Two Perspectives: On Self, Relationships, and Morality

Nona Plessner Lyons offers interview data from female and male children, adolescents,and adults in support of the assertions of Carol Gilligan (HER, 1977) that there are two distinct modes of describing the self in relation to others—separate/objective and connected—as well as two kinds of considerations used by individuals in making moral decisions—justice and care. She then describes a methodology, developed from the data, for systematically and reliably identifying these modes of self-definition and moral judgment through the use of two coding schemes. Finally, an empirical study testing Gilligan's hypotheses of the relationship of gender to self-definition and moral judgment is presented with implications of this work for psychological theory and practice.