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Gender differences in moral orientation: a meta-analysis.

S Jaffee1, J S Hyde

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA.

Psychological Bulletin
|September 16, 2000
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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This meta-analysis examined gender differences in moral reasoning, finding small differences in care and justice orientations. The results do not strongly support the idea that women predominantly use care and men predominantly use justice reasoning.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Moral Psychology

Background:

  • Carol Gilligan critiqued Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, proposing two modes: justice and care.
  • This assertion has been debated in psychology for over 15 years, prompting further research into gender differences in moral orientation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantitatively review existing research on gender differences in moral orientation.
  • To assess the empirical support for Gilligan's claim of distinct justice and care orientations predominantly used by males and females, respectively.

Main Methods:

  • A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize findings from multiple studies on gender and moral reasoning.
  • Effect sizes for care and justice orientations were calculated and analyzed, considering moderator variables.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Small differences in care orientation were found, favoring females (d = -.28).
  • Small differences in justice orientation were observed, favoring males (d = .19).
  • Moderator variables explained 16% of the variance in care reasoning and 17% in justice reasoning.

Conclusions:

  • The findings provide limited support for the hypothesis that women predominantly use a care orientation and men predominantly use a justice orientation.
  • The observed gender differences in moral orientation are small and do not align with strong claims of distinct gender-based reasoning modes.