This study aimed to enhance understanding of the moral reasoning of gifted children. While research has explored the justice moral reasoning of gifted children (Arbuthnot, 1973; Chovan & Freeman, 1993; Gross, 1993; Henderson, Gold, & Clarke, 1984; Howard-Hamilton, 1994), this study explored prosocial moral reasoning, moral reasoning which involves conflict between one??s own needs and desires and the needs and desires of others. In addition, this study sought to gather empirical evidence for literature claims that gifted children have higher levels of empathy than their age peers (Lovecky, 1997; Piechowski, 2003; Silverman, 1993b). The study aimed to investigate the possible relationships among giftedness, prosocial reasoning and empathy. Primary (elementary) school students aged between 9 and 12 years in the Sydney Metropolitan area were administered The Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (PROM), The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and The Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IOE) questionnaires. The results for gifted students (n = 176) were compared with a control group of students not identified as gifted (n = 128). The study found that gifted students used more of the highest level of prosocial reasoning in the PROM than their age peers. Furthermore, gifted students used more empathic concern, fantasy empathy and cognitive empathy than their age peers, although ability was not predictive of the other empathy factors in the instruments. Small but significant correlations between some types of empathy and some levels of prosocial reasoning were also found, indicating possible relationships between empathy and prosocial reasoning. Interviews were conducted with selected students (n = 13) from the above sample, along with some of their teachers (n = 5) and parents (n = 2). Despite the small sample, the interviews seemed to indicate a relationship between experience with bullying and prosocial reasoning. The study highlights the need for an empathy questionnaire that specifically tests cognitive and affective empathy in children. A new questionnaire may unravel some of the seemingly contradictory results in the present study. The study also provides empirical evidence that gifted children use higher levels of prosocial moral reasoning and empathy than their age-peers.

This study aimed to enhance understanding of the moral reasoning of gifted children. While research has explored the justice moral reasoning of gifted children (Arbuthnot, 1973; Chovan & Freeman, 1993; Gross, 1993; Henderson, Gold, & Clarke, 1984; Howard-Hamilton, 1994), this study explored prosocial moral reasoning, moral reasoning which involves conflict between one??s own needs and desires and the needs and desires of others. In addition, this study sought to gather empirical evidence for literature claims that gifted children have higher levels of empathy than their age peers (Lovecky, 1997; Piechowski, 2003; Silverman, 1993b). The study aimed to investigate the possible relationships among giftedness, prosocial reasoning and empathy. Primary (elementary) school students aged between 9 and 12 years in the Sydney Metropolitan area were administered The Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (PROM), The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and The Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IOE) questionnaires. The results for gifted students (n = 176) were compared with a control group of students not identified as gifted (n = 128). The study found that gifted students used more of the highest level of prosocial reasoning in the PROM than their age peers. Furthermore, gifted students used more empathic concern, fantasy empathy and cognitive empathy than their age peers, although ability was not predictive of the other empathy factors in the instruments. Small but significant correlations between some types of empathy and some levels of prosocial reasoning were also found, indicating possible relationships between empathy and prosocial reasoning. Interviews were conducted with selected students (n = 13) from the above sample, along with some of their teachers (n = 5) and parents (n = 2). Despite the small sample, the interviews seemed to indicate a relationship between experience with bullying and prosocial reasoning. The study highlights the need for an empathy questionnaire that specifically tests cognitive and affective empathy in children. A new questionnaire may unravel some of the seemingly contradictory results in the present study. The study also provides empirical evidence that gifted children use higher levels of prosocial moral reasoning and empathy than their age-peers.

Hoarding and scrupulous OCD are part of the Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, which are characterized by obsessional preoccupation and ritualistic behavior. Prior research has found a statistical relationship between hoarding and scrupulosity after controlling for these common factors, suggesting the existence of other features shared by these two disorders. Clinical accounts and empirical research of hoarding and scrupulosity suggest three such shared factors: a tendency to experience intense guilt and shame, rigid moralistic thinking, and general cognitive rigidity. However, results of the current study show that, although both hoarding and scrupulosity were related to cognitive rigidity and a tendency to experience guilt and shame, they are not associated with rigid moralistic thinking. Instead, beliefs about the importance of emotions as moral guides were related to both disorders. These results are interpreted in terms of dual-process theories of moral reasoning. Additionally, implications for the conceptualization and treatment of hoarding and scrupulosity are discussed.

