Moral development and the ethic of care in post-apartheid South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The transformation of South African society since 1994 provides a suitableopportunity to investigate moral development amongst undergraduate students in theWestern Cape. The Ethic of Care Interview (ECI), a measure based on CarolGilligan's theory of gender-related moral development and designed by Skoe andMarcia (1991), was administered to 26 undergraduate university students from threeuniversities. The Mann-Whitney distribution-free test was used to analyse the data.From these findings it appears that young South Africans are struggling to makeethical decisions based on care for self and other; however, black females were foundto score at significantly higher levels than any other group on the ECI. There wereno other significant differences across gender or interview type (conscious andunconscious). Reasons for results obtained are discussed and suggestions for futureresearch made. Finally, the ethic of care is considered in terms of its potential valuefor the present context.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University