The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of specified variation in dilemma content on the relationship among ethical attitude, political attitude, moral development and dilemma action choice. The moral development and action choice scores of individuals who differed in ethical attitude or political attitude were compared for two types of dilemmas, the Defining Issues Test dilemmas and alternate dilemmas, differing in terms of the action supported by authority. Measures of ethical attitude, political attitude and moral development were administered to 68 high school subjects and 35 university subjects. Results of multivariate analysis of variance repeated measures showed that moral development and action choice scores of subjects who differed in ethical attitude or political attitude did not vary for the two dilemma types. Ethical attitude was found to be related to moral development scores for both the Defining Issues Test and Alternate Dilemmas Test, but only to university subjects' action choice scores on the Defining Issues Test. Political attitude was found to be related to only university subjects' action choice scores on the Defining Issues Test. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that the D Index was the best predictor of the Defining Issues Test action choice scores for the high school sample and political attitude was the best predictor for the university sample. Limitations and implications of this research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Zugl.: München, Univ., Diss., 2009

Syftet med studien var att undersöka och beskriva gymnasieelevers syn på läxans betydelse i gym-nasieskolan med fokus på läxans hantering och dess värde. Studien har gjorts utifrån en kvalitativ ansats. Datainsamlingsmetoden som har valts till studien är intervjuer med åtta elever som går på gymnasienivå. Analysen i studien har gjorts utifrån Denscombes principer. Bland annat används i studien Vygotskijs teori, Coopers forskning om läxans effekt samt Coopers och Österlinds definit-ion av läxan. Eleverna beskriver utifrån deras erfarenheter hur de upplever läxans betydelse i deras livsvärld. Resultatet visar att eleverna gör läxan hemma efter skoldagens slut. De använder sig av läxhjälp för att förbereda sig inför skolans olika uppgifter. Eleverna spenderar mellan tre till fyra timmar varje dag efter skolan med läxor när de får alla läxor samtidigt. Det gör att elevernas fritid och hälsa påverkas avsevärt. Läxan tar mycket tid från elevernas fritid då de måste prioritera bort aktiviteter för att hinna med läxorna. Stressen är en annan faktor som påverkar deras hälsa med stressens olika symptom. Resultatet visar också att eleverna har en negativ inställning till läxorna. Denna negativa attityd utvecklas när de måste göra läxan på fritiden och där deras hälsa påverkas av stress. Det blir en fysisk och psykisk trötthet som eleverna upplever när lärarna ger alla läxor på en gång till dem. Eleverna tror att läxorna kommer att finnas kvar i framtiden och det enda de begär är att lärarna samordnar läxorna ut till eleverna. Alla elever är överens om att skolan borde förminska mängden läxor. Avslutningsvis visar resultatet att 50 procent av eleverna svarade att de utvecklas med läxorna och 50 procent svarade att de känner att de inte utvecklas med läxorna. Läxan medför ett dilemma för eleverna i gymnasieskolan.

Using a critically oriented qualitative interpretivist approach, this research describes how principals conceptualize social justice and social justice dilemmas and how these understandings influence their practices. Focusing on the context of social justice from the perspective of two participant groups of five principals each from public and Catholic schools in a large urban centre in Western Canada, reflective discussions of professional practice occured through two semi-structured qualitative interviews with each participant and a series of three group dialogue sessions. This research is framed within the theories of social constructivism and situated learning as well as the concepts of educational leadership theory, social justice in education, identity and agency of school leaders, and reflective practice. As a contribution to a growing research base, this study offers a process for principals to explore social justice within the complexities and tensions of the dilemmas and decision-making of their practice. Discourse and dilemma analysis were used to render the findings from this study, which highlight normative practices of school leaders as manifested in individual actions focused on relationships and positional agency. However, this conceptualization obscures the power of historical, cultural, and ideological authority that is unconsciously replicated in the norms of schooling. Furthermore, principals see social justice within their own actions but do not connect it with activist aspirations to challenge social inequities. There are theory, practice, professional development, and research implications of this study which emphasize the need for a hybrid model of individual and collective leadership for social justice, hinged on collective curiosity, knowledge building, equity discourses, open cultures, and change visions to challenge the norms and politicization of schools as status-quo enhancing institutions.

Using a critically oriented qualitative interpretivist approach, this research describes how principals conceptualize social justice and social justice dilemmas and how these understandings influence their practices. Focusing on the context of social justice from the perspective of two participant groups of five principals each from public and Catholic schools in a large urban centre in Western Canada, reflective discussions of professional practice occured through two semi-structured qualitative interviews with each participant and a series of three group dialogue sessions. This research is framed within the theories of social constructivism and situated learning as well as the concepts of educational leadership theory, social justice in education, identity and agency of school leaders, and reflective practice. As a contribution to a growing research base, this study offers a process for principals to explore social justice within the complexities and tensions of the dilemmas and decision-making of their practice. Discourse and dilemma analysis were used to render the findings from this study, which highlight normative practices of school leaders as manifested in individual actions focused on relationships and positional agency. However, this conceptualization obscures the power of historical, cultural, and ideological authority that is unconsciously replicated in the norms of schooling. Furthermore, principals see social justice within their own actions but do not connect it with activist aspirations to challenge social inequities. There are theory, practice, professional development, and research implications of this study which emphasize the need for a hybrid model of individual and collective leadership for social justice, hinged on collective curiosity, knowledge building, equity discourses, open cultures, and change visions to challenge the norms and politicization of schools as status-quo enhancing institutions.

