Thinking Styles and Moral Values in Adulthood

Moral values are the root of human behaviour, representing a link between individual orientations and individual behaviour. They are highly influenced by the social environment and by the social position, as well as by the way people analyse a situation, solve a problem and behave in a certain situation. Thinking styles are the cognitive foundations of an individual's choices and decisions. The objectives we set out are: 1) to offer an overview on adults perception of moral values; 2) to discover the existence of significant differences between male and female adults regarding their moral value systems and 3) to distinguish the differences between the adult's classification of moral values due to the predominance of a certain thinking style. Using the Rokeach Value Survey (1973) and the Thinking Styles Inventory by Sternberg & Wagner (1992), we questioned 130 participants, between 36 and 65 years of age. We discovered that today's adults value health, family security or wisdom (terminal values) and ambition, responsibility or love (instrumental values). Using Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test we discovered that while men value freedom and excitement, women value peace (terminal values). For instrumental values, women value cleanliness and men value logic significantly different. We also found significant differences between men and women regarding their moral value systems based on the predominance of a certain thinking style.