Analysis

Four ethical perspectives were considered in the construction of the Ethical Position Questionnaire: (a) situationism, which supports a contextual analysis of morally questionable actions; (b) absolutism, which applies unchanging, universal moral principles to form ethical judgments; (c) subjectivism, which maintains that moral judgments should primarily depend on one’s personal values; and (d) exceptionism, which acknowledges that, at times, exceptions must be made to moral absolutes. The original EPQ used a 9-point scale, but the version presented here uses a 5-point scale. Idealism scores are calculated by summing responses to items 1 through 10. Relativism scores are calculated by summing responses to items 11 through 20. As the scale is used primarily for research purposes, no normative data are available.

Purpose

The aim of this questionnaire is to measure individuals’ ethical preferences and perspectives in relation to how they interpret moral issues. Based on the four described ethical outlooks (situationism, absolutism, subjectivism, exceptionism), the goal is to understand how people approach moral questions according to these views.

Scoring

The EPQ-20 consists of 20 items, which are rated on the following scale:
1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Disagree very much
3 = Moderately disagree
4 = Slightly disagree
5 = Neither agree nor disagree
6 = Slightly agree
7 = Moderately agree
8 = Strongly agree
9 = Completely agree

References

Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 175–184.