COMMON MORAL PROBLEMS ABSTRACT

This project seeks to answer the question, “what are the common moral problems with which professionals in the fields of law, medicine, nursing, business, engineering, teaching and the ministry routinely struggle?” This focus is in distinction to the more dramatic and well-publicized ethical dilemmas which often are the topics of concern in professional ethics.  The target population of this study is attorneys, nurses, doctors, business professionals, engineers, teachers and religious leaders.

The purpose of this research is threefold:  First, by providing a fine-grained portrait of moral challenges of each profession, we hope to provide a fuller understanding of the moral realities of contemporary professional life.  Second, this knowledge should extend our ability to develop more appropriate pedagogical interventions in the area of professional ethics suitable for professional training and continuing education. Third, the project may uncover differences in common moral problems along a range of variables: generational, professional specialization, region, race and gender, even as it may permit generalizations about the complex moral realities of professionals across several settings.  The outcome of the project will be a report on the ethical challenges of professionals today.
 
This is a pilot project, and will gather data from professionally active local Vanderbilt alumnae. It will collect data through focus groups, surveys, and interviews.  The information derived from the initial study will provide comparison material necessary to examine moral issues faced by people across differing professional and geographic locales.

A cursory examination of pertinent literature uncovers no previous research on this topic.