THE ABILITY OF MORAL REASONING IN STAGES IN PREDICTION OF GOAL ORIENTATION IN SPORTS

1 of 7 7/12/2010 8:40 μμ STUDIES IN PHYSICAL CULTURE AND TOURISM Vol. 11, No. 1, 2004 MILTIADIS PROIOS 1, GEORGE DOGANIS 1, PIOTR UNIERZYSKI 2, VASILIA ARBANITIDOU 3, ATHANASIOS KATSAGOLIS 3 1 Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2 University School of Physical Education, Poznań, Poland 3 Elementary School of Thessaloniki & Ierapetra Kreta Correspondence should be addressed to: Piotr Unierzyski, Tennis Department, University School of Physical Education, Królowej Jadwigi 27/39, 61-871 Poznań, Poland. E-mail: THE ABILITY OF MORAL REASONING IN STAGES IN PREDICTION OF GOAL ORIENTATION IN SPORTS Table of Contents ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION Key words: moral development, moral reasoning, goal orientation, sport. ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to find out how to grasp goal orientation in sport context through the stages of moral reasoning. The study also examined the effect of the level of moral reasoning on the goal perspective (task and ego). 325 athletes participated in the study (n = 221 males and n = 114 females), aged from 14 to 39 (mean = 40.15, SD = 3.84). The sample consisted of 67 football players, 78 handball players, 58 basketball players and 122 athletes involved in individual sports. The participants filled the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire [10] and Defining Issues Test [25]. The results indicated a positive relation to the task orientation in stages 2, 4, and 6 of moral reasoning, as well as a negative relation of the ego orientation to stage 6. Yet the task orientation was found to change significantly between the high and low level of moral reasoning and to reduce the interest to the task orientation with the increase of moral reasoning. INTRODUCTION The orientation for achievement goal in sports has provoked a keen interest among the researchers. Nicholls [22] designed a useful theoretical structure to examine the orientation for achievement goal in sports. He proposed two main goal orientations, task and ego, which are independent of each other, but differ among individuals and across environments [9, 22]. Yet individual behaviors observed in task orientation are characterized by the persistence and obedience to the rules. The behaviors motivated by ego orientation are related to irrelevant and personal profits: the effort to win by all means or zero effort to win [8]. The value of examining the different goal perspectives in the study of behavior and experiences in the athletic context has been supported by many psychologists [7, 8, 15, 28, 31]. According to Nicholls [22] an individual might choose task or ego orientation depending on the developmental procedures. The study

2 of 7 7/12/2010 8:40 μμ an individual might choose task or ego orientation depending on the developmental procedures. The study of the developmental changes which are reflected in the observed behavior was one of the features of the cognitive-developmental model for the study of moral development [17, 18]. Kohlberg [17], having taken into consideration Piaget s theory, created a developmental schema of moral development consisting of six stages in three levels (preconventional, conventional, postconventional). These stages always display the same sequence but they do not occur to all individuals at the same time. Level I is called preconventional and includes Stage 1 and 2 of the developmental course. At Stage 1 individuals succumb because they respect others or to evade punishment. These features in Stage 2 are seen selfishly and in a direct relation to deeds satisfying one s needs. Level II is called conventional and includes Stages 3 and 4 of developmental sequence. The orientation of Level II is directed toward the right and socially accepted behavior gaining the approval of the other. Individuals in Level 3 are keen on adopting stereotype models and on acting as unpleasant as possible not the disturb others. On the contrary, in Stage 4 individuals observe the law for their own expectations and to do their duty. Level III is called postconventional and includes Stages 5 and 6. Individuals reaching this level conform willingly to their beliefs based on interior standards. Individuals reaching Stage 5 are more interested in the right of others. Individuals reaching Stage 6 stress the importance of consciousness and the authority. Consciousness directs the behavior, emphasizing mutual respect. A reason for studying moral reasoning based on cognitive approach of morality was due to the fact that moral reasoning plays an