Elizabeth K. Holmes’s research while affiliated with United States Naval Academy and other places

Understanding the process in which individuals engage in ethical decision making and the factors influencing this process may be important for developing more effective ethics education and leader development programs. This study investigated three components of ethical decision making: moral awareness, moral judgment, and moral intention, and their relationship with five components of moral intensity: Social Consensus, Magnitude of Consequences, Temporal Immediacy, Proximity and Probability of Effect. The results suggest that as individuals face morally charged situations, their awareness of the moral dilemma, judgments about potential consequences, and intention to act are significantly affected by characteristics of the moral situation.

Individuals engage in an ethical decision-making process to solve ethical dilemmas. This empirical study of Navy chaplains explored the process of ethical decision making and the extent to which the characteristics of the moral situation influence the decision-making process. The results of the study are visually displayed in a model that pictures the steps in ethical decision making, which could be used as a teaching and training tool for professionals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)