Comparison of Academically Average and Gifted Students' Self-Rated Ethical Sensitivity

This study examined the ethical sensitivity of 2 Finnish urban schools' 7th- to 9th-grade students (N = 249) with the Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ), based on Narvaez' (2001 Narvaez, D., Endicott, L. and Bock, T. Constructing ethical expertise: A new approach to moral education. Paper presented at the Association for Moral Education Annual Meeting. Vancouver, Canada. October. [Google Scholar]) operationalization of ethical sensitivity. Three research questions were formulated: (1) Are the psychometric properties of ESSQ scientifically valid? Are there any differences in the ethical sensitivity between (2) female and male and (3) academically average and gifted students? Results showed that psychometric properties of ESSQ were satisfactory for scientific work. According to the results, female students estimated their ethical skills higher than their male peers. This tendency was explained by the nature of items, which mostly measure caring ethics with emotional and social intelligence. Academically gifted students estimated their ethical skills higher than average ability students. This finding supported other researchers' notions that gifted students hold a privileged position in the maturation of moral thinking because of their precocious intellectual growth.