The emergence of prosocial tendencies in early childhood is still not well understood and not commonly tested with direct measures. This study investigated predictors of prosocial behavior (i.e., prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity) in 3-to-5-year-old children and explored the role of demographic factors on empathy and moral…

The purpose of this study was to test predictability of environmental moral reasoning patterns of preservice science teachers (PSTs) by their epistemological beliefs and values. Four environmental moral dilemma scenarios that reflect different environmental moral dilemma situations taking place in four outdoor recreation contexts (i.e., hiking,…

Previous research has shown that bilinguals respond differently to moral dilemmas posed in each of their languages, tending to make deontologically-based decisions (based on right or wrong) in their first language and utilitarian decisions (bringing about the most good) in their second language. In the present study, we tested several predictors…

This study investigated personal and professional predictors of professional school counselors' (N = 220) accurate recognition and appropriate reporting of child sexual abuse. Additionally, this study examined instances when school counselors suspected child sexual abuse but intentionally elected not to report it and explored considerations that…

The research investigates the interdependencies among higher education, motivation, belonging, and development. Also, the study covers the literature on integration and gender of international migrants. The first study examines the motivation to serve and its predictors among Turkish military officers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) prior to…

In this article, we develop an "integrated moral conviction theory of student cheating" by integrating moral conviction with (a) the dual-process model of Hunt-Vitell's theory that gives primacy to individual ethical philosophies when moral judgments are made and (b) the social cognitive conceptualization that gives primacy to moral…

One of the challenges humans face is making collective decisions with regards to controversial issues related to science, namely socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Genetic modification, nuclear energy, experimental drugs, 5G technology are a few examples of SSIs. Some of the concerns posed by such issues are compromise to privacy and identity, threat…

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by intense changes, which impact the interaction between individuals and their environments. Moral reasoning (MR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions between right and wrong. Identifying the cognitive underpinnings of MR is essential to understanding the…

Moral identity can orient one's behaviors when exhibiting any kind of moral behavior. In this study, the moral identities of young adults are analyzed to a certain extent. For this purpose, the "interpretative phenomenological pattern" and "grounded theory" models are used as qualitative survey models. The study group for…

This study investigated the impact of emotion expectancies on adolescents' moral decision making in hypothetical situations. The sample consisted of 160 participants from three different grade levels (mean age=15.79 years, SD=2.96). Participants were confronted with a set of scenarios that described various emotional outcomes of (im)moral actions…

Ethical maturity and behavior are of great concern to all educators, firms, and investors, and even more so in a recession. This research surveyed managers and employees in the retail environment to measure their Personal Business Ethics Scores (PBES) to see if age, education, and management experience makes a difference in making more ethical…

Three experiments investigated the contrasting predictions of the evolutionary and decision-theoretic approaches to deontic reasoning. Two experiments embedded a hazard management (HM) rule in a social contract scenario that should lead to competition between innate modules. A 3rd experiment used a pure HM task. Threatening material was also…

Kohlberg proposed that various cultural, social and educational factors may influence moral reasoning. As far as the authors know, participants in previous studies of moral reasoning have been, largely, educated persons, irrespective of their culture. Two studies on moral reasoning were conducted in a Mexican--United States border city. The first…

A series of initiatives over the last fifteen years have helped forge today's consensus on the need to clarify and clearly communicate standards of behavior (National Skills Standards Board (NSSB), 1996). These initiatives have generated considerable discourse and subsequent research dealing with morals and ethics. This study focuses on academic,…