Relationship between student characteristics and ethics: implications for educators

Journal of Instructional Psychology, Sept, 2003 by Siva Sankaran, Tung Bui

Personality Type

Ethical attributes in a student may be impacted by personality type. Past research has supported the possible linkage between personality types and ethical conduct (Tieger and Barron, 1993; Barger et al., 1998). Two types of personalities are discussed in literature: Type A and Type B (Friedman and Roseman, 1974; Rowe. 1992; van Aken et al., 1998). Type A behavior consists of several characteristics: always being in a hurry. easily moved to hostility and anger, and high levels of ambition. They are aggressive, task oriented and time driven. On the other hand, Type B personalities are more low key, cooperative and patient. In an early study, Perry and Kane (1990) found that Type A B irrespective of competition. Because of their predisposition to pursue goals forcefully, Type A individuals are more likely to compromise on ethics.

Age

A study by Coombe and Newman (1997) reported that younger individuals tend to be less concerned with ethical considerations. In determining response to social interactions. they tend to have their own codes of ethics and formulate their own moral and ethical stances. As individuals grow older, they become more philosophical and moralistic (Auerbach and Welsh, 1994; Barger et al., 1998). Older students are motivated by intrinsic goals. Their prior life experience promotes an inner desire to learn and understand new knowledge and they do not feel pressured enough to perform through compromising their moral compass (Richardson, 1994).

Gender

Men appear to have lower ethics standards compared to women (Kelly, 1990; Hill. 1997). In a study conducted by Petty and Hill (1994), the researchers administered the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory to 2279 workers. Women scored significantly higher on ethics compared to men. Newstead et al. (1996) reached a similar conclusion after a study in a university setting. However, not all research supports such a conclusion. For example, Rowe and Snizek (1995) examined the work ethics of 7436 full time employees and found no significant differences between men's and women's ethics. Thus, even though the majority of previous studies seem to indicate that women will form a more ethical workforce, its indisputability has not been fully established.

Major

There are good reasons to postulate that ethical values will differ across majors due to their intrinsic nature and the type of activities they entail. This is because students can be generally expected to match their values to their major they aspire to work in. Someone who wishes to major in nursing or social work will likely have a high level of altruism (Hanson and McCullagh, 1995). This is because of personal attributes and education which encourage high ethical conduct. On other hand, someone majoring in a business field is trained to make decisions based on optimizations of economic rewards. Their emphasis is on the bottom line and they may be willing to manipulate the market for the sake of higher profits. Ethical considerations may take the back seat (Stevens, 1993).