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Abstract
Rest's hypothesis that the components of morality (i.e., sensitivity, reasoning, motivation, and implementation) are distinct from one another was tested using evidence from a dental ethics curriculum that uses well-validated measures of each component. Archival data from five cohorts (n = 385) included the following: (1) transcribed responses to a measure of ethical sensitivity collected at the end of the third year; (2) pre- and post-test moral judgment scores; (3) pre- and post-test motivation scores; and (4) implementation scores – performance on eight cases completed during the third and fourth years. Because the ethical sensitivity test had been scored by multiple raters, and interrater reliability did not meet acceptable standards, 120 portfolios were randomly selected from the five cohorts and responses were rescored prior to analysis. Correlations among the measures were low, ranging from − .08 to .34, supporting Rest's contention that the processes are distinct from one another and competence in one does not predict competence in another. The findings have implications for moral and character education programs.
Notes
1. See Bebeau (Citation1996) for a detailed account of the multiple ways these characteristics interact with each other to provide challenges to practitioner decision-making. The dentist's task is to interpret these patient characteristics and describe how they apply to his/her responsibilities as a professional.
2. Whereas this condition may not be difficult to meet in many educational settings, Siu and Reiter (Citation2009) point out that meaningfully discriminating among students is more challenging in professional education settings as skewed distributions with restricted range tend to characterize data from many of the measures educators would like to use to assess professionals.