Moral Decision Making and Nontoleration of Honor Code Offenses

Acceptance of the nontoleration clause of an honor code, and incorporation of this principle as an internalized value, tends to diminish from year to year even as moral development increases. Convicted honor violators unanimously endorsed their commitment to the honor code in concept but indicated greater toleration of honor code offenses than a comparison group of nonviolators when confronted with realistic scenarios. Kohlberg's (1969) theory of moral development does not give adequate consideration to the contextual environment surrounding acts that are deemed moral or immoral. This study's findings were better explained by principles drawn from postmodern philosophy and the concept of Informed Belief.     

COMMUNICATION FEAR: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF TRAIT GENERALITY

Recent theoretical analyses of communication fear have employed the analogy of state and trait anxiety. Communication apprehension is considered to be representative of general trait anxiety which is a function of disordered personality processes. Public speaking fear represents state anxiety and is a function of normal social evaluation anxiety. Two studies are reported which correlate state-trait measures of anxiety with communication apprehension and public speaking fear. The data support the hypothesis that communication apprehension is associated with trait anxiety but, contrary to the theoretical analysis, public speaking anxiety is associated with both state anxiety and trait anxiety. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical analysis of communication fear. The implications for future research on assessment and amelioration of communication fear are considered.