The present study tested a model of individual differences in moral thought, which assumes that attitudes concerning prescribed and proscribed social actions are part of an integrated conceptual system of personal ethics. When individuals who have varying personal moral philosophies were compared, those who emphasize the validity of fundamental moral principles (nonrelativists) expressed relatively negative attitudes about proscribed forms of sexual behavior, whereas relativists' reactions were more positive . The impact of relativism on attitudes, however, was tempered by idealism: when individuals endorsed highly idealistic ideologies, relativism was unrelated to attitudes. These find ings suggest that variations in sexual attitudes are linked to individual differences in moral outlook.Since the publication of Kinsey 's research dealing with sexual behavior, many researchers have sought to uncover the reasons for widespread variations in sexual attitudes and behavior (Hendrick, Hendrick, Slapion-Foote, & Foote, 1985;Kinsey , Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948;Singh , 1980 ;Staples, 1978). The present study extended this research by presenting and testing a model of sexual attitudes based on personal moral philosophies. According to this model, attitudes concerning sexual practices are sustained by moral values that define a sense of right and wrong for the individual. Sexual attitudes are not isolated from other social attitudes , but instead are part of an integrated conceptual system of personal ethics. This integrated system, or personal moral philosophy, provides guidelines for moral judgments, solutions to ethical dilemmas, and prescriptions for actions in morally toned situations. Applied to variations in sexual attitudes, this model argues that individuals differ in their reactions to various types of sexual activities, such as premarital sex, extramarital sex, and sex between same-sexed individuals , because they endorse divergent personal moral philosophies.Variations in personal moral philosophies can be conceptualized in a variety of ways (Gilligan, 1982 ;Haan, 1986;Hogan, 1973;Kohlberg , 1983; see Waterman, 1988, for a review). Forsyth (1980Forsyth ( , 1985 , for example, offered a two-dimensional model based on relativ ism and idealism. Identified initially in an exploratory study of individual differences in judgments of psychologicalThe authors thank L. Diana, K. Singh , and 1. S. William s for their assistance with various aspects of this research . Reprint requests should be sent to Donelson R. Forsyth, Department of Psychology, Virgini a Commonwealth University, Richmond , VA 23284-2018. research, these two dimensions parallel distinctions made by other theorists and researchers. In many cases, previous researchers have viewed these two aspects of morality as the endpoints of a single continuum, or as mutually exclusive categories. In contrast, Forsyth's twodimensional model of personal moral philosophies assumes that individuals range from high to low in their emphasis on principles and consequence...
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