Care reasoning development and family socialisation patterns in later adolescence: A longitudinal analysis

Over the past 20 years, care reasoning has been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of moral development. Skoe has developed an interview measure of levels of care reasoning about the needs of self and other in relationships, the Ethic of Care Interview or ECI. In the present longitudinal research, we investigated developmental changes and family correlates of reasoning about care issues in a family study of 32 adolescents (aged 16 and then 20 years). There were no gender differences on the ECI for these adolescents, but there was a significant increase in scores over time. Care reasoning levels at age 20 were significant concurrent predictors of self-reported community involvement. Several parenting factors when children were age 16 (parents’ emphasis on caring as a goal in family stories, child reports of a more authoritative family parenting style, and parents’ use of more autonomy-encouraging practices) were associated with higher levels of care reasoning in adolescents at age 20, consistent with theoretical expectations.

Caring about Injustice: The Moral Self-Perceptions of Professional Female Bodybuilders

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to investigate the moral orientations of professional female bodybuilders and (b) to explore the relationship between professional female bodybuilders’ moral orientations when reasoning about self-identified and standardized hypothetical (steroid) moral dilemmas. Ten professional female bodybuilders ranging in age from 26 to 40 years participated in the study. Results revealed that female bodybuilders used both justice and care reasoning in their considerations of moral dilemmas encountered in the bodybuilding context; however, one moral orientation predominated over the other for each participant. Although Gilligan and colleagues (Brown et al., 1988) claim that women tend to use predominantly care reasoning, the present study found that half the participants used a justice perspective. Results are discussed in light of Rest’s (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999) supposition that care and justice are ideals appropriate to different kinds of social situations and are complementary rather than rival moralities.

Gender Differences in Moral Reasoning: Stable or Situational?

Some researchers have proposed that women prefer care reasoning, which considers issues of need and sacrifice, and men prefer justice reasoning, which considers issues of fairness and rights. However, differences in approach to moral reasoning may be due to the different types of dilemmas women and men encounter rather than to differences in the ways men and women approach moral problems. The present study employed parenting dilemmas to determine whether restriction of domain would reduce gender differences in moral reasoning orientation. Dilemmas were presented or elicited and differed in difficulty, importance, and personal relevance to investigate the relationship between situational characteristics and care or justice reasoning. Women and men did not differ in their use of care or justice reasoning when the domain was restricted, supporting the conclusion that differences in moral reasoning orientation result from differences in current life situations rather than from stable gender characteristics.

JUSTICE AND CARE REASONING IN MORALLY AMBIGUOUS SITUATIONS - EXAMPLES FROM VIETNAM AND THE INTIFADA

The following paper analyzes two types of moral reasoning presented by two moral figures from the My Lai massacre and in an extreme morally conflicting situation during the first phase of the Intifada. The socio-moral and political forces that shape the state of min d of the acting soldiers are delineated. The work of Kohlberg (1984) and Gilligan (1987) serve as the theoretical framework for this inquiry.