Level Of Moral Judgment Research Articles

An investigation of moral judgement of Chinese purchasing professionals

This paper aims to examine moral judgement of purchasing professionals in China. To maintain good buyer-supplier relationships with Chinese companies, it is necessary to understand Chinese purchasing professionals’ perceptions of ethics. While considerable attention has been paid to purchasing ethics, only a few attempts were made on investigating moral judgement of purchasing professionals in emerging economies. This study utilised the defining issues test to analyse moral judgement of purchasing professionals in China. Research findings reveal that Chinese purchasing professionals focus more on the conventional level than on the post-conventional level of moral judgement. The influences of age, gender, educational level, purchasing experiences, international experiences, management level, material category, company size, and industry type on Chinese purchasing professionals’ moral judgement were also investigated in this study. The research results would be helpful for international businesses to understand Chinese purchasing professionals’ perceptions of ethics in business negotiation occasions.

Moral Judgment of Construction Engineering Students in Hong Kong and Its Relationship with Individual Characterisitcs

This study investigated moral judgment of construction engineering students and its relationship with individual charateristics. A sample of 238 first year undergraduate construction engineering students in Hong Kong participated in this study. Two approaches for teaching engineering ethics in construction engineering program were used. One teaching approach was a traditional lecture format. The other one was case-based group discussion. Both teaching approaches using the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2; Rest and Narvaez, 1998) as an assessment tool to investigate moral judgment level of construction engineering students. The results showed that moral judgment of construction engineering students was rule-based orientation in general. The study found that education had significant effect on both postconventional and conventioanl reasoning of construction engineering students. The group of construction engineering students using case-based teaching was comparative higher in Post-conventional Schema score (P score) than that of using a traditional lecture format. It is believed that gaining a better understanding of construction engineering students' moral judgment will have practical implications for reformulating ethics education in construction so as to cater for the increasing importance of environmental and social concerns in the wider community.

Exploring the use of Web 2.0 technology to promote moral and psychosocial development: Can YouTube work?

AbstractThis paper explores the use of the video sharing site, YouTube, as a platform for enhancing moral and psychosocial development through increased awareness of moral values and models of moral behavior. The research involved a qualitative design whereby video snippets illustrating moral issues were identified from YouTube. These video snippets were analyzed in terms of their viewership, the moral dilemma and the levels of moral judgment that they presented. The comments made by viewers in response to the video contents were then captured and their contents analyzed for evidence of moral reasoning and ego (psychosocial) development. The findings showed that the video sharing websites such as YouTube offered opportunities for moral issues to be featured, shared and discussed at a global level, as well as moral judgments and ego development to be made evident through viewers' comments. From an educational viewpoint, it also paves the way for the use of appropriate video footage for promoting moral values and moral development.

Moral judgment, cognitive distortions and implicit theories in young sex offenders

This study focused on moral judgment, cognitive distortions and implicit theories in 77 young sex offenders of whom 56 were child abusers and 21 were peer abusers. The sociomoral reflection measure–short form (SRM-SF) was used to assess moral judgment, and was extended with questions about sexual situations and the offenders’ abuse victim(s). Lower stage moral judgment was only found in peer abusers responding to own victim situations. The Sex With Children (SWCH) scale was used to measure implicit theories, which are beliefs justifying sex with children. No significant differences were found between the child and peer abuser group. Neither significant relations were found between the implicit theories and the level of moral judgment. In addition, all SRM-SF responses were coded according to Barriga and Gibbs’ (1996. Measuring cognitive distortion in antisocial youth: Development and preliminary validation of the ‘How I think’ questionnaire. Psychology Department, 22, 333–343) four-category typology of self-serving cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions concerning the abuse victim were associated with lower stage moral judgment, but only in the peer abuser group.

