core curriculum for the whole university. During the reform, a core curriculum model was created, which produces service innovations and competence, safeguards and facilitates the fulfilment ofLaurea’s strategies. All degree programme curricula were revised according to
this jointly created model. This chapter describes ethical competence as one of the core competences.
... Lähtökohtaisesti koulutusinterventioissa on käytetty aineistoina ammattialalle tyypillisiä haastavia ongelmia tai tapausesimerkkejä. Aidot työelämän ongelmat kuitenkin sisältävät eriasteisia kognitiivisia ja moraalisia ristiriitoja ja siten poikkeavat kouluttajien valitsemista standardiongelmista (Juujärvi 2006, Myyry & Helkama 2007. ...
... Changes in the form of moral and prosocial behavior have been neglected. Second, although investigators have acknowledged the multiplicity of moral orientations (e.g., justice, care, duty), the orientations are sometimes treated as if they were separate and distinct domains (Juujärvi, 2006). However, evidence suggests that although different moral concerns (e.g., rights, care, virtue) are partially distinct, they tend to overlap and codevelop over time (Walker, 2006; see also Rose, Rouhani, & Fischer, 2013). ...
... Thus, she focused on both the content of moral reasoning and the context of moral language (Jorgensen, 2006). Gilligan's finding of moral voice of care offered another way to study morality (Juujärvi, 2006). ...
This case study explored how children’s moral expressions like love and violence differ according to the mode of narrative, comic strips or written narratives. Sixteen third-grade children from a primary school in Finland took part in the study. Children’s moral expressions were divided into justice and care. Reading frequency of fairy tales and linguistic and artistic abilities were also assessed in order to make a more in-depth interpretation of elements that underlie these different moral voices. The data for four of the children are presented in detail as the basis for the discussion. Children expressed their morality more strongly in comic strips—potentially offering a more sophisticated method for examining how children express their morality.
... Así, el tránsito del conflicto a la violencia se evidencia cuando las diferentes formas de "percibir el mundo" dan lugar al uso de la fuerza y el poder como instrumentos de negación y rechazo de lo diferente. Esta transición puede estar mediatizada por las condiciones del contexto (Crandall et al., 1999;Juujärvi, 2006;Vikan, Camino y Biaggio, 2005). En nuestro trabajo ciertos elementos de la configuración grupal y el tipo de dilema han mostrado su relación con las respuestas disputativas e impositivas. ...
Resumen La adolescencia es un periodo de expansión de las relaciones y redes sociales, e inherentemente, de aumento de las situacio-nes conflictivas y violentas. Por ello, nuestro objetivo es analizar la gestión discursiva de conflictos grupales y violencia de pareja en adolescentes, explorando los modos conversacionales y los contenidos que articulan la conversación durante el afron-tamiento de las situaciones controvertidas. Mediante una aproximación analítica que combina técnicas estadísticas y cuali-tativas, estudiamos el discurso de 42 chicos y chicas entre 14 y 17 años, debatiendo en grupos de discusión sobre dilemas. Los resultados muestran el efecto combinado de las variables tipo de grupo y tipo de dilema sobre los modos conversacionales de ges-tión, destacando el disputativo (imposiciones, mandatos…) cuando chicos y chicas debaten juntos sobre un episodio de violen-cia de género. Referente a los contenidos, se observan mayores diferencias temáticas entre chicos y chicas ante la violencia de pareja, evidenciándose el carácter situado del discurso; así, los chicos no visibilizan el maltrato mientras que las chicas asu-men responsabilidad. Finalmente, se ofrecen algunas consideraciones para la práctica aplicada. Palabras clave: Adolescencia, discurso, dilema, resolución de conflicto, violencia.
... Significa que hay condiciones situacionales que han condicionado el discurso y por tanto el grado de autorregulación no ha sido exclusivamente determinado por el hecho de ser chico o chica. Numerosos estudios han minimizado y contextualizando las diferencias discursivas por razón de género considerando el papel de las condiciones situacionales (Crawford, 1995;Crandall, Tsang, Goldman y Pennington, 1999;Hyde, 2005;Juujärvi, 2006). ...
... Vikan, Camino y Biaggio (2005), en un estudio transcultural con 120 estudiantes de Brasil y Noruega, mostraron que la orientación de la respuesta ante situaciones controvertidas está más relacionada con el entorno cultural que con variables de tipo individual. Igualmente Juujärvi (2006) sugiere que el modo de afrontar los conflictos varía según el contenido de los mismos. ...
La conflictividad y violencia en adolescentes son manifestaciones cuya tendencia ha aumentado en los últimos años. Fenómenos como el rechazo en grupos de iguales o maltrato en parejas sentimentales son motivo de preocupación y estudio. Por ello, nos planteamos conocer las respuestas dadas por adolescentes ante situaciones de conflicto y violencia, detectando estrategias discursivas de resolución y observando si se asocian a estos dos contextos; asimismo, ofrecer algunas orientaciones prácticas para la intervención. Se analizó de forma cualitativa el discurso argumentativo (2250 enunciados) de 42 adolescentes, chicos y chicas, discutiendo en grupos sobre dos dilemas, conflicto grupal y violencia de pareja. Los resultados muestran diferentes temáticas y estrategias discursivas de afrontamiento ante conflictos grupales y violencia de pareja, y mayores diferencias entre chicos y chicas en la situación de violencia de género. Finalmente, se aporta una acción formativa dirigida al asesoramiento del profesorado en esta materia.
... Así, el tránsito del conflicto a la violencia se evidencia cuando las diferentes formas de "percibir el mundo" dan lugar al uso de la fuerza y el poder como instrumentos de negación y rechazo de lo diferente. Esta transición puede estar mediatizada por las condiciones del contexto (Crandall et al., 1999;Juujärvi, 2006;Vikan, Camino y Biaggio, 2005). En nuestro trabajo ciertos elementos de la configuración grupal y el tipo de dilema han mostrado su relación con las respuestas disputativas e impositivas. ...
