Research Article

Finnish Teachers’ Ethical Sensitivity

Table 1

The Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ).

Item/labelM (SD)

(1) Reading and expressing emotions
es1_1/In conflict situations, I am able to identify other persons’ feelings. 4.0 (0.6)
 es1_2/I am able to express my different feelings to other people.4.0 (0.7)
es1_3/I notice if someone working with me is offended by me. 4.0 (0.6)
 es1_4/I am able to express to other people if I am offended or hurt because of them.3.3 (0.9)

(2) Taking the perspectives of others
 es2_5/I am able to cooperate with people who do not share my opinions on what is right and what is wrong.4.2 (0.6)
 es2_6/I tolerate different ethical views in my surroundings.4.1 (0.7)
 es2_7/I think it is good that my closest friends think in different ways.4.2 (0.5)
 es2_8/I also get along with people who do not agree with me.4.2 (0.6)

(3) Caring by connecting to others
 es3_9/I am concerned about the well being of my partners.4.0 (0.6)
 es3_10/I take care of the well being of others and try to improve it.4.3 (0.6)
 es3_11/In conflict situations I do my best to take actions that aim at maintaining good personal relationships.4.3 (0.6)
es3_12/I try to have good contact with all the people I am working with. 4.2 (0.7)

(4) Working with interpersonal and group differences
 es4_13/I take other peoples’ points of view into account before making any important decisions in my life.3.8 (0.8)
 es4_14/I try to consider another person’s position when I face a conflict situation.4.0 (0.6)
 es4_15/When I am working on ethical problems I consider the impact of my decisions on other people.4.1 (0.6)
 es4_16/I try to consider other peoples’ needs, even in situations concerning my own benefits.4.1 (0.6)

(5) Preventing social bias
 es5_17/I recognize my own bias when I take a stand on ethical issues.3.9 (0.7)
 es5_18/I realize that I am tied to certain prejudices when I assess ethical issues.4.0 (0.8)
 es5_19/I try to control my own prejudices when making ethical evaluations.4.0 (0.7)
 es5_20/When I am resolving ethical problems I try to take a position evolving out of my own social status.3.7 (0.8)

(6) Generating interpretations and options
 es6_21/I contemplate on the consequences of my actions when making ethical decisions.4.2 (0.6)
 es6_22/I ponder on different alternatives when aiming at the best possible solution to an ethically problematic situation. 4.2 (0.6)
 es6_23/I am able to create many alternative ways to act when I face ethical problems in my life.3.7 (0.7)
es6_24/I believe there are several right solutions to ethical problems. 4.0 (0.8)

(7) Identifying the consequences of actions and options
 es7_25/I notice that there are ethical issues involved in human interaction.4.1 (0.7)
 es7_26/I see a lot of ethical problems around me.3.5 (1.0)
 es7_27/I am aware of the ethical issues I face at school.3.9 (0.6)
 es7_28/I am better than other people in recognizing new and current ethical problems.3.0 (0.8)

Note: Items in italics were not accepted for the final model. Items es1_1, es1_3, es4_13, and es6_24 with lowest values in extraction communalities were removed, so that the determinant was 𝑝 = . 0 0 1 . In addition, item es3_12 was deleted because the factor loading of the item was lower than .30.