Implicit values behind young architects’ moral level: a case study in Malaysia

Abstract

Moral principles are perpetually of immense significance in human society. Kohlberg has been recognized in the scholar world as the forerunner in identifying moral levels. Though subjective, his six levels of morality set the platform for other researchers to look deeply into it across many parameters. Later on, attempts were also made to measure morality quantitatively. Defining Issues Test (DIT) is one of the most recognized one. Studies went one step deeper with professional ethics being considered as a component of general morality. The challenge was that, while measuring ethics, a universal tool seemed to be unfair to judge different professionals. Moreover, in most cases, code of conducts, instead of morality, was the platform to measure Ethics. Construction-related Moral-judgment Test (CMT) was one of few newly developed tools to measure professional ethics, with ‘construction’ in this case being the profession. This study customized CMT, specific to architects in the context of Malaysia, but adopted Kohlberg’s moral levels as the platform to judge morality, instead of measuring ethical level on the basis of practicing codes of conducts in the profession. Investigating on a sample of 135 young architects around Malaysia selected through stratified random sampling, the study found some implicit interesting factors that emerged. It showed that working experience might be strongly correlated with increasing level of morality, but at young age, it might show a different direction in the curve.