JOURNALISTS' MORAL JUDGMENT ABOUT CHILDREN

This study used a controlled experiment to examine the ethical decision-making of 99 professional journalists in the United States to see if they held different attitudes, made different decisions, and used different levels of moral judgment when stories involved children than when they involved adults. It found that these journalists were significantly more concerned with protecting children's privacy, keeping them from harm, and ensuring informed consent than they were for adults. But they did not use significantly higher levels of moral judgment for children than adults, nor did they withhold children's photographs significantly more often than adults'. The journalists in this study believed they were protecting children from harm but did not carry through with those beliefs. It is important that the news media treat children well because having children's voices in news stories is vital to understanding their worlds and reporting on injustices against them.

Do higher education computing degree courses develop the level of moral judgement required from a profession?

PurposeHigher education (HE) in the past has been found to have a positive effect on the moral development of students from a variety of disciplines, decreasing conventional and increasing post‐conventional moral reasoning progressively at each level of study. This research aims to explore to what extent changes in moral judgement could be detected in students on computing degree courses, at three different stages of study, in order to establish if HE in the twenty‐first century has a similar effect and what level of moral awareness computing graduates/practitioners exhibit.Design/methodology/approachThe research takes the form of an exploratory case study which aimed to investigate the current situation in one institution. The defining issues test (DIT) questionnaire was used to gather data.FindingsResults showed little difference in the level of post‐conventional thinking between undergraduate students about to enter HE, final year undergraduates and students undertaking postgraduate studies.Research limitations/implicationsThis research questions if IT students moral judgement skills are at a level that enables them to be considered professionals.Practical implicationsRecommendations are made for different teaching approaches to be adopted which place greater emphasis on relating learning outcomes to professional codes of conduct, and for computing professional bodies to take a more active role in defining components of courses they accredit.Social implicationsGiven the ubiquitous nature of computers and society's high level of dependence on them it is argued that post‐conventional thinking skills are essential for people intending to work with computer technology.Originality/valueAlthough the DIT questionnaire is been used extensively, no other research has been found that has utilised it to analyse moral judgement levels of HE students within the same subject discipline, at different levels of study.

Furthering national values through religion in public school education: Comparing the United States, Australia and South Africa

Changing support, rejection or indifference to religion has shaped the relationship between government and religion in the United States, Australia and South Africa. The place of religion as moulder of national values in education has been determined by judicial interpretation in the United States, by legislature in Australia and by legislation, administration and constitutional interpretation in South Africa. These countries have faced the challenges of whether and how to permit the propagation of religious values into public education. Having a more accommodationist interpretation, Australia has well nigh furthered Christian values at public schools, which would not be allowed under the United States Constitution. South Africa has evolved its own legislative, judicial and administrative approach to addressing religion at schools from a perspective of impartiality, while aspiring to urge learners to achieve higher levels of moral judgment. The three approaches imply fundamental constitutional, political and judicial differences that allow little commonality. The varied legal mechanisms used by the three countries namely reflect differing historical and legal developments.

How does Moral Judgement Change with Age and Giftedness?

The current study aimed at identifying the differences in moral Judgment levels among female students according to their giftedness and grade levels. In specific, the study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) Does moral judgment differ due to the differences in giftedness and grade levels? (2) Is it possible to efficiently predict the moral judgment levels for female students through non verbal intelligence, creativity, and achievement?A sample of (232) female students has been randomly selected as of (115) from 11th grade and (117) from 8th grade. This was selected from ten schools of the capital district of Kuwait. The moral judgment test, Raven’s progressive Matrices, Torrance Tests for Creative Thinking (verbal form), and the student’s general average were utilized to answer the research questions.The results revealed that there are statistical significance differences in moral judgment according to the main effects of giftedness and grade level. And it is possible to predict the moral judgment through creativity only.

The relation of multicultural experiences to moral judgment and mindsets.

Multicultural experience is considered to be beneficial, but it remains a difficult construct to measure. We tested the validity of a new assessment tool, the Multicultural Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ), using an undergraduate sample (N 164), and examined the relation of multicultural experience to moral judgment, closedmindedness, growth, and fixed mindsets. We expected that greater multicultural experience would be related to lower levels of closed-mindedness and higher levels of moral judgment and growth mindsets. Higher MEQ scores were correlated with decreased closed-mindedness and higher moral judgment scores. In regression analyses, controlling for age and sex, higher MEQ scores positively predicted participant scores on postconventional moral judgment and growth mindsets, but negatively predicted use of less developed moral judgment and fixed mindsets. Overall, these results support the validity of the MEQ and suggest that multicultural experiences are positively linked to measures of moral judgment and growth mindsets.