important role in moral choice and moral behavior [2, 4, 5, 19]. Studies conducted in sports have showed that there is a relation between moral action and goal orientation. In particular they show that an ego-oriented individual is more prone to approve of an inapt behavior and to accept athletic aggression, while this is not the case for task-oriented individuals [12, 13]. When a conflict arises, task-oriented individuals are more prone to choose moral than non-moral values [12, 29] and they are also more prone to respect social conventions and obey the rules and their officials [13]. Kavussanu and Roberts [16] have found that ego-oriented players were more likely than task-oriented players to have lower scores on moral reasoning, greater approval of unsportsmanship behavior, and to judge that intentionally injurious acts were legitimate. Besides, Nicholls [21] argues that children are task-oriented until they become mature when they are able to understand this ability, because they cannot differentiate the ability. He also argues that adolescents and adults can differentiate the ability and be orientated more or less to the task or the ego. Even Nicholls [14] supports that children s reasoning levels might relate to the developmental meanings (e.g., effort, ability, chance and task difficulty) and to such disciplines as sports and school. Taking into consideration the researchers results so far, we assumed for this study that the goal perspectives (task and ego) relate to the stages of moral reasoning that describe reasoning and lead to choices relating to those characterizing the behavior of task-involved or ego-involved individuals for achievement goal in sport. It was also assumed that the level of moral reasoning (according to the standards as in [27]) set for the general population and wide social strata, would have an effect on the achievement goal orientation. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of moral reasoning on the goal perspectives and at the same time, to confirm Nicholls s assertion that developmental meanings were related to the levels of moral reasoning in sport contexts. METHODS Participants 325 athletes participated in the study, male (n = 221) and female (n = 114), aged from 14 to 39 years (mean = 20.15, SD =3.84). They were football players (n = 67), handball players (n = 78), basketball players (n = 58), and individual athletes (n = 122). Measures Goal Orientation. The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) was used to assess

3 of 7 7/12/2010 8:40 μμ Goal Orientation. The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) was used to assess individual differences in the subjects goal perspectives [10]. The TEOSQ was designed to assess individual differences in proneness for task and goal involvement in a certain sport environment [11]. The validity of TEOSQ was examined and compared with Nicholls in a classroom Motivation Orientation Scales [22]. Other studies showed evidence for the validity and reliability of both factors of goal orientation theory and the use of TEOSQ for the counting of goal orientation [6, 10]. Moral Reasoning. Rest s Defining Issues Test (DIT) [25] was used to provide information about subjects moral reasoning. The full version of the Defining Issues Test consisted of six stories describing dilemmas. In the present study, an abridged version with three stories was used. Each story had 12 issues which the subjects was asked to evaluate in order of importance on a 5-point scale. Next, the subject was asked to consider the set of 12 items and to rank the four most important ones. The majority of these items represented Kohlberg s stages of moral judgment [17]. From this ranking the P score was derived, which was interpreted according to the relative importance a subject gave to moral consideration in making a decision about moral dilemmas. The P score was the sum of scores which resulted from the data corresponding to Stages 5A, 5B and 6. Furthermore, as Rest [26] suggested, two additional checks were performed on the reliability of the questionnaire. The first, with the use of M score, comprising of questions with no meaning; and the second with the ranking of the items on a four-item scale in order of importance. According to Rest, Narvaez, Mitchell and Thoma [27], test-retest reliabilities for the P scores are generally in the high 0.70s or 0.80s. The Cronbach Alpha index of internal consistency is generally in the high 0.70s, and has been calculated by determining a participant s stage score for each story, and then looking at the consistency of the stage score across all stories. Besides, the