THE RELATIONSHIP OF VALUE ORIENTATION TO MORAL COGNITION - GENDER AND CULTURAL-DIFFERENCES IN THE UNITED-STATES AND CHINA EXPLORED

This research explores the proposition of Gilligan's 1982 work that there are two possible Moral orientations-justice and caring. She takes issue with the work of Kohlberg because his stage theory proceeds toward a single orientation of justice and autonomy. Both women and non-Western cultures have been accused of failure to achieve Kohlberg's postconventional (justice-oriented) stage of moral reasoning. It was hypothesized that this is because they favor a caring ethic. The World View Ouestionnaire was administered to groups of American and Chinese students. The results found that women favor a caring orientation. The Chinese population quite significantly favored a justice orientation. This last result may be evidence of patterns of change in Chinese value systems.