Situational ethics

About: Situational ethics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4023 publications have been published within this topic receiving 145379 citations.

Why did he do it? attribution of obedience and the phenomenon of dispositional bias

Abstract: Two studies are reported which demonstrate the influence of perceptual or ‘perspective’ variables in mediating attribution processes. In both studies subjects first observed a re-enactment of Milgram's (1963) experiment of obedience in which a ‘teacher’ obeys an experimenter's request to deliver dangerously high levels of shock. They were then asked to make judgements concerning the magnitude of situational forces acting upon the teacher and also to make inferences about his personality dispositions. Study I showed that passage of time can lead observers to assume more situational control when they were required to think and write about the witnessed re-enactment of the Milgram situation compared with observers who had no time to contemplate or who were prevented from doing so. Study II did not support the notion that focus of attribution is a simple function of what one pays attention to, or a function of the differing perspectives which actors and observers employ. Both of these results seriously challenge Jones and Nisbett's (1972) contention that the differences in attribution tendencies between actors and observers arise from the difference in perspective, Moreover, considerable evidence suggests that changes in situational and dispositional attributions may not follow a simple ‘zero-sum’ model, and that subjects seem to be unwilling to treat the two sources of control as if they were inversely correlated.

Structuring Situational Information

Abstract: . There is as yet no consensually agreed-upon situational taxonomy. The current work addresses this issue and reviews extant taxonomic approaches by highlighting a “road map” of six research stations that lead to the observed diversity in taxonomies: (1) theoretical and conceptual guidelines, (2) the “type” of situational information studied, (3) the general taxonomic approach taken, (4) the generation of situation pools, (5) the assessment and rating of situational information, and (6) the statistical analyses of situation data. Current situational taxonomies are difficult to integrate because they follow different paths along these six stations. Some suggestions are given on how to spur integrated taxonomies toward a unified psychology of situations that speaks a common language.

Orientations Toward Personnel Selection: Differential Reliance on Appearance and Personality

Abstract: In two studies we examined the hypothesis that the psychological construct of self-monitoring would identify people who adopt distinctly different strategies in personnel selection. In both experiments, undergraduates examined information about the physical appearance and personalities of two applicants for a specific job and then decided which applicant should receive a job offer. In Study 1 information about the applicants' physical attractiveness and job-appropriate dispositions was varied. In Study 2 job appropriateness of the applicants' physical appearance and of their personalities were both varied. In each study, high self-monitoring individuals placed greater weight on information about physical appearance than did low self-monitoring individuals. By contrast, low self-monitoring individuals put greater weight on information about personal dispositions than did high selfmonitoring individuals. We discuss the implications for understanding personnel selection as well as for decision making in interpersonal contexts. Some of the most important and consequential decisions in people's lives are made by other people. Who to befriend or avoid, marry or divorce, acquit or convict, hire or fire are all decisions about others with potentially significant consequences. A natural concern, therefore, is how these decisions are made. Recent research strongly suggests that people adopt systematically different approaches to gathering, weighing, and acting on information about other people when initiating personal relationships. At least one set of differing orientations may be identified with stable differences between individuals in their self-monitoring propensities (Glick, 1985; Omoto, DeBono, & Snyder, 1987; Snyder, Berscheid, & Glick, 1985). These investigations on the initiation of romantic relationships were guided by the psychological construct of self-monitoring (see Snyder, 1979, 1987). High self-monitoring individuals typically strive to be the type of person called for by each situation in which they find themselves and thus are particularly sensitive and responsive to interpersonal and situational specifications of behavioral appropriateness; they use this information to monitor and control the images of self that they project to others in social situations. As investigations on the initiation of personal relationships indicate, high self-monitoring individuals also appear to carry this concern with their own public appearances to a concern with the images conveyed by people with whom they may be

Changing theories of change: strategic shifting in implicit theory endorsement.

Abstract: People differ in their implicit theories about the malleability of characteristics such as intelligence and personality. These relatively chronic theories can be experimentally altered, and can be affected by parent or teacher feedback. Little is known about whether people might selectively shift their implicit beliefs in response to salient situational goals. We predicted that, when motivated to reach a desired conclusion, people might subtly shift their implicit theories of change and stability to garner supporting evidence for their desired position. Any motivated context in which a particular lay theory would help people to reach a preferred directional conclusion could elicit shifts in theory endorsement. We examine a variety of motivated situational contexts across 7 studies, finding that people�s theories of change shifted in line with goals to protect self and liked others and to cast aspersions on disliked others. Studies 1�3 demonstrate how people regulate their implicit theories to manage self-view by more strongly endorsing an incremental theory after threatening performance feedback or memories of failure. Studies 4�6 revealed that people regulate the implicit theories they hold about favored and reviled political candidates, endorsing an incremental theory to forgive preferred candidates for past gaffes but leaning toward an entity theory to ensure past failings �stick� to opponents. Finally, in Study 7, people who were most threatened by a previously convicted child sex offender (i.e., parents reading about the offender moving to their neighborhood) gravitated most to the entity view that others do not change. Although chronic implicit theories are undoubtedly meaningful, this research reveals a previously unexplored source of fluidity by highlighting the active role people play in managing their implicit theories in response to goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)

Capturing Complexity in Educational Leadership.

Abstract: Although the study of educational leadership has gained in prominence in the last 2 decades, leadership as a concept remains as elusive as ever, prompting some authors to argue that the search for a general theory of leadership is futile. This paper argues that further conceptual and empirical work on educational leadership is useful in avoiding frequently occurring misconceptions, and in understanding the possibilities and constraints for leadership in school operations and change. "Leadership" is defined here in relation to management and headship and should be understood as a complex interplay of personal, organizational, and broader social contexts rather than as attributes of persons or positions. Variants of leadership theory discussed include the "great man" or trait theory, the contingency and situational approach, and transformational leadership theory. Positive and negative aspects of educational leadership are illustrated in South African case studies where different schools show organizational resiliency or dysfunction. Current challenges for educational management and leadership are also discussed. If schools are to meet the goals of providing high-quality teaching and learning for all students in the most equitable way possible, educational leaders and theorists of leadership need to work creatively with complexity. (Contains 92 references.) (RT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. CAPTURING COMPLEXITY IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Pam Christie, School of Education, The University of Queensland, Australia