Abstract

Shweder et al. (1997) rejected Kohlberg’s (1971) claims that morality is universal and that the most important virtue is justice, and based on their research in India, they argued for cultural diversity in morality by suggesting three “ethics” of morality which may receive different emphasis in different cultures. Walker and Pitts (1998) also criticized the lack of research on laypeople’s moral understanding. The purpose of the present research is first, to investigate how laypeople in Turkey conceptualize morality; and second, to determine whether their conceptualizations are related to Shweder’s three ethics.
The present research comprised three stages. In Study 1, participants completed open-ended sentences with definitions of morality/immorality/moral person-man-woman/immoral person-man-woman. Classification of the answers revealed both commonalities and differences across the six targets. The most frequently mentioned category of answers referred to social norms and roles. In Study 2, the categories derived from Study 1 were used to develop the “Morality According to Me Inventory” (BGA). The pattern of responses to the BGA inventory showed similarities to the “three ethics” suggested by Shweder and colleagues. To further investigate these parallels, in Study 3, responses to the BGA inventory were compared with responses to the Ethical Values Assessment (EVA), designed to measure Shweder’s three ethics, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results revealed that conceptualization of morality in a Turkish sample showed a structure similar to that suggested by Shweder, and showed that the BGA inventory is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing conceptions of morality.

Key words: Lay conceptualizations of morality, three ethics of morality, morality inventory