Abstract

As healthcare professionals, psychology students and psychologists are expected to behave ethically and morally. It is assumed that moral and ethical reasoning in psychology students develops through exposure to ethical dilemmas within ethics classes and during clinical training experiences. Rest's Four Component Model of Moral Behavior, a neo-Kohlbergian approach to understanding moral development, posits an interaction of Moral Sensitivity, Moral Motivation, Moral Reasoning and Moral Character. Moral sensitivity, or awareness of a moral dilemma, is posited to cue the moral reasoning process, though little is known about how the training environment can facilitate or hamper such developments. Fifty".'two psychology-graduate students were assessed on moral sensitivity (empathy) and moral reasoning to determine the impact of the moral climate in clinical supervision. The hypothesis that moral climate, students' perception of a clinical supervision experience, would either mediate or moderate the moral sensitivity and moral reasoning relationship was tested with SEM and hierarchical regression analyses. Moral climate moderated the cognitive empathy and moral reasoning relationship; however, moral climate neither mediated nor moderated the affective empathy and moral reasoning relationship. Affective empathy alone is sufficient to cue the moral reasoning process with moral climate having an additional impact on moral reasoning. Cognitive empathy interacts with the moral climate to cue the moral reasoning process. Mature perspective taking skills within a dearly defined clinical relationship experience facilitate the ability to identify and resolve moral dilemmas in interpersonal situations such as psychotherapy.

LLU Discipline

Psychology

Department

Psychology

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

Kelly R. Morton

Second Advisor

Matt L. Riggs

Third Advisor

Janet L. Sonne

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Level

M.A.

Year Degree Awarded

2003

Date (Title Page)

6-2003

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Moral development; Moral education; Ethics

Type

Thesis

Page Count

xi; 112

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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