Moral reasoning and moral orientation of U.S. and Turkish university students

Participants from an individualistic society (U.S.A.) were compared with participants from a collectivistic society (Turkey) in terms of moral reasoning and orientation (justice and care). A total of 396 undergraduates (203 U.S. students, 193 Turkish students) between the ages of 18 and 46 years were administered the original version of the Defining Issues Test and the Measure of Moral Orientation. Turkish participants received higher mean principled scores than did the U.S. participants, and female participants received higher mean principled scores than did male participants. Turkish participants also scored significantly higher on the justice and care orientations than U.S. participants, and female participants scored significantly higher on the justice and care orientations than male participants.     

Moral reasoning, executive function, and personality in violent and nonviolent adult offenders

To evaluate moral reasoning and personality, inmates from a maximum security jail were administered the Porteus Maze, the Defining Issues Test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-168, and the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence. Scores of 20 violent and 19 nonviolent offenders were compared. The control group consisted of 20 university students who indicated they did not have criminal ords. All were over the age of 18. Analysis showed the violent offenders had mature moral reasoning and were more elevated on the Antiestablishment scale of the Defining Issues Test. Furthermore, inmates displayed significantly elevated scores on depression, Psychopathic Deviance, and Social Introversion relative to the control group.     

Care and Justice Moral Orientation: A Scale for Its Assessment

A quantitative measure of adult moral orientation, based on the theoretical frameworks of Kohlberg and Gilligan, was developed to measure preference for "justice" or "care"-oriented moral thinking. The Moral Orientation Scale Using Childhood Dilemmas (MOS), a short, objective measure, presents adults with a series of dilemmas frequently faced by children, each followed by two care-oriented and two justice-oriented responses to the dilemma. The procedures for developing and scoring the measure are discussed, and validity and reliability data are presented. Used with both male and female social work and law students, as expected, the MOS shows males to be more justice-oriented in their moral reasoning than females who are shown to be more care-oriented. Moreover, in further agreement with Gilligan's theory that gender and experience, taken together, are related to moral reasoning style, male lawyers and female social workers are shown to have the strongest preferences.     

Predicting compliance behavior from moral judgment scales

Two experiments with college males examined the relationship between moral judgment and compliance in a modified Asch paradigm. In Experiment 1 moral judgment was assessed with the written form of Kohlberg's dilemmas. Stage of moral judgment interacted with type of compliance, with Stage 4 subjects showing a compromise response between their own perceptions and the responses of others. In Experiment 2 moral judgment was assessed with Rest's Defining Issues Test. Compliance was found to be negatively related to level of moral judgment. The relationship found between moral judgment and compliance in the two experiments was interpreted in terms of a trend away from external standards and toward internal standards with higher levels of moral judgment.     

Developmental profiles of adolescents and young adults choosing abortion: stage sequence, décalage, and implications for policy.

Three groups of unmarried females (ages 12-14, 17-19, and 23-25) electing to have an abortion in the first trimester of their first pregnancy were administered the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, the Rest Defining Issues Test, and a moral judgment interview of their reasons for choosing an abortion. Results indicated that there were clear developmental differences between the youngest group and the two older groups on the general measures of ego development and principled moral reasoning, as theory would have predicted. There were, however, no major differences across the three groups on the level of reasoning which directly assessed the specific decision concerning abortion. Further, all three groups were assessed at the self-protective level characterized by Stage 2 reasons of financial consequences and the need to rely exclusively on one's own self in such a difficult dilemma. These findings and developmental profiles are compared to national base rates, and the possible implications of apparent décalage, or discrepancy between the general stage assessments and the specific assessment on abortion, are discussed. In addition, the similarity between the older group of adolescents and the young adults was examined, particularly in light of the current controversy over mandatory parental consent.     

Moral judgments and ethical constructs in clinical psychology doctoral students

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study compared the moral reasoning of first-year and third-year doctoral students in clinical psychology. Nineteen first-year and 20 third-year students were recruited from 17 doctoral training programs in the UK. Most adopted a sophisticated approach to moral judgments, as assessed by the Defining Issues Test, although, surprisingly, more experienced students had significantly less sophisticated schemata. In their moral judgments, less experienced students relied more heavily on their personal, and more experienced students on their professional, constructs, as assessed by repertory grid technique. Integration between personal and professional constructs was higher in more experienced students.     