La adolescencia es un periodo de expansión de las relaciones y redes sociales, e inherentemente, de aumento de las situaciones conflictivas y violentas. Por ello, nuestro objetivo es analizar la gestión discursiva de conflictos grupales y violencia de pareja en adolescentes, explorando los modos conversacionales y los contenidos que articulan la conversación durante el afrontamiento de las situaciones controvertidas. Mediante una aproximación analítica que combina técnicas estadísticas y cualitativas, estudiamos el discurso de 42 chicos y chicas entre 14 y 17 años, debatiendo en grupos de discusión sobre dilemas. Los resultados muestran el efecto combinado de las variables tipo de grupo y tipo de dilema sobre los modos conversacionales de gestión, destacando el disputativo (imposiciones, mandatos…) cuando chicos y chicas debaten juntos sobre un episodio de violencia de género. Referente a los contenidos, se observan mayores diferencias temáticas entre chicos y chicas ante la violencia de pareja, evidenciándose el carácter situado del discurso; así, los chicos no visibilizan el maltrato mientras que las chicas asumen responsabilidad. Finalmente, se ofrecen algunas consideraciones para la práctica aplicada.
... Las razones son las siguientes: a) un contexto sociopolítico conflictivo y amenazante, que exige tomar posició no someterse pasivamente a sus consecuencias; b) la implicació n social, má s que aislamiento personal, que exige esta coyuntura; c) la dilatada experiencia de los mayores en situaciones de conflicto (crisis econó micas, desarraigos, perdida de familiares), y d) el mayor equilibrio que estas circunstancias le proporcionan. Estos datos permiten concluir la existencia de una relació n entre el contenido de los dilemas y el nivel de razonamiento moral [29][30][31][32] . El nivel convencional se asocia a temas de mayor cercanía familiar y personal (coherencia, bienestar personal). ...
Objectives
To assess whether the differences in making decisions in real dilemmas between the institutionalised elderly and those living in the community are dependent on the context and life history, as well as on its development and subject matter.
... According to Gilligan, a mentor's relationships with him/herself, with people in the school neighborhood (pupils, colleagues), and with the school's external network are the most important. All of these three relationships are ethical, and both justice and care are tested within them (Bergman, 2004;Colnerud, 2006;Juujärvi, 2006). ...
This investigation focused on the development of a study module called Pedagogical Ethics (PEd) in teacher education at the university level. The main aim was to examine both experiences of the study process and learning results. The quasi‐experimental design was developed by student teachers. The experimental group ( n = 32) attended a web‐based PEd course designed using the WebCT tool, while the control group ( n = 65) studied the same material in the traditional way. The same person was the teacher in both teaching–learning modes. Both groups evaluated the content and the mode as excellent, but the traditional teaching–learning mode was slightly more effective than the web‐based course. The quantity and quality of the technology‐mediated discussions concerning the ethical case studies were uneven. The differences in learning results between the experimental and control groups were not statistically significant.
... Hirschman, 1977;Putnam, 2002). Moreover, as suggested above, one can assume that under certain conditions different motives may receive conflicting meanings, so that actors would be simultaneously guided by several motives rather than by a single one (for other examples across the social sciences, see Fiske, 1991;Healy, 2000;Held, 1990;Juujarvi, 2006). ...
This review essay discusses the attempts of four books to surpass traditional disciplinary borders and address a basic question across the social sciences: What motivational forces guide human behaviour, and how do these forces affect and how are they affected by, the dynamics of social cooperation and collective action? Even though the books adopt different theoretical and methodological perspectives for examining this question, they all challenge the univalent and decontextualized economic (self-interested) view of human motivation, supporting interdisciplinarity and a multidimensional and contextualized view of human motivation.
... According to Gilligan, a mentor's relationships with him/herself, with people in the school neighborhood (pupils, colleagues), and with the school's external network are the most important. All of these three relationships are ethical, and both justice and care are tested within them (Bergman, 2004;Colnerud, 2006;Juujärvi, 2006). ...
The aim of this study is to describe student teachers' experiences of their mentors' ethical decisions during their teaching practice sessions for teacher education. The data was gathered from 201 prospective class and subject teachers who described from an ethical viewpoint both positive and negative mentoring experiences. The data analysis is mainly quantitative in nature.According to the results, an ethically successful mentor gives feedback, is student-centered, is fair and just, gives advice, gives enough support and listens carefully, is both flexible and demanding, and is a positive person. An ethically unsuccessful mentor is authoritative, refuses to give feedback, treats student teachers disrespectfully, is hard and critical, interrupts lessons with insufficient reason, discusses delicate and private issues with outsiders, and neglects certain basic tasks. These main findings are significantly supported by previous investigations.
... Thus, real dilemmas are those which locate an individual in a specific context and which generally involve a conflict between two values that are both highly meaningful for said individual. Real dilemmas are those that arise in real life in relation to the social interactions and conflicts experienced by individuals, and they are very important for education research at present (Wark and Krebs 1997;Krebs et al. 2002;Juujärvi 2005Juujärvi , 2006. ...
The aim of this work is to study real contextualised dilemmas and relevant events of the biographies offered by a group of
adult men and women, in order to analyse the contextual and personal factors that influence moral reasoning during this stage
of the life cycle. To this end, we interviewed 60 adults who were asked to recount real contextualised dilemmas. The themes
of the real dilemmas were later categorised in relation to the stage of moral reasoning reached and then linked to the ecological
contexts in which they took place. The results show that the themes related to proximal processes and contexts (family, parenthood)
are the most frequent and are related to the conventional level of moral reasoning. However, in relation to social themes
and coherence, the reasoning level obtained is more mature. Finally, there are contextual differences regarding the contents
of the real dilemmas related to local conflicts or socio-political concern for one’s own community.
