Lanterna Rally

Author: Ralph L. Mosher

Publisher: First-Year Experience and Students in Transition University of South Carolina

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13:

The connection between knowing the right or good thing to do, and then actually doing it has long been a puzzle. "Watch what we do, not what we say" goes beyond the revealing admission of a former Attorney General of the United States to the broader reality of human behavior. Parents, teachers, employers, religious educators, and society at large have a deep vested interest in understanding the relationship between, and in knowing how better to educate for, consistency in moral knowledge and behavior. The past twenty-five years have seen much productive research on the development of moral reasoning. Doing the right or good act now needs comparable study. The unique contribution of this book is its exploratory study of the connection between moral thinking and action. Research on this linkage is in its relative infancy. A key aim is to begin to throw light on what factors intervene between a person's moral judgment and subsequent action. Valuable--although untested--theoretical models have been put forward concerning this interaction; they are used to guide the initial development of questions, but not to the exclusion of focusing on the unique insights provided by the young adults as to the "process" and "problems" of living one's "life-morality." This book begins with statements from the executive director (John N. Gardner) and the President of the University of South Carolina (John M. Palms), as well as a foreword by Ralph L. Mosher. Following the foreword, this book contains four sections comprised of fourteen chapters. Section 1: Origins and Results of the Original Sierra Project--(1) Nevitt Sanford on Community and Concern with Moral Values in Higher Education (Nevitt Sanford); (2) The Aims of the Sierra Curriculum: "On Leaping Tall Buildings In A Single Bound" (Ralph L. Mosher); and (3) Character Development Over Four Years of Undergraduate Study (John M. Whiteley and Norma Yokota). Section 2: Theoretical Underpinnings of the Sierrans Revisited Research--(4) Young Adulthood in the Life Cycle; (5) Doing the Right or Good Act: Theories of Moral Action; and (6) Further Theoretical Perspectives on Making Moral Choices. Section 3: Narrative Insights into Moral Action in Young Adulthood--(7) Moral Dilemmas from Young Adulthood; (8) Moral Dilemmas in Interpersonal Relationships; (9) Moral Dilemmas in the Workplace; and (10) Exemplary Sierrans: Moral Influences. Section 4: Research Conclusions and Future Directions for Promoting Moral Action--(11) Moral Dilemmas of Everyday Life: Voices of the Sierrans; (12) Exceptional Moral Behavior; (13) Strength of Character and Moral Agency; and (14) Toward Promoting Moral Action in Young Adulthood. The following are appended: (1) Moral Action Interview; (2) Moral Behavior Interview; and (3) The Moral Influence Interview. Content and author indexes are included. (Individual chapters contain references.).