Competing Conceptions of Justice: Faculty Moral Reasoning About Affirmative Action

College faculty (N = 115) were recruited to investigate the influence of moral reasoning on hiring decisions about affirmative action dilemmas. Participants completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a standard test of moral reasoning, a measure that presented two hypothetical moral dilemmas about affirmative action that manipulated candidates' race and moral issues, and a scale evaluating the use of external norms versus self-chosen principles. Results indicated that moral issue but not race of a minority candidate affected hiring decisions. Faculty used greater percentages of principled reasoning when solving the more salient affirmative action dilemmas than when solving the hypothetical dilemmas of the DIT. Higher scores on the DIT were related to the use of principles rather than norms when making hiring decisions. Findings suggest that faculty decisions about hiring a hypothetical affirmative action candidate are more influenced by moral reasoning level and competing conceptions of justice than racial bias or ambivalence.     

Depictions of Gender Across Eight Decades of Disney Animated Film: The Role of Film Producer,Director, and Writer Gender

Depictions of gender in media are often scrutinized for stereotypical patterns. Disney films are of particular interest, as they are often watched by children and may play a role in children’s gender socialization. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess gender depictions of characters in animated Disney films (released between 1937 and 2019; 61 films with 323 characters total), and second, to explore depictions of gender in Disney animated films coupled with an analysis of the gender of those involved in the production of these films (producers, directors, and writers). We found a significant difference in the number of male and female characters (roughly 60% male, 40% female), which did not significantly differ by decade. Female characters were more consistently depicted as attractive compared to male characters, although character’s intelligence, ability, popularity, activity level, family role, story role, and romantic engagement did not differ by gender. Male characters were more often represented as parents or children in films written by women, and female characters were more often represented as the antagonist in films written by men. Male characters were over-represented as overly active in films produced by women, and female characters were over-represented as grandparents in films produced by women. These findings revealed few stereotypical gendered depictions of characters in Disney films over nine decades and that the inclusion of women in the production process resulted in more nuanced depictions of both male and female characters.

     

The Impact of Parental Status and Gender Role Orientation on Caring and Postconventional Reasoning in Young Marrieds

This study was designed to examine the influence of sex and gender role orientation on adoption of the ethic of care and on postconventional reasoning in married men and women, with and without children. Parental status was unrelated to gender role orientation in men but was associated with masculinity in women, such that women with children had lower masculinity scores. Adoption of an ethic of care in men was a function of gender role orientation, such that only androgynous men did not evidence lower caring scores when they had children. Caring scores in women were a function of both parental status and masculinity, such that women with children who were high in masculinity evidenced lower caring scores. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by P scores on three dilemmas from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) were only influenced by sex and age but not by gender role orientation. Postconventional reasoning as assessed by ratings of all postconventional statements (R scores) was influenced by both sex and gender role orientation; in men, masculinity and femininity interacted such that androgynous and undifferentiated men evidenced higher R scores when they had no children, but only androgynous men with children evidenced high R scores. In women, gender role orientation did not impact R scores and neither did parental status. Multiple regressions indicated that for women, the interaction of masculinity and femininity, and caring scores, accounted for a significant amount of the variance in R scores. In men, none of the variables entered the equation. The implications for both Gilligan’s and Bem’s theories are discussed.     

Substance Abuse Counselors and Moral Reasoning: Hypothetical and Authentic Dilemmas

This exploratory study examined the assumption that the level of moral reasoning (Defining Issues Test; J. R. Rest, 1986) used in solving hypothetical and authentic dilemmas is similar for substance abuse counselors (N = 188). The statistical analyses used were paired‐sample t tests, Pearson product‐moment correlation, and simultaneous multiple regression. This study found that when solving dilemmas of a personal nature (authentic dilemmas), substance abuse counselors' level of moral reasoning was lower. Implications for counselor education are presented.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Effectiveness of Business Ethics Education: Establishing the Baseline

This paper is the first phase of a longitudinal study of the class of 2014 on the effectiveness of ethics education at a business university. This phase of the project establishes the baseline attributes of incoming college freshmen with a pretest of the students’ ethical proclivity as measured by Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) scores. The relationship between the students’ ethical reasoning and their behavior in experimental stock trading sessions is then examined. In the trading simulations, randomly selected students were provided with the option of receiving privileged insider information about the final payoff of several stocks. The students could either accept or reject such information, with acceptance considered illegal insider trading. The results of the pretest indicate that moral reasoning as measured by the DIT-2 is related to insider trading behavior, with students with higher DIT-2 scores being less likely to accept insider information. The paper also presents demographic differences across DIT-2 scores and trading behavior as a foundation for the longitudinal examination of changes in students’ moral cognition characteristics and behavior during their undergraduate career.     