The Relationship Between Preschool Teachers' Professional Ethical Behavior Perceptions, Moral Judgment Levels and Attitudes to Teaching

Morality is the stance and attitude that makes a social human being; the display of behaviors such as praise, criticism, tolerance and intolerance, confirmation and rejection; the taking of sides by stating what one finds good or bad, right or wrong, instead of staying indifferent to what other people say and do (Pieper, 1999). Moral development needs to be taught at schools from the personality-shaping years of preschool so as to raise individuals with a strong sense of morality. Teachers are as important as families in children's moral development. Although parents may play a crucial role in child development within the family environment, once children start school, teachers take the primary importance in children's lives. As pointed out by Dewey (1995), telling preschool children to behave morally has very little contribution towards the development of moral behavior. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that teachers involved in morality education act as models for children by displaying ethical and moral behavior. As a discipline, morality is the collection of ethical codes reflected in practical everyday life; they constitute the value system guiding a society's behaviors, attitudes and beliefs. In their studies, Oser (1991) and Terhart (1998) state that teachers' professional quality depend on the development of cognitive, moral and practical domains, and that these three together define teacher competencies. Therefore, it is not enough for teacher education programs to improve teachers in only one domain; moral judgment levels and teaching attitudes play a determining role in the identification of teacher ethical behaviors. Starting from this, the present study investigates the relationship between preschool teachers' professional ethical behavior perceptions, moral judgment levels and teaching attitudes. The sample includes 464 randomly selected preschool teachers working in 10 different regions of Istanbul. Three different measurement tools were used: Preschool Teacher Ethical Behaviors Scale, Moral Judgment Test, and Teaching Attitudes Scale. The results seem to imply that a linear relationship exists between the variable of ‘preschool teachers’ ethical behavior perceptions’ and the variables of ‘moral judgment level’, ‘democratic attitude’, ‘autocratic attitude’ and ‘apathetic attitude’. Put differently, preschool teachers' perceptions about ethical behaviors are predicted by moral judgment level, democratic attitude, autocratic attitude and apathetic attitude.

Moral judgment of alcohol addicts

Alcoholism could represent an important factor of crime and different forms of abuse of family members (physical and emotional) exist in many alcohol-addict cases, as well as characteristics of immoral behaviour. The objective of our study was to determine the predominating forms in moral judgment of alcohol addicts, and to examine whether there was any statistically significant difference in moral judgment between alcohol addicted persons and non-alcoholics from general population. The sample consisted of 62 subjects, divided into a study (alcoholics) and a control group (non-alcoholics from general population). The following instruments were used: social-demographic data, AUDIT, MMPI-201, cybernetic battery of IQ tests (KOG-3) and the TMR moral reasoning test. Mature forms of moral judgment prevailed in both group of subjects, alcohol addicted persons and non-alcoholics. Regarding mature forms of moral judgment (driven by emotions and cognitive) non-alcoholics from the general population had higher scores, but the difference was not statistically significant. Regarding socially adapted and egocentric orientation alcohol addicted persons had higher scores. However, only regarding intuitive-irrational orientation there was a statistically significant difference in the level of moral judgment (p < 0.05) between alcoholics and non-alcoholics, in favour of the alcoholics. Moral judgment is not a category differing alcohol addicted persons from those who are not. Nevertheless, the potential destructivity of alcoholism is reflected in lower scores regarding mature orientations in moral judgment.

