Influence of Interpersonal Relationships on Helping Norms among Japanese University Students

Abstract

The present research assessed the effect of interpersonal relationships on two aspects of Japanese university students' moral judgment, manner of application and contents of helping norms. In Study 1, 68 university students (34 men, 34 women) answered questionnaires which requested evaluation of behaviors in helping situations with variable behaviors by agents and different interpersonal relations between agent and victim and between subject and agent. Subjects were asked to evaluate each case on two scales, moral evaluation and expectation. Female Japanese students showed strong relation-based morality on these two dimensions. In Study 2, 30 female students were interviewed using questions from the questionnaire given in Study 1 and others about the moral reasoning behind their relation-based judgments. Their answers showed that the female Japanese university students tended to make judgments without reference to the principle of universality or justice even when they knew the principle. The result suggests a relation-based moral orientation rather than a justice orientation.