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A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology at the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / The field of moral reasoning has been surrounded by controversy. A lot of research has been done on the subject and a lot of theorists have differed much on thoughts, ideas and on how does an individual become a morally reasoning being. Our decisions pertaining certain issues are generally informed by our morals, values and beliefs. As we develop and grow in our respective societies, one discovers that how generally the society believes and views certain matters influence how one personally views the issue. Schools are especially one of the playgrounds that children enter into and form relationships with their peers. Inevitably they start to look at certain issues through the eyes of their peers. One may ask, what then happens to what the individual was raised to believe and know as wrong or right. This study seeks to understand the relationship between moral reasoning and sex guilt to premarital sex in adolescents in high schools. A sample of 40 participants was randomly selected for the study which comprised of 16 females and 24 males. The results indicated that there is no relationship between premarital sex and sex guilt to premarital sex in adolescents. The methodology used and the results found are interpreted and explained in the study.

As ethical dilemmas arise in community colleges, administrators make decisions that require sensitivity to the organizational, political, and environmental factors surrounding their particular institutional climates and locales. The moral reasoning and ethical decision-making of community college administrators were examined in this study. In addition, the study evaluated these factors to provide an understanding, or lack thereof, of [potential] ethical challenges that may exist within a specific organization. Research questions for this study encompassed two perspectives: (a) moral reasoning and (b) ethical decision making. Moral reasoning was examined through participants’ perspectives of moral, professional, and organizational values. Ethical decision making was examined through participants’ assessments of ethical dilemmas using vignettes. Using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, mean scores, and standard deviations), the results of this research study suggested that community college administrators in Mississippi have varying perceptions for moral, professional, and organizational values and ethical decision-making (behaviors). The findings of the study suggested that the most important moral values for community college administrators in Mississippi are truth, fairness, and responsibility and that members of their families would choose these same values compared to other groups within their communities. In addition, they suggested that communities will not provide the same solutions for ethical dilemmas in which they provided and community colleges should assist students by developing their (students) values and teaching them about ethics. In conjunction with leadership, the majority of community college leaders in Mississippi suggested that they are transformational leaders, which is indicative of their abilities to adapt their organization to fit its mission for their faculty, staff, community affiliates, and constituents.

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When evaluating a situation that results in harm, it is critical to consider how a person’s prior intention may have been causally responsible for the action that resulted in the harmful outcome. This thesis examined children’s developing understanding of intentional causation in reasoning about harmful outcomes, and the relation between this understanding and mental-state reasoning. Four-, 6-, and 8-year-old children, and adults, were told eight stories in which characters’ actions resulted in harmful outcomes. Story types differed in how the actions that resulted in harm were causally linked to their prior intentions such that: (1) characters wanted to, intended to, and did perform a harmful act; (2) they wanted and intended to perform a harmful act, but instead, accidentally brought about the harmful outcome; (3) they wanted and intended to perform a harmful act, then changed their mind, but accidentally brought about the harmful outcome; (4) they did not want or intend to harm, but accidentally brought about a harmful outcome. Participants were asked to judge the characters’ intentions, make punishment judgments, and justify their responses. Additionally, children were given first- and second-order false-belief tasks, commonly used to assess mental-state reasoning. The results indicated that intention judgment accuracy improved with age. However, all age groups had difficulty evaluating the intention in the deviant causal chain scenario (Searle, 1983), in which the causal link between intention and action was broken but a harmful intention was maintained. Further, the results showed a developmental pattern in children’s punishment judgments based on their understanding of intentional causation, although the adults’ performance did not follow the same pattern. Also, younger children referred to the characters’ intentions less frequently in their justifications of their punishment judgments. The results also revealed a relation between belief-state reasoning and intentional-causation reasoning in scenarios that did not involve, or no longer involved, an intention to harm. Further, reasoning about intentional causation was related to higher-level understanding of mental states. The implications of these findings in clarifying and adding to previous research on the development of understanding of intentional causation and intentions in moral reasoning are discussed.

Ninety-five studies that addressed the possibility of gender differences in forgiveness literature are reviewed. Gender differences were examined with respect to predictor variables and outcome variables. Participants were 314 couples from the community who had been married less than one year. Participants filled out questionnaires. Males were more forgiving and were more committed to the marriage. However, females were more successful at granting forgiveness. In addition, females were more religious and reported more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility. Four structural equation models were tested in order to test for gender differences. Structural models including the latent variables of martial satisfaction, marital commitment, marital forgiveness, and mental health fit the data better for males than for females. Results support the conclusion that there are gender differences in forgiveness in recently married couples.