Browsing by Author "Klimenko, Marina A."

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    Can Online College Education Make Students Smarter and More Moral? A Preliminary Study of the Effects of Two Online College Course Assignments on Students’ Moral Competence
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Klimenko, Marina A.; Surdel, Nicholas; Muir, Kathryn; Sofia, Fuaad
    Higher education institutions in the United States have historically been tasked with the responsibility of scaffolding the moral development of students. Although empirical evidence suggests that attending colleges and universities can foster students’ moral development and reasoning, the effect of online higher education remains mainly unknown. The current study has examined the effect of two online psychology courses, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods Lab, and their respective assignments on students’ moral competence. The findings revealed that students’ moral competence in both courses was improved; this improvement was partly attributed to online group discussions in the Developmental psychology course. No other assignments were found to be significant contributors of students’ moral competence. Limitations and implications of the findings were discussed.
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    Filing for Moral Bankruptcy: An Examination of How Affect and Empathy Predict Moral Competence
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Surdel, Nicholas; Klimenko, Marina A.
    What does being moral mean? On one hand people may justify mercy killing as sparing someone’s suffering, but on the other hand they are still, in-fact, taking another’s life. According to Lind’s theory of moral competence (2008), it is based on consistent utilization of moral principles. Although common sense tells us that people’s affective states and levels of empathy may explain the differences, there is little direct evidence. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by examining the relative contribution of empathy and affective state to moral competence. Results of the study revealed that although perspective taking and negative affective state were both significant predictors of moral competence, perspective taking was a stronger contributor. This suggests that the next time you deliberate over a moral dilemma (e.g., euthanasia), you should try understanding another person’s perspective rather than feeling empathy to make the best moral judgment.
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    What, If Anything, Most Memorable Personal Moral Dilemmas Can Tell Us About Women’s and Men’s Moral Competence?
    (Wydział Filozoficzny, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, 2021-08-27) Klimenko, Marina A.
    Most all popular moral reasoning or moral judgment tests are based on presenting subjects with two or more hypothetical moral dilemmas and asking them to make judgments on the moral quality of arguments supporting and questioning a protagonist’s decision (e.g., the Moral Competence Test by G. Lind). Although these tests have been insightful by tapping some aspect of individuals’ moral-cognitive schemas, moral maturity, or moral development, they also have limitations. Hypothetical moral dilemmas may be too abstract and impersonal, thus failing to create enough emotional salience. Learning more about real-life personally recalled moral dilemmas may reveal more about the individual’s moral mind and experiences. Objective. The current study was conducted to learn more about the personally experienced moral dilemmas, and how they relate to subjects’ level of moral competence and gender. Method. Subjects were asked to recall the most challenging personal moral dilemma; subjects completed the MCT test to measure moral competence. Results. Among some of the findings was that for both, men and women, higher moral competence scores were positively correlated with recalling personal moral dilemmas where the choice had to be made between some altruistic (care for others) and selfish actions. For men, it was the risk of compromising one’s status, whereas for women it was the risk of personal safety.