Discusses 4 ethical perspectives: (a) situationism, which advocates a contextual analysis of morally questionable actions; (b) absolutism, which uses inviolate, universal moral principles to formulate moral judgments; (c) subjectivism, which argues that moral judgments should depend primarily on one's own personal values; and (d) exceptionism, which admits that exceptions must sometimes be made to moral absolutes. The Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), which assesses degree of idealism and rejection of universal moral rules in favor of relativism, was developed to measure the extent to which individuals adopt one of the ideologies.
| Construct | Cites | Category | Questions given? | Content validity | Pretests | Response type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| idealism | NEW | yes | none | 3 rounds of pilots | 9-point Likert scale ranging from "completely disagree" to "completely agree" | ||
| Rejection of universal moral principles in favor of relativism | NEW | yes | none | 3 rounds of pilots | 9-point Likert scale ranging from "completely disagree" to "completely agree" | ||
| Social Desirability Scale | Edwards, 1957 | no | none | none | no | ||
| Moral maturity | Kohlberg, 1968, Kolhberg, 1974 | no | none | none | no | ||
| Defining Issues Test | Rest, 1986 | no | none | none | no | ||
| Ethical Attitudes | Hogan, 1970, Hogan, 1973 | no | none | none | no |
Donelson Forsyth. A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of personality & social psychology, 39(1):175–184, 1980.
@article{forsyth_taxonomy_1980,
author = {Forsyth, Donelson},
issn = {0022-3514},
journal = {Journal of personality \& social psychology},
number = {1},
pages = {175-184},
title = {A Taxonomy of Ethical Ideologies},
volume = {39},
year = {1980}
}