Moral Judgement along the Academic Training

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Giulia D’Aurizio¹  Francesca Pistoia¹  Giuseppe Curcio¹  Laura Mandolesi²  Fabrizio Santoboni³ 

[1] Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy;Department of Humanities Studies, University Federico II, 80138 Napoli, Italy;Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy;

关键词: moral dilemma;    decision making;    ethical judgement;    university training;    executive function;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph19010010

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Moral reasoning and consequent decision making are central in the everyday life of all people, independent of their profession. It is undoubtedly crucial in the so-called “helping professions”, when the professional through his/her decisions can support or not support others. Our study aimed to investigate whether academic training can play an essential role in influencing moral reasoning. We used three different conditions: 20 moral personal, 20 moral impersonal, and 20 nonmoral dilemmas to assessed differences in moral judgement between students of Economics, Medicine, and Psychology at their first year and at the end of university training. We observed a difference between school and year of course: psychology students showing more time when asked to read and answer the proposed questions. Moreover, medical students showed a significant increase in sensitiveness to moral issues as a function of academic ageing, whereas such a moral sense regressed from the first to the fifth year of academic training in other students. Gender was also relevant, with women showing an increased response and reading times compared to than men when asked to cope with moral decisions. This study shows that the main factor driving moral decision making is the faculty to which one is enrolled, significantly modulated by sex and academic seniority.

【 授权许可】

Unknown