In human society, people encounter various deontic conflicts every day. Deontic decisions are those that include moral, ethical, and normative aspects. Here, the concern is with deontic conflicts: decisions where all the alternatives lead to the violation of some norms. People think critically about these kinds of decisions. But, just ‘what’ they think about is not always clear. People use certain estimating factors/criteria to balance the tradeoffs when they encounter deontic conflicts. It is unclear what subjective factors people use to make a deontic decision. An elicitation approach called the Open Factor Conjoint System is proposed, which applies an online elicitation methodology which is a combination of two well-know research methodologies: repertory grid and conjoint analysis. This new methodology is extended to be a web based application. It seeks to elicit additional relevant (subjective) factors from people, which affect deontic decisions. The relative importance and utility values are used for the development of a decision model to predict people’s decisions. Fundamentally, this methodology was developed and intended to be applicable for a wide range of elicitation applications with minimal experimenter bias. Comparing with the traditional method, this online survey method reduces the limitation of time and space in data collection and this methodology can be applied in many fields. Two possible applications were addressed: robotic vehicles and the choice of medical treatment. In addition, this method can be applied to many research related disciplines in cross-cultural research due to its online ability with global capacity.

No description available.

The Return of the Native, and, to a lesser degree, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, served as the "darkling plain" upon which Hardy tried to pose and to solve his theories of the universe, its meanings and its duties toward man. The "darkling plain" in Hardy's works is represented by Egdon Heath and the country surrounding this heath.

<p> The dilemma of the war poet -- how "to combine two incompatibles" -- has produced several temporary alternatives and as many permanent misconceptions. For some, writers and audience alike, war poetry has come to be merely a form of propaganda, or perhaps an outlet for the emotions. For Keith Douglas, however, war was apparently a natural and a compatible subject for poetry. This study focuses upon Douglas's life, work and reputation, in an attempt to discover how, why, and to what effect he was able to solve the dilemma.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Utgångspunkten för studien var att sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrin är en yrkesgrupp som konfronteras med olika etiska dilemman inom vardagen. Det undersöktes sjuksköterskornas upplevda etiska dilemman inom deras verksamhetsområde som var psykiatrisk sluten- och öppenvård samt kommunal psykiatri för att få djupare förståelse om vad de som erfarna psykiatrisjuksköterskor ansåg som generella etiska dilemman och vilka tankar de hade kring potentiella lösningar. Sju sjuksköterskor med vidareutbildning inom psykiatrin intervjuades om sina erfarenheter av etiska dilemman. Intervjuerna analyserades enligt Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). De två huvudteman som identifierades var lojalitetskonflikter och samarbete inom hierarkiska strukturer. Respondenterna upplevde etiska dilemman i situationer där de kände sig tvungna att välja mellan lojaliteten med patienten, mot organisationen eller mot sig själv som sjuksköterska. Som svårast uppfattades det att behöva agera i strid med egna värderingar. När känslor var involverade mindes dilemman starkast. Arbetsgruppen och läkaren på avdelningen beskrevs som potentiellt stöd i hanteringen av dilemman. Däremot upplevdes de också som utlösande faktorer för etiska dilemman, framförallt då sjuksköterskan blir medveten om den egna rollen inom den hierarkiska strukturen. Studien bidrar till möjliga lösningsansatser för att motverka de negativa konsekvenser som etiska dilemman medför såväl för personal som för patienter. / The basis of the study was that nurses in psychiatry is a profession who are faced with various moral dilemmas in everyday life. It was examined nurses' perceived moral dilemmas within their field which was psychiatric inpatient and outpatient care and public psychiatry to gain a deeper understanding of what experienced psychiatric nurses considered that general ethical dilemmas are and what thoughts they had about potential solutions. Seven nurses with further education in psychiatry were interviewed about their experiences with ethical dilemmas. It was used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) using verbatim transcriptions of the semi-structured interviews. The two main themes which were identified were conflicts of loyalty and cooperation in hierarchical structures. Ethical dilemmas were not experienced by the respondents mostly by the compulsory treatment, respectively coercion - as it could be expected - but in situations where they felt forced to choose between loyalty to the patient, organization or herself as professional. The hardest perceived dilemmas were those that forced the nurses to act against their own values. When emotions were involved, dilemmas were remembered strongest. The working team and the doctor on the ward was considered as part of the solution of moral dilemmas. On the other hand they were experienced equally as triggering factor for moral dilemmas, especially when nurses got aware of the role they play within the hierarchical structure. The study contributes to potential solution approaches to counteract the negative consequences that moral dilemmas entails both for personnel and for patients.