Moral dilemmas, moral reasoning, and genital herpes

Abstract

The moral reasoning of 30 persons with genital herpes and 29 persons with no sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was examined. Participants with herpes were recruited by advertising in the community, whereas participants in the non‐herpes group were recruited from an introductory psychology class at a local junior college and from a pool of community members who volunteered to participate in paid psychological experiments. Moral reasoning was examined by assessing reactions to dilemmas about STDs and Kohlbergian moral dilemmas. The participants' Kohlbergian level of moral reasoning was assessed using the Kohlberg moral stage model. The moral orientation of the participants was assessed using Gilligan's moral orientation model, which distinguishes between justice and care reasoning. Based on Kohlberg's and Gilligan's theories, the hypotheses of the study were that participants would respond with the same moral reasoning level and the same moral orientation across all dilemmas, persons with genital herpes would reason at the same level of moral reasoning as those who have not experienced genital herpes, and women would score lower in moral stage and would use a moral orientation of care to a greater extent than men. Results indicate that, in general, people reasoned at a consistent moral stage across all dilemmas. Also, participants were more likely to use a care orientation in the STD dilemmas than in the Kohlbergian dilemmas. Persons with genital herpes had higher moral reasoning scores on the STD dilemmas than did persons without any STDs and were more likely to use a care orientation in their responses to these dilemmas. No gender differences were found.