Students' perceptions of ethical dilemmas involving professors: examining the impact of the professor's gender

College Student Journal, March, 2005 by Christopher M. Oldenburg

Three hundred sixteen undergraduate students from two liberal arts colleges rated the ethical nature of six different fictional scenarios. Each scenario described interactions between a professor and student. The gender of the fictional professor was varied randomly. Thus, for any particular scenario, a participant may be rating the behavior of a male professor or a female professor. The gender of the fictional student was also varied randomly in some scenarios. Results indicated that the gender of the professor does appear to affect students' ethical ratings of some scenarios. The gender of the professor also appears to interact with the gender of the rater in some cases, with women tending to rate a male professor's behavior as more unethical than a female professor's behavior. In general, women tended to rate the behavior of the professor as more unethical than did men, regardless of the professor's gender.

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Many professors, especially those who work at smaller, teaching colleges, interact with undergraduate students on a daily basis. At smaller colleges, undergraduates may have roles reserved for graduate students at larger universities, working as departmental assistants, research assistants, and tutors. Such activities often involve more frequent and personal interactions with professors outside of the classroom. In fact, many liberal arts colleges encourage such interactions, using the closeness of the professor-student relationship as an asset with which to attract prospective students. Markie (1994) noted that teaching awards often praise professors for being a friend to students and that many professors feel an obligation to be involved with students outside of class. The nurturing of such relationships between professors and students may contribute positively to a supportive environment and may enhance the overall academic experience of the student. However, the development of these relationships may also create potential ethical dilemmas for the professor.

Research indicates that ethical issues are a concern to professors. As evidence of this concern, there has been considerable recent research exploring the ethical responsibilities of professors (e.g. Birch, Elliott, & Trankel, 1999; Branstetter & Handelsman, 2000; Costanzo & Handelsman, 1998; Knight & Auster, 1999; Morgan & Korschgen, 2001). Professors may be particularly aware of the ethical issues involved in their interactions with students. Such awareness on the part of the professor may have the positive effect of helping to prevent the exploitation of students, as well as increasing the insight of professors into the impact of their behavior on students. However, excessive sensitivity to ethical issues may sometimes serve to detract from the healthy aspects of professor-student relationships. For example, Nicks (1996) found that many faculty reported at least some concern with unwarranted charges of sexual harassment and many have changed their behavior with students due to these concerns (e.g. more likely to leave office door open when meeting with students). Ultimately, such concerns may undermine the nature of the professor-student relationship, especially at colleges that place strong emphasis on the nurturing of those relationships.

Nicks (1996) reported that male professors, in particular, expressed concern about charges of sexual harassment and were also more likely to change their behavior with students in response to these concerns. What is not yet clear is whether students are more likely to rate behavior by male professors as more unethical than similar behavior by female professors. Quatrella and Wentworth (1995), in their study of student attitudes toward dating relationships between professors and students, found that men and women did not differ much in their ratings, regardless of whether the professor was male or female. Whether this finding extends to other types of interactions between professors and students is unknown.

There is evidence to suggest that women may be more sensitized to ethical conflicts than men. For instance, Keith-Spiegel, Tabachnick, and Allen (1993) found that when gender differences existed in the rating of a particular behavior, it was invariably women who rated the behavior as more unethical than did men. In addition, Quatrella and Wentworth (1995) suggested that ethical dilemmas may assume more importance for women, perhaps because of being more likely to be in the lower status role in ethically questionable relationships.

The current study examined whether the gender of a professor affects student perceptions of the ethical nature of the professor's behavior. Undergraduate students were presented with fictional scenarios describing a variety of interactions between professors and students. The gender of the professor and student in the scenarios were varied randomly, including both same-sex and opposite-sex interactions for many of the scenarios. It was expected that interactions involving a professor and student of the opposite sex (regardless of whether the professor is male or female) would be viewed as more ethically suspect than identical interactions involving members of the same sex. It was also expected that male professors would be rated more negatively than female professors for certain behaviors. Finally, gender differences among the respondents were expected for some scenarios, with women being more likely than men to rate the professor's behavior as more unethical.