ERIC Number: EJ786456
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Jan
Pages: 27
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0272-930X
EISSN: N/A
Gender Differences in Moral Motivation
Nunner-Winkler, Gertrud; Meyer-Nikele, Marion; Wohlrab, Doris
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology, v53 n1 p26-52 Jan 2007
Moral gender differences have been discussed in terms of Kohlbergian stages and content of orientations and taken to correspond to universal stable male and female features. The present study instead focuses on moral motivation and explains differences in terms of role expectations. We assessed moral motivation in 203 adolescents by a newly developed rating procedure based on participants' open-ended responses to hypothetical moral conflicts and validated this measurement by two self-reports and one experiment. We used independent measures for the content of gender stereotypes and gender identification. Male stereotypes comprise mostly negative and morally unfavorable traits, female stereotypes mostly positive and morally favorable traits. A marginally significant relationship is found between high gender identification and low moral motivation in boys, not in girls. We take gender differences in moral motivation to result from an interaction between individually differing degrees of gender identification and content of culturally shared gender stereotypes.
Descriptors: Stereotypes, Sexual Identity, Identification (Psychology), Motivation, Gender Differences, Moral Values, Cultural Influences, Social Influences, Adolescents, Rating Scales, Conflict
Wayne State University Press. The Leonard N. Simons Building, 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201-1309. Tel: 800-978-7323; Fax: 313-577-6131; Web site: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/journals/merrill/merrillj.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A