Article

Supporting ethical problem solving: an exploratory investigation

Authors:

Russell W. Robbins,

William A. Wallace,

Bill PukaAuthors Info & Claims

SIGMIS CPR '04: Proceedings of the 2004 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Careers, culture, and ethics in a networked environment

Pages 134 - 143

https://doi.org/10.1145/982372.982407

Published: 22 April 2004 Publication History

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate the use of decision aid technologies to support ethical problem solving. The decision aid developed for the exploratory study described in this paper was web-based and provided content that summarized and simplified much of moral philosophy (i.e. normative ethical theory) [3, 5, 11, 13, 18, 24, 26]. The ethical dilemma was posed in case format. Participants were asked to write, and revise as necessary, a solution to the case. The decision aid was developed to address five constructs in the research model: (1) Perceived Ethical Problem, (2) Perceived Alternatives, (3) Deontological Evaluation, (4) Teleological Evaluation, and (5) an Ethic of Care. Results from analysis showed that participants that used the decision aid identified the case's main issue, personal information privacy, more frequently than participants that did not use the decision aid. Individuals with support of the decision aid discussed the need to respect equal individual rights more often. Mixed results were found concerning use of other concepts from moral philosophy. An analysis technique was used that generated and statistically analyzed graphs that described how users navigated through decision problems. First, the participants' movements were captured as they went from page to page. These data were then used to construct depth-first-search trees (a particular type of graph). Characteristics of these trees were compared statistically, and the results showed no difference in the way control or treatment users navigated. Web-based ethical decision aids can be built and used, and can improve the solutions developed by students solving cases in a laboratory environment.

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Cited By

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DiBiase DHarvey FGoranson CWright D(2012)The GIS Professional Ethics Project: Practical Ethics for GIS ProfessionalsTeaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education10.1002/9781119950592.ch14(199-209)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2012
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https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978036.022
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Supporting ethical problem solving: an exploratory investigation

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGMIS CPR '04: Proceedings of the 2004 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Careers, culture, and ethics in a networked environment

April 2004

160 pages

ISBN:1581138474

DOI:10.1145/982372

Conference Chair:
Mohan Tanniru
University of Arizona
,
Program Chair:
Suzanne Weisband
University of Arizona

Copyright © 2004 ACM.

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Published: 22 April 2004

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SIGMIS04: ACM SIGMIS 2004 Computer Personnel: Careers, Culture and Ethics in a Networked Environment

April 22 - 24, 2004

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1109/ACITT.2019.8780017
DiBiase DHarvey FGoranson CWright D(2012)The GIS Professional Ethics Project: Practical Ethics for GIS ProfessionalsTeaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education10.1002/9781119950592.ch14(199-209)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2012
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119950592.ch14
McLaren B(2011)Computational Models of Ethical ReasoningMachine Ethics10.1017/CBO9780511978036.022(297-315)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2011
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978036.022
Robbins RFleischmann KWallace W(2009)Computing and Information Ethics Education ResearchHandbook of Research on Technoethics10.4018/978-1-60566-022-6.ch026(391-408)Online publication date: 2009
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-022-6.ch026
Mathieson K(2007)Towards a Design Science of Ethical Decision SupportJournal of Business Ethics10.1007/s10551-006-9281-476:3(269-292)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2007
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9281-4
Rigopoulos GKeklikoglou IKaradimas NEconomou C(2006)Architecture for teaching computer ethics within an e-learning environmentProceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Systems10.5555/1984211.1984347(714-718)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1984211.1984347
Rigopoulos GKaradimas N(2006)Increasing ethical awareness of IT students through online learningProceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Informatics and Communications10.5555/1366421.1366467(265-269)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2006
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McLaren B(2006)Computational Models of Ethical ReasoningIEEE Intelligent Systems10.1109/MIS.2006.6721:4(29-37)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MIS.2006.67

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