Measuring moral judgement in physical therapy students from different cultures: a dilemma

AbstractThe purpose of this cross‐cultural study was to compare the level of moral judgement between two groups of students over the period of their professional physical therapy educational programmes as measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT). Students from two entry‐level physical therapy programmes volunteered to participate. The DIT was completed at entry and exit of their respective programmes. DIT mean scores were compared using ancova controlling for age and grade point average. Thirty‐eight female, second baccalaureate degree students of diverse religious backgrounds, living in a Western culture and 13 female, first baccalaureate degree students of Islamic religious backgrounds living in an Arabic culture participated. At both entry and exit of their programmes, students from the Western group scored significantly higher on the DIT than the Arabic group (average: 51.1 and 29.9 respectively, P &lt; 0.001). An initial score difference was anticipated given the different levels of education between the groups. Over the period of their studies, the DIT scores of the Western group increased significantly while the scores of the Arabic group remained constant. The DIT appears to not measure moral judgement uniformly across cultures. The moral dilemmas are based in Western values and offer limited insight into Arabic, Muslim moral judgement. With increasingly diverse student populations, physical therapy programmes may need to re‐examine the nature of moral judgement and adapt their curricula.

Understanding the relationship between moral judgment development and individual characteristics: The role of educational contexts.

This study examines variation in moral judgment level as measured by the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT -2; J. R. Rest & D. Narvaez, 1998), based on individual demographic infonnation and educational contexts. Individual DIT-2 scores and demographic infonnation were obtained from the archived data sets housed at the Center for the Study of Ethical Development. The infonnation on educational contexts was obtained by surveying the researchers who initially gathered the data. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze DIT-2 data from 7,642 individuals and 65 institutions. Findings indicate that average DIT-2 scores vary significantly among institutions. Further, the authors found that the strength of the relation of DIT-2 scores to gender and English language status is significant and consistent across contexts, whereas the strength of the relation to educational level and political identity varies across contexts. These findings indicate that infonnation about the individuals' educational context as well as the broader regional contexts should be taken into account to understand variation in individual levels of moral judgment. The findings can also be used as an interpretive guide for DIT-2 users

Between Kohlberg and Gilligan: Levels of Moral Judgment among Elementary School Principals

This research investigated levels of moral judgment among public elementary school principals as measured by the Defining Issues Test Version 2 for occupationally relevant and other moral dilemmas. The participants scored lower (38.7) than the predicted average P score (postconventional thinking) for individuals who have attained graduate level education (53.3) or general adults (40). Of the independent variables studied, only political views had a significant impact on moral judgment. Women, younger participants, and those with higher academic degrees scored higher. Although these findings are limited to the interpretations of participants, they demonstrate how neo-Kohlbergian research is responding to criticisms of Kohlberg.

Richard McCormick, SJ, and Dual Epistemology

This article will examine McCormick's moral epistemology both at the level of how human persons know values and disvalues, which hereinafter will be referred to as synderesis, and at the level of how human persons know the rightness and wrongness of an action, which hereinafter will be referred to as normative moral judgment. On the one hand, from this investigation it appears that McCormick operates with a dual moral epistemology, at least at the level of synderesis. This means that at one point in time it appears that a significant shift may have occurred in his moral epistemology at the level of synderesis. This may also be true at the level of normative moral judgment. On the other hand, McCormick's moral epistemology may in fact be a synthesis, which is the product of development and maturity in his thought process. This article will articulate, examine, and analyse both moral epistemologies. The first moral epistemology is operative in McCormick's writing up until 1983. The second moral epistemology corresponds to McCormick's decision in 1983 to write primarily in the area of bioethics from a theological perspective. Since the year 1983 seems to be the pivotal time when these two moral epistemologies converge, I will refer to the first moral epistemology as “prior to 1983” and I will refer to the second moral epistemology as “after 1983.” Because of the numerous criticisms that surround McCormick's moral epistemology, and the ambiguity that it entails, McCormick needed to articulate his theoretical foundations clearly and develop them systematically and coherently. Numerous moral theologians called for him to do this, yet he never responded. A systematic understanding of McCormick's moral epistemology is not only necessary but crucial in examining various issues in bioethics. It is necessary because it is the basis of moral decision making. It is crucial because the life and death of individuals may hang in the balance.

