Attributional characteristics of moral dilemma reasoning

A sample of 309 adolescents (age from 14 - 18) was investigated in order to ascertain the relation between decision-making and reasoning in the moral dilemma and the characteristics of attribution. As a method there was used a dilemma concerning the abortion with eight alternative solutions: four of them leading to abortion and four to its refusal. The general level of externality was examined by ASQ questionnaire. The results obtained confirmed the relationship, however, only in the case of solutions leading to the abortion. We have found that the increase of externality in mates is connected with the increasing agreement with abortion, if the explanation offered is that the child should be a possible reason for mate's future failure. On the other hand, in the case of female the increasing externality is connected with agreement with abortion in those cases, where the abortion is explained by the fear of woman's accusation of the future child as a cause of her future failure. The increase of female's internality is connected to their agreement with abortion, if the explanation offered is a possible inability to provide sufficient care for the child. As it was expected, more internal males agreed more with the abortion, if the explanation offered expressed his autonomy in decision-making as a principle.