Moral reasoning and moral decision – making of law students

Moralno rasuđivanje se odnosi na proces rasuđivanja u dvojbenim situacijama koje uključuju složene odnose u kojima pojedinac donosi moralnu odluku, poduzima neku radnju u određenom kontekstu i s određenim motivom, a usmjerenu na pojedinca ili druge uz određene posljedice, pozitivne ili negativne. Moralno odlučivanje je složeni, dinamički proces koji uključuje prosuđivanje o različitim mogućnostima djelovanja, te izbor određenog djelovanja, odnosno donošenje odluke o izboru istog. Budući da su neka istraživanja potvrdila pozitivan utjecaj obrazovanja, odnosno pohađanja fakulteta na moralni razvoji, ali isto tako i da taj efekt nije jednak za sva studijska usmjerenja, cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati razlikuju li se studenti/ice različitih godina studija prava u moralnom rasuđivanju i moralnom odlučivanju. Pri tome se na uzorku od 244 studenta pravnog fakulteta (38 % muškaraca i 62% žena, između 18 i 33 godina starosti) primijenio Test moralnog rasuđivanja i Test moralnog odlučivanja. Rezultati su pokazali da ne postoji efekt godine studija ni na moralno rasuđivanje ni na moralno odlučivanje. Razlika između muškaraca i žena utvrđena je samo za neke od parametara moralnog rasuđivanja i moralnog odlučivanja. Također, utvrđeno je da su samo neki od parametara moralnog rasuđivanja i moralnog odlučivanja u međusobnim korelacija, koje pak, nisu snažno pozitivne kao što se očekivalo.Moral reasoning refers to the process of reasoning in dubious situations involving complex relations in which an individual makes a moral decision, takes action in a certain context and with a certain motive, focused on the individual or others with certain consequences, positive or negative. Moral decision-making is a complex, dynamic, sequential process of thinking and judgment that ultimately ends with making a decision as a result of choosing between several possible directions of action oriented towards achieving a particular goal. Since some studies have confirmed the positive influence of education, i.e. the attendance of faculties on moral development, but also that this effect is not the same for all study orientations, the aim of this study was to examine whether law students on different years of study differ in moral judgment and moral decision-making as well as gender effect. On a sample of 244 students of law faculty (38% of men and 62% of women, aged 18-33) Moral Decision-Making Test and Moral judgement test were aplied. The results have shown that there is no effect of the age of study either on moral judgment or moral decision-making. The difference between men and women is found only for some of the parameters of moral reasoning and moral decisionmaking. It has also been found that only some of the parameters of moral reasoning and moral decision-making are correalated, however, not as strong as they were expected