Defining Issues Test offers a chance to separate the sample in groups related to the development of moral reasoning in high, middle, low (see [27] for more information). RESULTS Descriptive statistics revealed that the individuals in our sample were more task-oriented (mean = 3.59, SD = 1.11), in comparison to the ego-oriented (mean = 2.69, SD = 0.83) for achieving the goal in sports. On the other hand, descriptive statistics showed a preeminence in the scores for Stage 4 (mean = 31.04, SD = 14.66) against the scores of Stage 3 (mean = 24.93, SD = 12.01), Stage 5Α (mean = 18.19, SD = 9.90), Stage 2 (mean = 9.52, SD = 6.42), Stage 6 (mean = 8.27, SD = 5.38), and Stage 5Β (mean = 7.13, SD = 4.83). Pearson s bivariate correlation (Table 1) showed that Task Orientation was positively correlated with Stage 2 (r (225) = 0.23, p < 0.01), Stage 4 (r (302) = 0.19, p < 0.01) and Stage 6 (r (214) = 0.18, p < 0.01). On the contrary, Ego Orientation showed that it was negatively correlated only with Stage 6 (r (210) = -0.19, p < 0.01). Table 1. Correlates of Orientation (Task and Ego) and Stages of Moral Reasoning A multivariate analysis of variance results between Goal Orientation and Stages Moral Reasoning confirmed the correlation results (Table 2). The multivariate relation was important between the goal orientation and Stage 2 (Wilk s lambda = 0.262, F (16,46) = 2.74, p < 0.01), and Stage 4 (Wilk s lambda = 0.154, F (40,46) = 1.77, p < 0.05). Except for the main effects, interactions were found in the shaping of goal orientation between Stage 2 and 3 (Wilk s lambda = 0.269, F (18,46) = 2.37, p < 0.01), Stage 2 and 4 (Wilk s lambda = 0.175, F (28,46) = 2.28, p < 0.01), Stage 3 and 4 (Wilk s lambda = 0.037, F (74,46) =

4 of 7 7/12/2010 8:40 μμ (Wilk s lambda = 0.175, F (28,46) = 2.28, p < 0.01), Stage 3 and 4 (Wilk s lambda = 0.037, F (74,46) = 2.62, p < 0.01) and Stage 5Α and 6 (Wilk s lambda = 0.273, F (4,22) = 5.02, p < 0.01). A further univariate analysis (Table 3) showed significant differences between task orientation of Stage 2 (F (8,216) = 3.65, p < 0.01) and ego orientation of Stage 4 (F (20,216) = 2.15, p < 0.05). However, significant differences were found between task orientation and the interacting Stages 5Α and 6 (F (2.58) = 7.28, p < 0.01). Table 2. Multivariate Analyses of the Effect of Stages of Moral Reasoning on Goal Orientation Table 3. Univariate Analyses in Goal Orientation according to Stages of Moral Reasoning A multivariate analysis was used to examine the effect of moral development (P scores) on goal orientation. A one-way MANOVA was conducted with Task and Ego Orientation subscales as dependent variables and the P scores (cut on three levels). The results showed a significant effect of the levels of moral development (P scores) in the Goal Orientation (Wilk s lambda = 0.965, F (4,566) = 2.56, p < 0.05). Yet the univariate F test showed a statistically significant effect of the level of moral development only on Task Orientation (F (2,284) = 3.79, p < 0.05). Tukey s post hoc tests showed that Task Orientation differed significantly only between the levels of low-high moral development (t 2 = 0.479, p < 0.05), revealing at the same time a reduction in the interest of task orientation with an increase in the level of moral development. DISCUSSION The aim of this study was to examine a possibility to understand the athletes orientation to achieve their goal with the use of the stages of moral reasoning. Even though researches [1] claim there is strong evidence for a relationship between the level of moral reasoning and moral behavior, this assertion has not been confirmed by our study. This is a proof that a single cognitive-developmental analysis of the internal structure of moral meanings of athletes could make a significant contribution to the understanding of orientation in the goal achievement in sports. The results presented in Table 1 showed a significant and positive correlation between the task orientation and Stages 2, 4 and 6 of moral reasoning. In regard to the ego orientation it showed an unexpected significant but negative correlation with Stage 6. Stages 3, 5Α and 5Β were not proven to be good measures to foresee goal orientation in sports. This can be explained by the fact that the functioning of Stage 3 does not apply in sports, because the athletes pursue to win. This is an element which might not be pleasant for all and contradicts the function of Stage 3. The same also applies to Stage 5 since individuals pursuing victory by any means cannot at the same time be interested in the right of others, which is a prerequisite for the functioning of Stage 5.