KeywordsAdults–Morality–Real dilemmas–Cultural-contextual approach–Biographical-narrative approach
... Hirschman, 1977;Putnam, 2002). Moreover, as suggested above, one can assume that under certain conditions different motives may receive conflicting meanings, so that actors would be simultaneously guided by several motives rather than by a single one (for other examples across the social sciences, see Fiske, 1991;Healy, 2000;Held, 1990;Juujarvi, 2006). ...
Adolescence as a period is associated to the extension of social relationships and networks, and, inherently, to an increase of conflicts and situations of violence. Therefore, our aim is to analyse the discursive management of group conflicts and partner violence in adolescents, exploring conversational modes and contents that articulate conversation during the discussion of controversial situations. Using an analytical approach that combines statistical and qualitative techniques, we studied the discourse produced by 42 boys and girls (aged 14 to 17 years), during group discussion of dilemmas. The results evidence the combined effect of the variables type of group and type of dilemma on the conversational modes of conflict management, with a predominance of the disputative form (impositions, commands.) when boys and girls discuss together about an episode of gender violence. Regarding the contents, there are larger thematic differences between boys and girls to partner violence, providing some evidence of the situated character of the discourse; so, boys do not recognize maltreatment while girls take responsibility. Finally, some considerations for applied practice are presented.
Conflict and violence in adolescents are on the rise in recent years. The interest in this phenomenon, such as peer rejection in groups or mistreatment in couples, has therefore greatly increased. In regard to this, we propose to study adolescentś responses in situations of conflict and violence, in order to identify resolution discursive strategies and their association with these two contexts; also offer some practical guidelines for intervention. Argumentative discourse (2250 utterances) of 42 adolescents, boys and girls, discussing two dilemmas (group conflict and partner violence) in groups, was analyzed qualitatively. The results show different themes and discursive strategies of coping with group conflicts and partner violence, and greater differences between boys and girls in the latter. Finally, we provide a training activity addressed to teachers about this area.
Because a pluralistic democracy is inherently conflictual, public deliberation of issues holds the potential to expand the thinking of participants by revealing new insights, perspectives, information, or logics into the participants’ consideration. These are ethical questions that ask citizens to decide whether policies, actions, and decisions are “right” or “wrong.” The Persistent Issues in History (PIH) Network (www.pihnet.org) is a decade-long professional development community of practice encouraging, modeling, and supporting teachers in increasing inquiry-based social studies teaching. For this qualitative study, we created a professional community of practice including 4 U.S. government teachers, a university researcher, and a political science professor. This team created lessons enabling high school seniors to dissect and apply Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail to 3 specific scenarios to explore the students’ moral reasoning on just versus unjust laws.
The authors explored the ethical reasoning of 27 preservice teachers in the first course of a 4-course social studies education program. The students discussed 2 historically analogous cases that focused on 1 of 4 value problem areas: consent of the governed, general welfare, property, and morality. The authors were interested in exploring whether the students used an ethic of justice or care in their reasoning, particularly if gender was a factor in the ethic used. The results indicated that it was the nature of the case, rather than student gender, that influenced the ethic used and that students of both genders were able to use both ethics. However, the most prevalent ethic was the ethic of justice.
Issues related to human health are traditionally developed since the early years of formal schooling in Brazil. Health, as a complex term, as well as the role of various factors that influence and determine health status can be presented and discussed at the school in different perspectives. Among the many materials in support of the teacher, the textbook, because of the role it plays at classroom, can be considered as important, if not the main instrument of curriculum organization. This study, based on the theoretical field of Social Epidemiology, aims to show an analyses related to how and what is the role attributed to several factors that influence and
determine the health-disease process in Science textbooks for early years of Elementary School in Brazil. It have been analyzed all the 11 collections approved by the National Textbook Program in 2010 (PNLD 2010), in a total of 44 books. The analyzed textbooks tend to give little attention to the social determinants of health
(SDH) and focuses on individual behaviors and habits without discussions about the students living context. Coherently, the modification or adaptation of these is the main objective to be achieved from orientations or prescriptions. It is suggested that this material addresses the conceptual advances in the health area, in order to address the issue from a broader framework that takes into account the different aspects that affect the health status of individuals and population groups, especially those of a collective nature and historically constituted (cultural, socioeconomic, environmental), in order to make more meaningful and contextualized the discussions on health in the classroom.
In this era of increased accountability, it is important to consider how student affairs researches and assesses the outcomes of our efforts to increase moral competence. This chapter examines both qualitative and quantitative inquiry methods for measuring moral development.
Various targeted studies during the last decade indicate persistently low and even declining levels of interest among young people towards science topics and related careers. These findings raise serious concerns for the future ability of Europe to confront the challenges of the knowledge-based economy. A range of innovative methods of science teaching designated by the umbrella title Inquiry-Based Science Education are considered by science education experts as a form of pedagogy that could reverse this trend and increase students’ interest in science. Non-formal learning settings are often viewed as sources of inspiration for formal learning and as pools offering valuable learning tools proven to stimulate interest in science and attract young people to science learning.
Science education has an important part in developing understanding of concepts that underpin environmental issues, leading potentially to pro‐environmental behaviour. However, science is commonly perceived negatively, leading to inappropriate and negative models of science that do not connect to people’s experiences. The article argues that the cognitive and affective domains need to be explicitly integrated in a science education that informs environmental education, as a sense of relationship is essential for environmental care and responsibility leading to informed action. The features of such approaches to science education are discussed through analysis of the impact of modern and constructive postmodern science education models on environmental education, and possible strategies for making connections between cognitive and affective domains are proposed. The analysis incorporates the development of positive approaches to science and environmental issues through teacher modelling of biophilic behaviour, active learning through constructivist pedagogy, the politicisation of science education to address social and environmental issues, suitable experiences of natural environments and living organisms, and science curricula that emphasise conceptual integration to demonstrate complex environmental effects, including the environmental consequences of human behaviour.
