Eva E. Skoe

The influences of sex and gender-role identity on moral cognition and prosocial personality traits

The relations of sex and gender-role identity to moral thought and prosocial personality traits were examined. Two hundred and nine men and women rated the importance of real-life, care-related, justice-related, and mixed (both care- and justice-related) moral dilemmas. Responses on the real-life and mixed dilemmas also were scored for care and justice orientations. Women and feminine persons viewed moral conflicts as more important than did men and masculine people. On the mixed dilemmas, women scored higher than men on care reasoning, whereas men scored higher than women on justice reasoning. Regardless of sex or gender role, relational real-life dilemmas evoked higher importance and care reasoning scores than did nonrelational ones. Women and persons high in femininity showed more empathic concern for other people. Masculine persons scored lower on personal distress, whereas androgynous persons reported more helpful behaviors than did all others.

Care reasoning development and family socialisation patterns in later adolescence: A longitudinal analysis:

Over the past 20 years, care reasoning has been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of moral development. Skoe has developed an interview measure of levels of care reasoning about the needs of self and other in relationships, the Ethic of Care Interview or ECI. In the present longitudinal research, we investigated developmental changes and family correlates of reasoning about care issues in a family study of 32 adolescents (aged 16 and then 20 years). There were no gender differences on the ECI for these adolescents, but there was a significant increase in scores over time. Care reasoning levels at age 20 were significant concurrent predictors of self-reported community involvement. Several parenting factors when children were age 16 (parents’ emphasis on caring as a goal in family stories, child reports of a more authoritative family parenting style, and parents’ use of more autonomy-encouraging practices) were associated with higher levels of care reasoning in adolescents at age 20, consistent with theoretical expectations.

The Role of Reported Emotion in Real-Life and Hypothetical Moral Dilemmas

To form a more complete picture of the complexity that underlies human morality, the connection between emotion and moral thought in 209 men and women was examined. Participants rated the importance of one real-life and three hypothetical moral dilemmas and their feelings while making decisions about the dilemmas. The responses on these dilemmas also were scored for their care and justice orientations. Results showed that feeling upset and sympathy were uniquely positively related to dilemma importance. In the real-life situations, sympathy and anger uniquely predicted both care (positively) and justice (negatively) orientations. Relational real-life dilemmas evoked more emotions than did nonrelational ones. In general, women scored higher than men on emotions when considering moral dilemmas.

Care-oriented moral reasoning and prosocial behavior: A question of gender or sex role orientation.

The possibility that sex role orientation was a better predictor of care-oriented moral development than gender for both men and women was investigated in this study. Also, the relationship between care-oriented moral reasoning and prosocial behavior was examined. Subjects were university students with the majority being Caucasian (97%) and single (86%). Using pre-selected groups of sex role stereotyped and androgynous individuals (45 females, 45 males), the relationship between sex role orientation and care-oriented moral reasoning was found to be stronger than that between gender and moral reasoning. However, this finding was accounted for largely by differences among women. Although moral reasoning did not relate to prosocial behavior as expected, there were significant gender differences in prosocial behavior. Two implications are that the Ethic of Care Interview may need to be re-designed to be more applicable for men and that sex role subscription may be a more important psychological variable than gender.

Ego Development and the Ethics of Care and Justice: The Relations Among Them Revisited

This study examined the links among ego development and the ethics of care and justice in 144 Norwegian men and women, 15 to 48 years old, taking into consideration age, sex, education, and verbal intelligence. As expected, the relationship between Loevingers model of ego development and care-based moral reasoning as measured with Skoes Ethic of Care Interview (ECI) was significantly stronger than the one between ego development and justice as measured with Rests Defining Issues Test (DIT). Both ethics correlated significantly with verbal ability. Analyses showed that beyond its overlap with verbal intelligence, the variance shared between the ECI and ego development was substantial. By contrast, when verbal intelligence was controlled, the DIT was not significantly related to ego development or to the care ethic.

The relationship between empathy‐related constructs and care‐based moral development in young adulthood

This study examined the link between care‐based moral reasoning and three different aspects of empathy—perspective taking, sympathy and personal distress. Participants were 30 female and 28 male students, ranging in age from 20 to 42 years. As expected, results showed that perspective taking uniquely predicted care‐based moral reasoning levels (positively), as assessed by Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview (ECI). Personal distress, in contrast, was uniquely negatively related to the ECI. There was a curvilinear relationship between sympathy and the ECI for women only; women at ECI Level 2 (self‐sacrificing care for others) scored higher on sympathy than did all others. Moreover, women scored significantly higher than did men on the emotional aspects of empathy (i.e. sympathy and personal distress) but not on cognitive perspective taking or on the ECI. These findings support the theory that empathy plays a significant (and positive) role in adults’ moral reasoning. They also highlight the complexity of sex differences in the area of moral affect and cognition. Implications for moral education are discussed.

Care-Based Moral Reasoning in Norwegian and Canadian Early Adolescents: A Cross-National Comparison

A sample of 79 Norwegians, 11 through 13 years of age, was assessed on a care-based morality measure, the Ethic of Care Interview (ECI). Content analyses of the adolescents’real-life moral dilemmas also were conducted. The Norwegian scores were compared with those of 46 Canadians of the same age. No gender differences on the ECI or in real-life moral conflict content were found in Norway. In contrast, in Canada, girls scored significantly higher on the ECI than did boys, and more girls than boys generated relational real-life dilemmas, whereas more boys than girls generated nonrelational dilemmas. Furthermore, more Canadian than Norwegian girls scored at ECI Level 2 (conventions of goodness, caring for others). Norway and Canada might differ in female gender role expectations, which probably is associated with girls’moral reasoning. The results indicated that North American findings should not be viewed necessarily as representative even of other similar Western societies.

Target Personality Characteristics and Self-Disclosure: An Exploratory Study.

This study investigated the influence of target personality characteristics on self-disclosure. Using the Bem Q-Sort Technique, the subjects (71 male and 73 female undergraduate students) described the personality of the person to whom they disclose the most and the personality of the person to whom they disclose the least, as well as their own personality. Factor analysis revealed that there were several personality types to whom people disclose the most and the least. The various types are described and discussed. Results supported the hypothesis that both males and females prefer disclosing to individuals who are perceived as similar to themselves in personality. This finding has important implications for the therapeutic relationship with regard to matching therapist and client.