A Novel Approach to Business Ethics Training: Improving Moral Reasoning in Just a Few Weeks

I assessed change in students’ moral reasoning following five 75-min classes on business ethics and two assignments utilizing a novel pedagogical approach designed to foster ethical reasoning skills. To minimize threats to validity present in previous studies, an untreated control group design with pre- and post-training measures was used. Training (n = 114) and control (n = 76) groups comprised freshmen business majors who completed the Defining Issues Test before and after the training. Results showed that, controlling for pre-training levels of moral reasoning, students in the training group demonstrated higher levels of post-training principled moral judgment than students in the control group.

Moral Judgment and Student Discipline: What Are Institutions Teaching? What Are Students Learning?

College students find themselves in conflict with their college or university when they make choices counter to the expectations of the institution. Typically, these expectations for conduct are outlined in a published code of conduct, which is, in a sense, a moral code for student behavior. “The special function of the construct of moral judgment is to provide conceptual guidance for action choice in situations where moral claims conflict,” (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999, p. 499). This statement highlights the essence of a question often raised in college and university judicial affairs offices across the country—do students who violate conduct codes operate at a lower level of moral judgment than those who do not?

Moral Judgment and Conduct Disorder Intensity in Adolescents Involved in Delinquency: Matching Controls by School Grade

Most studies that have found associations between delinquency and moral judgment generally compare incarcerated juveniles with adolescents in normal schooling. However, this comparison is subject to two criticisms. First, a large number of adolescents in school who are not charged with any crime in the legal system are still involved in unlawful behaviour. Second, adolescents involved with delinquency often have difficulties at school. The aim of the present study was to measure this association by matching a sample of adolescents involved with delinquency (n=18, M age=15.8, SD=1.1) to adolescents not involved in delinquency (n=42, M age=15.8, SD=0.8) according to their school grade and Conduct Disorder Intensity as measured by a self-report index using DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Participants who met four or more criteria were assigned to the High Conduct Disorder group (n=28), and the rest were assigned to the Low Conduct Disorder group (n=32). Their level of moral judgment was evaluated with the French version of the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form by Gibbs, Basinger, and Fuller, inspired by Kohlberg's model of moral development. Findings demonstrate that in both samples, adolescents in the High Conduct Disorder group presented moral judgment that was significantly less mature than that of adolescents in the Low Conduct Disorder group. However, the majority of participants in the Low Conduct Disorder group also scored low on the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form, suggesting more immature moral judgment. The bias introduced by the mode of recruitment in most comparisons of adolescents involved with delinquency to adolescents with no delinquency problems is discussed, and an argument is made for the importance of analysing moral judgment development within a framework of general cognitive development.

Clutching at straws: Is it time to abandon the moral judgment deficit explanation for delinquency?

We respond to the commentary by Brusten, Stams, and Gibbs (2007) on the research by Tarry and Emler (2007), arguing for the appropriateness of key design decisions – studying delinquency as assessed by self‐report in a sample of 12‐ to 15‐year‐old males. We argue that ‘known‐group’ methods for assessing involvement in delinquency, the major alternatives to self‐report, produce divergent results with respect to moral judgment level because these methods are confounded with other influences on moral judgment level, in particular education.

The Moral Judgment of Juvenile Delinquents: A Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of 50 studies was conducted to investigate whether juvenile delinquents use lower levels of moral judgment than their nondelinquent age-mates and, if so, what factors may influence or moderate the developmental delay. The results show a lower stage of moral judgment for juvenile delinquents (d=.76). Effect sizes were large for comparisons involving male offenders, late adolescents, delinquents with low intelligence, and incarcerated delinquents. The largest effect sizes were found for period of incarceration and comparisons involving juvenile delinquents with psychopathic disorder. Production instead of recognition measures, dilemma-free assessment methods, and non-blind scoring procedures yielded relatively large effect sizes, whereas effect sizes were medium for comparisons involving delinquents with average intelligence, non-incarcerated delinquents, female offenders, as well as early and middle adolescents. Psychopathic disorder and institutionalization were identified as unique moderators of the link between moral judgment and juvenile delinquency. It is concluded that developmentally delayed moral judgment is strongly associated with juvenile delinquency, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, age and intelligence.