Politicians, curriculum planners and policy makers in most developing countries are concerned about the progress of eradicating illiteracy especially amongst their rural populations. It is indeed important to increase access to education and measure progress using the barometers of the numbers of graduates our systems produce annually, but, in most cases these qualifications are only a ticket out of the holders’ rural communities, without any meaningful returns to the same. Education for children in rural communities has to be made more relevant to the needs of the rural people, so that schools can help to form productive and informed adults and leaders who are willing to stay in their communities. This does not mean creating a different curriculum for rural schools, but enhancing the existing one to solve both rural poverty and urban problems resulting from the influx of job-seeking school leavers.
Keywords: Education, Relevance, Poverty
Following Bennett Solomon's suggestion of the “integrating individual”—one who possesses the skill and interest to incorporate new knowledge into a larger and unified life-picture—this article explores how recognizing the coupling of the affective and cognitive can influence Jewish education. Emotions help construct our daily perceptions and our moral and spiritual awareness. Jewish sources acknowledge the tandem nature of cognition and emotion in spiritual life by placing yirat shamayim (fear or awe of Heaven) as a paramount goal that is tightly bound to Torah learning. Education can nurture complex spiritual qualities by working with simpler emotions and qualities within the context of rigorous cognitive learning.
Access to quality professional learning and the opportunity to collaborate with other educators can be limited for teachers in rural and remote areas of Western Australia. A recognised need to enhance the skills of rural teaching professionals and encourage teachers in small communities to join collegial networks was established by the members of several professional organisations. A working group consisting of representatives from the Australian College of Educators-WA (ACE-WA), the Rural and Remote Education Advisory Council (RREAC), the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) and the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) provided teachers in rural areas with the opportunity to reduce professional isolation through the provision of relevant, convenient, and cost effective in-service education. Through a videoconferencing system, accessed within the Western Australian Telecentre Network and other educational organisations, the audience connected and participated with the presenter and studio based audience for two Hot Topics Seminars in 2008. This paper reports on the challenges and successes encountered by the working group and the findings of the research conducted throughout 2008.
Nous menons une étude de l'impact de combinaisons de messages éthiques sur la décision de deux types d'auditeur légal (commissariat aux comptes et certification aéronautique) et des praticiens en gestion des ressources humaines. En s'appuyant sur une définition de l'éthique, et sur un paradoxe en psychologie morale, nous présentons le rôle des messages éthiques dans le contexte de décision. Le protocole quasi expérimental montre une différence de perception et comportement entre les populations étudiées. Les messages explicites et de la difficulté de décider sont les éléments les plus importants lors de la prise de décision. Il paraît alors nécessaire de réviser certains modèles de décision et d'audit pour y introduire les concepts de messages éthiques et d'indépendance interne.
The Kohlberg Gilligan Controversy has received intermittent but inconclusive attention for many years, perhaps reflecting
the difficulty of bridging the two positions. This article explores the published evidence for Gilligan’s claims of gender
difference, gender identity difference, and role of caring in people’s ethics. It seems that the evidence for pronounced gender
differences in ethical attitudes within business is weak, even if gender identity is used instead of physical gender. The
main propositions of Care Theory and recent advances in its thinking are discussed. Special focus emerges on the notion of
Attachment which seems to be the Care Theory ingredient both most able to survive critical scrutiny and most promising for
bridging the divide between the Kohlberg and Gilligan paradigms. The Social Bonding Model and other possible bridge building
conceptual structures are introduced. Finally, Max Weber’s division between ethics of conviction and ethics of responsibility
provides an overarching perspective both of the gap still to be bridged and the need to keep trying to bridge it.
While the ethic of care has generally been regarded as an appropriate attitude for nurses, it has not received equal attention as a mode of ethical problem solving. The primary nursing model is expected to be aligned with the ethic of care because it emphases the nurse–patient relationship and enables more independent role for nurses in decision-making. The aim of this study was to examine nurses’ ethical decision-making in the context of primary nursing. Participants were seven nurses, and one physiotherapist from a geriatric rehabilitation unit of a public hospital in Finland. Data were collected through focus group interviews and qualitatively analyzed through Lyons’ coding scheme for moral orientations. The results showed that primary nurses employ empathic understanding and particularistic thinking when building relationships with patients and their families, and when assessing their needs for coping at home after discharge. Most ethical conflicts were related to discharge and were solved through balancing the ethics of care and justice considerations. It is concluded that care and justice are integrated in nurses’ everyday ethical decision-making. The ethic of care nurtures good patient–nurse relationships, while the ethic of justice is needed to address the fair delivery of care in the context of an aging population and diminishing public resources. Both ethics should be acknowledged in clinical practices and included in ethics education.
How does moral motivation develop across the life span? Previous research has indicated that moral exemplars have integrated the typically oppositional motives of agency and communion. The present research maps developmental trajectories in these motives that may lead to this end-point integration. Participants were 140 Canadians comprising four age groups (childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, and mid-adulthood). Agentic and communal motivation was assessed in an interview that asked participants about aspects of their lives and prompted for the instrumental–terminal framing of their motives. Results indicated that agency was the dominant instrumental motive for all ages. In terms of terminal values, agency was the dominant motive early in development; however, the effect progressively weakened and, by mid-adulthood, had dissipated. The pattern of instrumental agency for communal goals increased across the age groups, implying that replacing agency with communion as the characteristic terminal motive represents an important goal for moral development.