5 of 7 7/12/2010 8:40 μμ time be interested in the right of others, which is a prerequisite for the functioning of Stage 5. The contribution of the stages of moral reasoning to forecasting goal orientation becomes clearer once the structure of thinking in Stages 2, 4 and 6 and the behavior of task-oriented individuals have been analyzed. The same goes for Stage 6 with behaviors that characterize ego-oriented individuals. The contribution of the moral reasoning stages can be seized also by the fact that 48.8% of variance of scores of Stage 2 and the 60.7% of Stage 4 explain the differentiation of scores in goal orientation. Specifically, the contribution of Stage 2 is more appropriate to understand task orientation, since the scores explain 60.8% of variance. The contribution of Stage 4 was found to be higher in relation to the understanding of ego orientation, since the scores explain the 64.2% of variance. Finally, understanding of the task orientation was found to contribute significantly as well as the interaction of Stages 5Α and 6 since the scores explain the 54.8% of variance. The results of this study confirmed the other hypothesis that the level of moral reasoning has a goal orientation, a result that reinforces the view that goal orientation is related to moral maturity [8, 22]. The study revealed that task orientation differs significantly between high and low levels of moral reasoning. This result is reinforced by other researchers results, which showed a relationship between high task orientation and a high level of moral reasoning [13, 20, 30]. Besides, the decrease in the interest for task orientation along with the increase of rates in moral reasoning reinforces Nicholls argument. The increase of the cognitive level (moral reasoning) is accompanied by a differentiation of the meaning of efforts, since a reduction of interest in task orientation was found. After the evaluation of the data in the stages of moral reasoning, as given by the Defining Issues Test, we initially concluded that in the cognitive-developmental model of moral development and particularly through the knowledge of stages of moral reasoning the orientation for the goal achievement in sports can partially be understood. The reservation is due to the fact that all the stages failed to show their relation to the goal perspectives and those showing that influence the goal perspectives did not explain the total of variance. Yet there is also another doubt based on the fact that stages of moral reasoning are structural segments of human thought and not behavior indexes [3, 24]. It can be finally concluded that task orientation is related to moral maturity. REFERENCES [1] Bandura A., Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. [In:] W. M. Kurtines, J. L. Gewirtz, eds, Handbook of moral behavior and development. Vol. 1: Theory. Hillsdale, 1991, pp. 45-104. [2] Blasi A., Bridging moral cognition and moral action: A critical review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 1980, 88(1), pp. 1-45. [3] Broughton J., The cognitive-developmental approach to morality: A reply to Kurtines and Greif. Journal of Moral Education, 1978, 7(2), pp. 81-95. [4] Candee D., Structure and choice in moral reasoning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976, 34(6), pp. 1293-1301. [5] Candee D., Kohlberg L., Moral judgment and moral action: A reanalysis of Haan, Smith and Block s (1968) free speech movement data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987, 52, pp. 554-564. [6] Chi L., Duda J. L., Multi-sample confirmatory factory analysis of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 1995, 66, pp. 91-98. [7] Duda J. L., Toward a developmental theory of children s action tendency scale. Journal of Sport Psychology, 1987, 9, pp. 130-145. [8] Duda J. L., Relationship between task and ego orientation and the perceived purpose of sport among high school athletes. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 1989, 11, pp. 318-335.

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