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Epilogue - Why Is Ethical Behavior Challenging?

A Model of Ethical Reasoning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

By
Robert J. Sternberg
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Susan T. Fiske
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Susan T. Fiske
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
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Summary

A question one might ask upon reading the essays in this book is why, at least for some people, ethical behavior is so challenging. Drawing in part on Latan é-Darley’s ( 1970 ) model of bystander intervention, I have constructed a model of ethical behavior that would seem to apply to a variety of ethical problems. The model specii es the specii c skills students need to reason and then behave ethically.

The basic premise of the model is that ethical behavior is far harder to display than one would expect simply on the basis of what we learn from our parents, from school, and from our religious training (Sternberg, 2009a , 2009b , 2009c ). To intervene in an ethically challenging situation, individuals must go through a series of steps, and unless all of the steps are completed, the individuals are not likely to behave in an ethical way, regardless of the amount of training they have received in ethics, and regardless of their levels of other types of skills. The example I draw on throughout this brief essay is one of questionably ethical behavior by a professor who is the director of a federally funded laboratory operating in the context of a university.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ethical Challenges in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Case Studies and Commentaries
 , pp. 219 - 226
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Latané, B., & Darley, J. (1970). The unresponsive bystander: Why doesn’t he help?Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Markopolos, H. (2011). No one would listen: A true financial thriller. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rogerson, M. D., Gottlieb, M. C., Handelsman, M. M., Knapp, S., & Younggren, J. (2011). Nonrational processes in ethical decision making. American Psychologist, 66(7), 614–623.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sternberg, R. J. (2009a). Ethics and giftedness. High Ability Studies, 20, 121–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2009b). A new model for teaching ethical behavior. Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(33), B14–B15.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2009c). Reflections on ethical leadership. In Ambrose, D. & Cross, T. (Eds.), Morality, ethics, and gifted minds (pp. 19–28). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2011a). Ethics: From thought to action. Educational Leadership, 68(6), 34–39.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2011b). Slip-sliding away, down the ethical slope. Chronicle of Higher Education, 57(19), A23.Google Scholar

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