This paper presents a recently developed instrument of care-based moral development: The Ethic of Care Interview (ECI) (Skoe, 1998, 2008). Based on Carol Gilligan's (1982) theory, the ECI measures five levels of care-based moral thought. These range from an initial position of self-concern, through questioning of self-concern as a sole criterion; to a position of primarily other-concern, questioning of other-concern as a sole criterion; and finally balanced self and other concern. The stages involve a progressively more complex understanding of human interdependence and an increasing differentiation of self and other. The semi-structured ECI interview consists of a real-life moral conflict generated by the participant and three standardized dilemmas. Administration and scoring as well as reliability and validity are described. A series of studies has shown that balanced consideration of the needs of self as well as others appears to develop gradually across childhood into young adulthood. Research findings point to the importance of care-oriented morality for human growth, especially identity and personality development. Further research with the ECI is suggested.
The aim of this study was to examine whether personal value priorities, measured by Schwartz et al.’s method, change during higher education, whether moral reasoningmeasured by the DIT develops and whether values predict gain in moral development. Moreover, we explored the simultaneous changes in value priorities and moral reasoning. Our sample consisted of 132 students from a university of applied sciences who filled out the value measure and the DIT both at the beginning and at the end of their studies. The results revealed that universalism and security values became more important whereas achievement decreased in importance during the three-year period.
We also found significant gain in moral development and that universalism and
hedonism values predicted this gain significantly. Significant correlated change was
found between moral reasoning and stimulation, conformity and security values. The
meaning of the results is discussed in terms of the theories of Schwartz and Kohlberg.
College instructors use a variety of approaches to teach students to reason more effectively about issues with a moral dimension and achieve mixed results. This pre‐post study of 423 undergraduate students examined the effects of morally explicit and implicit curricular content and of selected pedagogical strategies on moral reasoning development. Using causal modelling to control for a range of student background variables as well as Time 1 scores, 52% of the variance in moral reasoning scores was explained; we found that these scores were affected by type of curricular content and by three pedagogical strategies (active learning, reflection and faculty‐student interaction). Students who experienced more negative interactions with diverse peers were the least likely to show positive change in moral reasoning as a result of participating in any course. Implications for the design of intervention studies are discussed, including the need to attend to selection and attenuation effects.
This long‐term study found that moral reasoning as conceptualised by Kohlberg (1981, 1985) can develop into adulthood. Predominantly white, well‐educated, middle‐class participants were interviewed four times at 4‐year intervals (N = 44). Stage development was sequential and continued throughout the life span, although its occurrence decreased with advancing age in a curvilinear fashion. Post‐conventional reasoning was demonstrated by seven adults. Stage of moral reasoning correlated with age strongly in children and moderately in adults, and was moderately correlated with education in all age groups. Additionally, advance in moral reasoning stage was correlated with increase in education in adults. Although no systematic gender differences were found across age groups, men in the younger adult group had significantly higher scores than women.
The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between care and justice reasoning, dispositional empathy variables and meta‐ethical thinking among 128 students from a university of applied sciences. The measures were Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview, the Defining Issues Test, Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Meta‐Ethical Questionnaire. The results showed that levels of care reasoning were positively related to the post‐conventional schema and negatively related to the personal interest schema in justice reasoning. Age, meta‐ethical thinking, the post‐conventional schema and perspective taking predicted care reasoning. Sympathy was positively related to both modes of moral reasoning among men and predicted their care reasoning. The results point out common elements for care and justice reasoning, underscore the importance of perspective taking for moral reasoning and indicate that the relationship between affective‐based empathy and moral reasoning is gender‐specific and far more complex than previous theories suggest.
The authors investigated the effects of gender, gender role, and type of moral dilemma on moral maturity and moral orientation. Fifty-five female and 55 male university students were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (J. T. Spence & R. L. Helmreich, 1978), L. Kohlberg's test of moral judgment, and instructions to discuss a personal and impersonal real-life moral dilemma. Moral stage, moral orientation, and the relation between them varied across dilemmas. Females were more consistent than males in moral stage; males were more consistent in moral orientation. Females made higher stage and more care-based moral judgments than males made on personal real-life dilemmas. The observed variations occurred primarily because males reported more Stage 2, justice-pulling antisocial dilemmas than females, and females reported more Stage 3, care-pulling prosocial dilemmas than males. A more interactional model of moral judgment than the models of L. Kohlberg and C. Gilligan is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Agency and communion are fundamental human motives, often conceptualized as being in tension. This study examines the notion that moral exemplars overcome this tension and adaptively integrate these 2 motives within their personality. Participants were 25 moral exemplars-recipients of a national award for extraordinary volunteerism-and 25 demographically matched comparison participants. Each participant responded to a life review interview and provided a list of personal strivings, which were coded for themes of agency and communion; interviews were also coded for the relationship between agency and communion. Results consistently indicated that exemplars not only had both more agency and communion than did comparison participants but were also more likely to integrate these themes within their personality. Consistent with our claim that enlightened self-interest is driving this phenomenon, this effect was evident only when agency and communion were conceptualized in terms of promoting interests (of the self and others, respectively) and not in terms of psychological distance (from others) and only when the interaction was observed with a person approach and not with the traditional variable approach. After providing a conceptual replication of these results using different measures elicited in different contexts and relying on different coding procedures, we addressed and dismissed various alternative explanations, including chance co-occurrence and generalized complexity. These results provide the first reliable evidence of the integration of motives of agency and communion in moral personality.
Moral sensitivity refers to the interpretive awareness of moral conflict and can be justice or care oriented. Justice ethics is associated primarily with human rights and the application of moral rules, whereas care ethics is related to human needs and a situational approach involving social emotions. Among the core brain regions involved in moral issue processing are: medial prefrontal cortex, anterior (ACC) and posterior (PCC) cingulate cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), insula and amygdala. This study sought to inform the long standing debate of whether care and justice moral ethics represent one or two different forms of cognition.
Model-free and model-based connectivity analysis were used to identify functional neural networks underlying care and justice ethics for a moral sensitivity task. In addition to modest differences in patterns of associated neural activity, distinct modes of functional and effective connectivity were observed for moral sensitivity for care and justice issues that were modulated by individual variation in moral ability.
