Negotiating autonomy, community, and divinity in urban Filipino young adults’ moral reasoning

Abstract

Cultural approaches to examining the development of moral reasoning have been influential for decades. Still, gaps remain in understanding how individuals actively construct their moral reasoning within different sociocultural contexts and the period of young adulthood in the Filipino setting. Thus, this study examined the discourses used by urban Filipino young adults in reasoning about their moral conflicts and the ways they adopted and adapted these discourses in their reasoning. The study used a social constructionist perspective, informed by Shweder and colleagues’ ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity and Jensen’s cultural-developmental approach. We conducted thematic analysis with attention to discourse on interviews with 12 urban young adults aged 21 to 29, producing three major discursive themes: harm and welfare, rules and roles, and liberal principles. The specific appropriation of these discourses suggests the dominance of the ethic of Autonomy. However, this often co-occurred with expressions of Community and Divinity, and the extent and manner of appropriation of these discourses varied according to individuals’ characteristics and experiences. By examining young adults’ negotiation of moral discourses in the Philippines, this research enriches understanding of moral reasoning in a sociohistorical context where young people increasingly contend with conflicts between traditional and global values.