Abstract

This research study was conducted to examine how private college student leaders construed and interpreted moral dilemmas and made moral decisions. This research hypothesis was that personality type, specifically the Thinking/Feeling continuum on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, may have been a factor that contributed to whether an individual used a Care orientation or a Justice orientation. The roles of gender and context in moral decision-making were also explored. ;The sample consisted of 32 student leaders, 19 females and 13 males, from five small, private liberal arts colleges in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Defining Issues Test and its Principled Morality Score were used to determine if male and female student leaders interpreted moral dilemmas differently. Content analysis was done on focus group discussions to determine if male and female student leaders used the Care and/or Justice orientations, and to determine if the two orientations were gender linked. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator was used to determine if there was a relationship between the Thinking/Feeling continuum and the Justice/Care orientations. Autobiographical dilemmas were scored according to the DIT stages to determine if student leaders interpreted hypothetical dilemmas differently than personal dilemmas. Autobiographical dilemmas were analyzed to determine if student leaders' Care/Justice orientations changed or remained the same in both kinds of dilemmas. ;In this study, there was no significant difference in how male and female students leaders interpreted moral dilemmas, and no apparent difference in the P scores. Both males and females used the Care orientation in resolving moral dilemmas, and both males and females used the Justice orientation in resolving moral dilemmas. The Care orientation seemed to be characterized more by theme than by gender. There appeared to be a link between the Care orientation and the Feeling preference, and between the Justice orientation and the Thinking preference on the MBTI. ;It was not possible to draw accurate comparisons between the P score from the DIT and the stage scores on the autobiographical dilemmas, but a subtle pattern of decline in stage of moral reasoning was detected in the students' personal dilemmas. It appeared the context of a moral dilemma influenced which approach, Care/Feeling or Justice/Thinking, was used by the student leader. ;Reflections on the results of the study provide a synthesis of the review of literature and the discussion of the study and point out the importance of continued dialogue and research in moral decision-making