These results support a neurobiological differentiation between care and justice ethics and suggest that human moral behavior reflects the outcome of integrating opposing rule-based, self-other perspectives, and emotional responses.
The study addresses two separate but related issues in connection with people"s real-life moral decisions and judgements. First, the notion of moral orientation is examined in terms of its consistency across varying contexts, its relation to gender and to gender role. Secondly, a new aspect of moral reasoning is explored—the influence on moral decision-making of considering the consequences of an action. Fifty-eight undergraduate students were asked to discuss two personal and two impersonal real-life moral dilemmas. The results reveal a significant interaction between gender role and type of dilemma. However, moral orientation was not consistent across various dilemmas and gender was not related to any particular orientation. Also the results indicate a significant difference between the reasoning of consequences of personal-antisocial conflicts and impersonal-antisocial conflicts. These findings suggest that different moral orientations may be embedded in life experience and connect with an individual"s sense of his or her moral identity in real-life situations.
Contemporary theories have generally focused on either the behavioral, cognitive or emotional dimensions of prosocial moral development. In this volume, these three dimensions are brought together while providing the first comprehensive account of prosocial moral development in children. The main concept is empathy - one feels what is appropriate for another person's situation, not one's own. Hoffman discusses empathy's role in five moral situations. The book's focus is empathy's contribution to altruism and compassion for others in physical, psychological, or economic distress. Also highlighted are the psychological processes involved in empathy's interaction with certain parental behaviors that foster moral internalization in children and the psychological processes involved in empathy's relation to abstract moral principles such as caring and distributive justice. This important book is the culmination of three decades of study and research by a leading figure in the area of child and developmental psychology.
The authors investigated the effects of gender, gender role, and type of moral dilemma on moral maturity and moral orientation. Fifty-five female and 55 male university students were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (J. T. Spence & R. L. Helmreich, 1978), L. Kohlberg's test of moral judgment, and instructions to discuss a personal and impersonal real-life moral dilemma. Moral stage, moral orientation, and the relation between them varied across dilemmas. Females were more consistent than males in moral stage; males were more consistent in moral orientation. Females made higher stage and more care-based moral judgments than males made on personal real-life dilemmas. The observed variations occurred primarily because males reported more Stage 2, justice-pulling antisocial dilemmas than females, and females reported more Stage 3, care-pulling prosocial dilemmas than males. A more interactional model of moral judgment than the models of L. Kohlberg and C. Gilligan is recommended.
Drawing on current conceptualizations of values (Schwartz's basic human values theory) and the moral domain (Haidt's moral foundations theory; Shweder's big three of morality), as well as the cognitive developmental approach to morality, we examine research on cross-cultural differences in the emphases on different parts of the moral domain and in the pathways of moral development in the light of cultural variations in wealth, relatedness, and hierarchy. We also review studies of age-related changes in values and justice-oriented reasoning, and examine influences on cultural and individual inclusiveness of the moral ingroup.
As theories of developmental psychology continue to define educational goals and practice, it has become imperative for educators and researchers to scrutinize not only the underlying assumptions of such theories but also the model of adulthood toward which they point. Carol Gilligan examines the limitations of several theories, most notably Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development, and concludes that developmental theory has not given adequate expression to the concerns and experience of women. Through a review of psychological and literary sources, she illustrates the feminine construction of reality. From her own research data, interviews with women contemplating abortion, she then derives an alternative sequence for the development of women's moral judgments. Finally, she argues for an expanded conception of adulthood that would result from the integration of the "feminine voice" into developmental theory.
Past research on the ethical decision making of nurses has used Kohlberg's model of moral reasoning, which does not adequately ad-dress issues of caring. The present study builds on the work of Gilligan, Brown, and colleagues to describe issues of moral concern, including justice, care, and integrated concerns. Nurses in the present study articulated justice concerns for fairness, patients' rights, and autonomy. They also stated care concerns for a patient's needs, pain, emotional support, and relationship. Beyond these, nurses expressed concerns that integrated a principled approach (justice) to caring for patients (care) in dealing with issues of deceit and trust, advocacy, and patient dignity in dying. Whereas many earlier studies reported low moral reasoning scores for nurses, the present analysis shows nurses involved in complex and sophisticated ethical considerations and decisions. The analysis also reveals professional constraints on those ethical decisions.
This article illustrates that Gilligan's distinction between an ethic of justice and an ethic of care is interpreted in two ways. Some authors conceive this distinction in terms of content (different rules and values); while others regard the distinction as one of form (different ways of thinking). It is argued that Gilligan's views allow for both interpretations. Finally, a way to an inclusive interpretation is shown.
This study investigated the extent to which people interpret real-life moral dilemmas in terms of an internal moral orientation, as Gilligan (1982, 1988) has suggested, or in terms of the content of the dilemma, as Wark and Krebs (1996, 1997) have reported. Thirty women and 30 men listed the issues they saw in descriptions of real-life prosocial, antisocial and social pressure types of moral dilemma. Results revealed that Gilligan's model underestimates the influence of dilemma content. Moral dilemmas differed in the extent to which they were viewed in terms of the same issues by different participants. There was relatively little within-person consistency in moral orientation. There were four gender differences. Compared to men, women rated social pressure dilemmas as involving more care-orientated issues, and prosocial dilemmas as more significant. Compared to women, men viewed all dilemmas as involving more justice-based issues, and reported experiencing more antisocial dilemmas.
People rarely make the types of moral judgement evoked by Kohlberg's test when they make moral decisions in their everyday lives. The anticipated consequences of real‐life moral decisions, to self and to others, may influence moral choices and the structure of moral reasoning. To understand real‐life moral judgement we must attend to its functions, which, although they occasionally involve resolving hypothetical moral dilemmas like those on Kohlberg's test, more often involve promoting good social relations, upholding favourable self‐concepts and justifying self‐interested behaviour. We argue that a functional model of moral judgement and moral behaviour derived from evolutionary theory may supply a better account of real‐life morality than the Kohlbergian model.
