This article explores the implications for Christian religious education of the theory of moral virtues formulated by Thomas Aquinas and developed by the contemporary Neo-Thomists. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part introduces Thomistic virtue theory and presents cardinal virtues crucial for Thomistic ethics: prudence, justice,…

This introduction attempts to draw together the various threads which comprise this special issue and place them in the context of recent disruptions to the political order occasioned by the rise of populist politics, the resurgence of widespread racial tensions in a number of polities and the emergence of a global pandemic. Central to the…

Purpose: The sole objective of the current study is to determine the impact of anti-corruption awareness and the anti- corruption initiatives on ethical values and the citizenship behavior. Research Methodology: In a quantitative paradigm, the mediating role of ethical values is examined between anti-corruption awareness, anti-corruption…

Focus on business ethics has increased however, incidents of academic dishonesty among business school students has also increased at the same time. Simply adding ethics courses to business programs appears to offer little guidance for student action, action that is transferred from the university to the business world. More is needed if we wish…

The ethics assessment industry is currently dominated by the second version of the Defining Issues Test (DIT2). In this article, we describe an alternative assessment instrument called the Sphere-Specific Moral Reasoning and Theory Survey (SMARTS), which measures the respondent's level of moral development in several respects. We describe eight…

In the USA, civic involvement in adolescence includes political and nonpolitical activities. Given that identities can motivate behavior, how do political and moral identities relate to civic activity choices? In this study, high school students ("N" = 1578) were surveyed about their political and nonpolitical civic actions and their…

Recent world events such as the threat of terrorism and the global economic crises have rekindled an interest in ethics and values education. This study, conducted in Singapore, combines a Kohlbergian approach to the assessment of moral judgement with a framework based on the self-determination theory to assess the motivational regulations of…

Background/Context: The claim of a relationship between a teacher's moral character and a student's moral development has its roots in a rich philosophical tradition. It is a tradition that maintains that the young acquire virtue by associating with virtuous people in a virtuous community. In this way, it is assumed virtue is acquired by example…

The assumption that high level functioning is characterized by a great deal of autonomy is central to some major theories of moral development [Kohlberg (in T. Lickona (ed.) "Moral development and behavior: Theory, research and social issues," 1976); Piaget ("The moral judgment of the child", 1932)] and to the self-determination theory of…

Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlbergian claims that moral reasoning development is cognitive in nature. Because a psychometrically appropriate moral comprehension instrument does not appear to exist, the Moral Comprehension Questionnaire (MCQ) was constructed in Study 1 and displayed…

People can use a variety of different strategies to perform tasks and these strategies all have two characteristics in common. First, they can be evaluated in comparison with either an absolute or a relative standard. Second, they can be used at varying levels of consistency. In the present article, the authors develop a general theory of task…

Sophomore and senior female students from traditional and progressive high schools were interviewed to determine stage of moral development (Kohlberg scale) and epistemological development (Perry scale). On both scales, progressive school seniors scored higher than traditional school seniors. Seniors' mean scores were significantly higher than…

Investigates the relationship between moral reasoning and instructional preference in a cross-cultural setting. Questions whether the kind of schooling as well as the amount of schooling correlate with levels of moral reasoning. Finds significant correlations. Contends that the importance of this study lies in its use to facilitate the adaptation…