The Relationship of Value Orientation to Moral Cognition: Gender and Cultural Differences in the United States and China Explored

This research explores the proposition of Gilligan's 1982 work that there are two possible moral orientations—justice and caring. She takes issue with the work of Kohlberg because his stage theory proceeds toward a single orientation of justice and autonomy. Both women and non-Western cultures have been accused of failure to achieve Kohlberg's post conventional (justice-oriented) stage of moral reasoning. It was hypothesized that this is because they favor a caring ethic. The World View Questionnaire was administered to groups of American and Chinese students. The results found that women favor a caring orientation. The Chinese population quite significantly favored a justice orientation. This last result may be evidence of patterns of change in Chinese value systems.