This research examines the effects of an off-campus service learning program on the moral reasoning development of college students. A pre-post quasi-experimental design was employed with two groups of college students (aged 18-22), one that engaged in service learning and the other which did not. The intervention was an eight-week summer service project that took place in one of several cities in the US, coupled with a continuing reflection component completed during the fall semester following the service project. The service learning and comparison groups completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) before and after the service learning course. Findings revealed no differences between the two groups' pre-test moral reasoning scores. Regarding post-test scores, the service learning group had statistically significant higher moral reasoning than the comparison group.
Over the past 20 years, care reasoning has been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of moral development. Skoe has developed an interview measure of levels of care reasoning about the needs of self and other in relationships, the Ethic of Care Interview or ECI. In the present longitudinal research, we investigated developmental changes and family correlates of reasoning about care issues in a family study of 32 adolescents (aged 16 and then 20 years). There were no gender differences on the ECI for these adolescents, but there was a significant increase in scores over time. Care reasoning levels at age 20 were significant concurrent predictors of self-reported community involvement. Several parenting factors when children were age 16 (parents’ emphasis on caring as a goal in family stories, child reports of a more authoritative family parenting style, and parents’ use of more autonomy-encouraging practices) were associated with higher levels of care reasoning in adolescents at age 20, consistent with theoretical expectations.
chosen to focus on problems of language, to speak about the problem of sex differences, to draw on the voices of other women, to listen with particular attention to girls during adolescence, to talk together about these questions / both the strength and limitation of our method are tied to its medium: words
struggling to find a way to talk about differences / our sense of an opening: voices and visions / reading for self and moral voice / listening for justice and care / interpretive procedures / soundings: into development / metaphors of voice and vision: themes of connection and separation / development: an etymology / models of development: development as a double fugue / the plainsong of justice and care / the counterpoint of justice and care / a method for identifying content themes of justice and care (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the relationship between identity and moral reasoning in 76 female and 58 male students (aged 16–30 yrs). A newly developed care-based measure of moral reasoning, the Ethic of Care Interview (ECI), was found to be significantly related to age, identity, and Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI). The relationship between identity and the ECI was significantly higher for women than for men. Furthermore, only for women was the ECI more strongly related to identity than was the MJI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A care-based measure of levels of moral thought, based on C. Gilligan's (1982) theorizing, was developed to investigate the relationship between moral reasoning and identity in women. Ss were 86 female students, aged 17–26 yrs. Interrater reliabilities for the new ethic of care interview measure (ECI), using 3 independent raters, ranged from
r = .78 to
r = .96, and kappas ranging from .63 to .94 were obtained. Scores on the ECI were found to increase with age as predicted. Also, as hypothesized, women high on the ECI were higher in identity status than were women low on the ECI. One conclusion is that women's development of moral reasoning and concept of self are intricately linked. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
discusses the empirical evidence regarding the contentious issue of sex differences in moral reasoning and sex bias in theories of morality / two claims regarding this issue have been raised: (a) that there are two sex-related orientations for moral decision-making, and (b) that Kohlberg's moral stage theory down-scores the moral reasoning of females / discussion focuses on the appropriate definition of mature moral reasoning (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents interview data from 2 8-yr-olds, 2 14-yr-olds, a 36-yr-old male, and a 46 yr-old-female. Data support C. Gilligan's (see record
1979-03624-001) assertions that there are 2 distinct modes of describing the self in relation to others (separate/objective and connected) as well as 2 kinds of considerations used by individuals in making moral decisions (justice and care). The author describes a methodology, developed from the data, for systematically and reliably identifying these modes of self-definition and moral judgment through the use of 2 coding schemes. An empirical study testing Gilligan's hypotheses of the relationship of gender to self-definition and moral judgment is presented, in which 36 Ss, the majority aged 8–60 yrs, were interviewed. Results support the thesis that there are 2 different orientations to morality: one toward rights and justice and another toward care and response to others in their own terms. Although the findings suggest separate developmental shifts for men and women (with men favoring the former orientation and women the latter), these differences were not absolute. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Juujärvi, S., Myyry, L. & Pesso, K. (2012). Empathy and values as predictors of care development. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 413–420.
This study investigates values and affective empathy as predictors for care-based moral development. Fifty-three students from a university of applied sciences were interviewed with Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview at the beginning of their studies and two years later. Value priorities were measured by Schwartz et al.’s Portrait Value Questionnaire, empathy variables by Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and feelings of sympathy were rated using a real-life moral conflict. The results showed that students in care-oriented fields progressed in care reasoning. Real-life sympathy and the value of self-direction positively predicted development in care reasoning, whereas personal distress was a negative predictor. The results indicate that care-based moral development is more closely connected with affective empathy than personal values. Individuals who feel empathy for others, and who prefer independent thinking and action, achieve the greatest gains in care development. In conclusion, educators should encourage students’ empathy and moral reasoning in authentic moral conflicts.
The Second Edition of this classic work, first published in 1981 and an international bestseller, explores the differences in thinking and social action that exist among members of more than 50 modern nations. Geert Hofstede argues that people carry "mental programs" which are developed in the family in early childhood and reinforced in schools and organizations, and that these programs contain components of national culture. They are expressed most clearly in the different values that predominate among people from different countries. Geert Hofstede has completely rewritten, revised and updated Cultures Consequences for the twenty-first century, he has broadened the book's cross-disciplinary appeal, expanded the coverage of countries examined from 40 to more than 50, reformulated his arguments and a large amount of new literature has been included. The book is structured around five major dimensions: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism versus collectivism; masculinity versus femininity; and long term versus short-term orientation. --Publisher.
