The Reason of Conflict between Public Value and Individual Value of High School Student in China

Abstract

Public value is a moral value system that social its members and enhances the development of society. It is also a code of conduct for each member of society. In recent years, moral decadence in high school students has witnessed a steady rise and their moral competence level can be confirmed though moral education s success or failure. This paper employs the moral competence test (MCT) as a state-of-the-art method that can simultaneously measure moral competence and moral orientation. Participants in this study were 279 senior high school students from grade one to three. The study finds that though their moral competence are similar, their moral orientation is considerably different. Participants moral value shows an external reverse to public value. Three main reasons that could possibly explain the conflict between individual value and public value; these include the low-value cognition ability, the severe influence of traditional lousy culture, and the lack of moral education.</br></br> Key Words: Public Value, Personal Value, Moral Competence Test (MCT), C-score, Moral Orientation, Moral Education