Character development in adolescents

This study explored the effects of a program consisting of communication and counseling skills, assertiveness training and moral dilemmas on the character development, i.e., moral reasoning, ego development, and assertiveness of high school students. It was hypothesized that exposure to the experimental treatment would enhance the character development of high school students. Fifty-four high school seniors enrolled in three psychology classes were assigned randomly to two treatment groups and one control group. Assessment instruments were the Defining Issues Test, to measure moral reasoning, the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, to measure ego development, and the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, to measure assertiveness. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine significant differences between control and treatment posttest means with respect to the dependent variables--moral reasoning, ego development, and assertiveness. The results demonstrated that the character development of the students in the experimental treatment group was affected significantly over time by the program.     

Moral judgement and personality differences in ‘problem children’ and delinquents

Three groups of adolescents—delinquent, non-delinquent ‘problem children’ and a control group—completed the Defining Issues Test of moral reasoning and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. There were no differences between the three groups on moral reasoning, but the delinquents had significantly higher neuroticism and psychoticism scores and a significantly lower lie score.     

A comparison of moral reasoning and moral character in male and female incarcerated felons

Gender differences among incarcerated adult felons along dimensions of moral reasoning and moral character were examined. Previous work was extended by comparing adult male and female felons, and by exploring the relationship between moral reasoning and moral character. Subjects completed the Socio-moral Reflection Questionnaire, which measures moral reasoning. Moral character was assessed by a socialization scale, two empathy measures, and two autonomy questionnaires. Discriminant function analysis revealed that men were higher than women on moral reasoning, lower on socialization, higher on role-taking empathy, lower on emotional empathy, and more internal in locus of control. Moral reasoning was correlated with role-taking empathy and locus of control. Implications for theories of gender differences in moral reasoning and criminality were discussed.     

Gender differences in moral reasoning

This research tests Gilligan's hypothesis that men are more likely to consider moral dilemmas chiefly in terms of justice and individual rights, whereas women are more likely to be chiefly concerned with questions of care and relationships with others. In addition, we have investigated the effects of dilemma content upon orientation of moral judgment. Protocols from interviews with 50 college students, half women and half men, to three moral dilemmas were coded according to moral orientation. Results indicated that both moral orientations were widely used by both men and women, but that women were more likely to employ prodominantly care considerations. In a test of mean differences in proportion of justice responses, content of the specific moral dilemma showed a strong influence upon moral reasoning. Results suggest that both gender and situational factors need to be considered in our understanding of moral reasoning.     

Bible Knowledge and Moral Judgment: Knowing Scripture and Using Ethical Reasoning

The relationship between moral judgment and religious knowledge was investigated, with an analysis of the impact of academic skill on both domains. Fifty-six Bible college seniors completed measures of moral judgment (Defining Issues Test), Bible knowledge (Standardized Bible Content Test), and academic skill (Academic Profile). Results indicate that the three measures were significantly correlated in a positive direction. Bible knowledge was positively related with the most sophisticated level of Kohlberg's moral reasoning and negatively correlated with preconventional morality. These relationships could not be simply explained by the level of cognitive ability. Discussion follows on the potential causal directions and implications for Bible knowledge and sophisticated moral judgments being related.     

Some notes on the relation of moral reasoning and personality

This article offers a critical review of various accepted premises of and persuasive interpretations on whether moral reasoning and personality traits are related. Purposely, this study draws on recent critical examination by Mudrack questioning the paucity of research on the efficacy of a long-established measure of moral reasoning, i.e., Defining Issues Test, together with its relations with basic personality variables of the California Psychological Inventory. Some observations are noted about the validity of tasks that measure personality traits and magnitude of the relation to moral reasoning.     

Positive illusions: positively correlated with subjective well-being, negatively correlated with a measure of personal growth

Psychologists have long debated the benefits and costs of self-deceptive enhancement or positive illusions. Accurate perception of reality is central to the definitions of mental health proposed by many personality and clinical psychologists, but Taylor and Brown have suggested that having positive illusions is associated with increased happiness and satisfaction with life. One explanation for the conflicting assertions is that mental health, broadly defined, includes both subjective well-being and personal growth, distinguishable factors which are differentially related to positive illusions. For this study, 81 college students completed measures of positive illusions (Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Self-deceptive Positivity and How I See Myself Questionnaire), subjective well-being (Satisfaction With Life Scale and Existential Anxiety Scale), and moral reasoning (Defining Issues Test) as an index of personal growth. As predicted, positive illusion composite scores were positively correlated with scores on the subjective well-being composite (r=.40) but negatively correlated with Defining Issues Test scores (r=-.25). The quadratic relationship between these measures of positive illusion and subjective well-being composites was not significant, indicating no support for an "optimal margin of illusion."