The paper presents two groups of objecting Israeli reserve soldiers who chose to resolve their dilemmas with the morally controversial war in Lebanon (1982–1985) in line with two different morally preferred actions. These soldiers either refused to join their unit on its assigned mission in Lebanon and paid the price of court martial and imprisonment, or chose to continue their military service but made extra sacrifices to preserve their moral principles on the battlefield, as well as voiced their objection via a protest group. The relationship between the objectors' hypothetical and actual moral knowledge is discussed.
To evaluate the extent to which the models of moral judgment advanced by Kohlberg (1984) and by Gilligan (1982, 1988) are
able to account for real-life moral judgment, we investigated the relation of sex and type of moral dilemma to moral stage
and moral orientation. Eighty young adult men and women made moral judgments about two hypothetical Kohlberg dilemmas, two
real-life antisocial dilemmas, and two real-life prosocial dilemmas. We failed to find any sex differences in moral judgment.
Moral stage and moral orientation varied across the three types of dilemma. Kohlberg's dilemmas pulled for justice-oriented
Stage 4 moral judgments, real-life prosocial dilemmas pulled for care-oriented Stage 3 moral judgments, and real-life antisocial
dilemmas pulled for justice-oriented Stage 2 moral judgments. The content of moral judgments was related to their structure.
There was a positive relation between stage of moral judgment on Kohlberg dilemmas and on real-life dilemmas. The implications
of these findings for a new, more interactional, model of real-life moral judgment are discussed.
The possibility that sex role orientation was a better predictor of care-oriented moral development than gender for both men and women was investigated in this study. Also, the relationship between care-oriented moral reasoning and prosocial behavior was examined. Subjects were university students with the majority being Caucasian (97%) and single (86%). Using pre-selected groups of sex role stereotyped and androgynous individuals (45 females, 45 males), the relationship between sex role orientation and care-oriented moral reasoning was found to be stronger than that between gender and moral reasoning. However, this finding was accounted for largely by differences among women. Although moral reasoning did not relate to prosocial behavior as expected, there were significant gender differences in prosocial behavior. Two implications are that the Ethic of Care Interview may need to be re-designed to be more applicable for men and that sex role subscription may be a more important psychological variable than gender.
According to Gilligan's model of moral reasoning, some people approach difficult decisions situationally and in response to
needs and relationships of the people involved, often including themselves. People who think this way operate with a “care
voice” and tend to be girls and women. Others do so with concerns about rights, obligations, and rules, employing conventional
standards uniformly to be fair. These people operate with a “justice voice.” A study was conducted to assess the usefulness
of the model for understanding student opinions of penalty for two hypothetical criminal offenders. Based upon data obtained
from a self-administered written questionnaire and a quantitative index of “voice,” three themes emerged. First, most students
exhibited concerns reflective of the two internal moral structures, the “care voice” and the “justice voice,” when they responded
to queries about the proper function of criminal sanctions. This indicates that at least two equally legitimate yet competitive
definitions of criminal justice exist. Second, gender and “voice” are associated, but not invariably. Third, “voice” is more
helpful than gender for explaining penalty choices. The care model is associated with penalty choices that are responsive
to needs of people involved in the situation, and the custodial nature of sanctions lends insight into these choices. The
justice model is associated with the assignment of normative sanctions. Moreover, many students expressed a “model of voice,”
or a view of fairness, that conflicts with the dominant model of the criminal justice system.
Moral reasoning of 57 (Time 1) and 59 (Time 2) nursing, social-work and law-enforcement students was investigated in terms
of care and justice reasoning about hypothetical and real-life dilemmas. The analysis methods were the Ethic of Care Interview,
the Moral Judgment Interview, Lyons' Moral Orientation Scheme and Wark and Krebs' classification of real-life dilemmas. The
type of dilemma predicted moral orientation usage. Prosocial dilemmas pulled for care and antisocial dilemmas for justice
orientation. Level of justice reasoning varied according to the type of dilemma. Real-life care reasoning was consistent with
participants' competence, with the exception of transgression-type dilemmas at Time 2. Levels of care and justice reasoning
were highly correlated with each other. These results underscore the importance of the dilemma type and suggest that care
reasoning is a significant part of real life morality. The study recommends the ECI as a new model to account for real-life
care reasoning.
The claim of a gender bias is considered on measures of moral judgment focusing on concepts of justice. Both meta-analyses and secondary analyses on 56 samples of over 6000 male and female subjects are used to estimate the magnitude of gender effects. Inconsistent with current expectations, the results indicate that overall, and at every age/educational level, females score significantly higher than males. Second, the magnitude of this difference is small, both in comparison with age/education effects and in relation to conventional interpretations of the measures employed. Several possible interpretations of these results are discussed especially with regard to C. Gilligan's (1977, Harvard Educational Review, 47, 481–517) recent criticism of Kohlberg's theory.
This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe nursing and social services students' ethical reasoning at the start of their studies.
Gilligan argued that there are two modes of moral reasoning - the ethic of justice, focusing on individuals' rights, and the ethic of care, focusing on responsibilities in relationships. Recent research has established the ethic of care as a developmental phenomenon. It has been widely argued that the ethic of care is crucial for nursing, but there has been little international research in this area.
Participants were first-year nursing and social services students in Finland (N =112). Their care-based moral reasoning was measured using the Ethic of Care Interview, and their ethical reasoning on an abortion-related dilemma was analysed by content analysis. Expressed ethical codes and principles were calculated according to levels. The data were collected over a 5-month period in 2007-2008.
Students' level of care reasoning was varied. Their current level of care reasoning was reflected in their responses to the ethical dilemma. Ethical reasoning at each level and its specific premises constituted a distinct entity. Use of the principle of self-determination was positively related to levels of care development. Care-based moral reasoning constitutes the bedrock for ethical reasoning among these novice students.
Educators should be sensitive to the variation in students' current developmental levels in care reasoning. Reflective discussion on real-life ethical conflicts should be an explicit part of education and clinical practice in caring professions.