{"id":7157,"date":"2018-07-10T16:10:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T16:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/cameron\/?p=7157"},"modified":"2018-07-10T16:10:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T16:10:42","slug":"ethical-character-is-a-standardized-assessment-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/cameron\/ethical-character-is-a-standardized-assessment-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethical Character: Is a Standardized Assessment Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn order to good deeds, it matters not only what a man does, but also how he does it; to wit, that he do it from right choice and not merely from impulse or passion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014St. Thomas Aquinas, <\/a>Summa Theologiae, <\/em>I-II.q57.a5<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Dr. Samuel B. Condic —In the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas, a large part of our mission is to develop and educate ethical business leaders. Therefore, an analysis of ethical character and how it can be measured is an important discussion for students and faculty alike.<\/p>\n

The iconic 1960s book (and movie) A Clockwork Orange<\/em><\/a> tells the story of Alex, a British street thug who has a passion for senseless violence (and also Beethoven; but I digress).\u00a0 To make a long story short:\u00a0 Alex is eventually arrested for his thuggery and, rather than being incarcerated, he is \u201ccured\u201d of his violent ways via a Skinnerian-style operant<\/a> conditioning procedure (this is set in a futuristic, dystopian universe, after all).\u00a0 The Authorities strap Alex into a chair and force him to watch scenes of violence until his psyche and his senses are utterly oversaturated.\u00a0 What was first rather enjoyable to little Alex now becomes panic-inducing and nauseating.\u00a0 Following his rehabilitation, even the slightest thought of violence is sufficient to make Alex violently ill, and his only remedy is to push such thoughts aside through the doing of good deeds.\u00a0 Hence, where before Alex would have gleefully accosted the Little Old Lady crossing the street for the sheer pleasure of it all, instead he now rushes to assist said Lady so as to dissipate the nefarious thought (and to stop the dry heaves).<\/p>\n

The question this scenario raises is this:\u00a0 Would we say that Alex is now a good man, since all he ever does is good deeds?\u00a0 As judged by the quote that started this blog entry, St. Thomas would say \u201cno,\u201d and certainly most would agree that Aquinas gets this right.\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough merely to do good deeds; one must do them because of their goodness.<\/em>\u00a0 What we do does matter, but why <\/em>we do it matters, also.<\/p>\n

Measurement of the Effects<\/strong><\/p>\n

That moral goodness requires the recognition of some good act as good<\/em> creates a difficulty for a standardized assessment of ethical character.\u00a0 In every case, assessment is a measurement of an effect<\/em> and not of a cause.\u00a0 We do not in any literal sense \u201csee\u201d what drives a person to make a certain choice. \u00a0Rather, we infer<\/em> something about the nature of the motivation based on the character of the action.<\/p>\n

The problem of course is that nearly every effect can be produced by more than one cause, and the more standardized the effect, the more easily different causes can produce it.\u00a0 For example, the devoted husband might bring his wife flowers to express his love.\u00a0 But the unfaithful scoundrel might present the same roses to his wife as a means of concealing his infidelity.\u00a0 Once it is established that giving flowers is the accepted sign of devotion, the sign can be readily faked.\u00a0 As a result, the observation of the effect in isolation leaves us no way of divining whether the motivation is love or deception.<\/p>\n

Variables<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nor does adding to the list of variables or changing them regularly resolve the problem, assuming the variables remain meaningful and are added in a standardized way.\u00a0 If the cheating scoundrel knows that his wife will consider not only the flowers, but also his posture, facial expression, and tone of voice when judging his sincerity, he will be sure to control for these variables, as well.\u00a0 Even if the variables are changed regularly they must still be variables of a certain sort in order to remain meaningful, in which case the efforts of our would-be Don Juan merely switch to producing effects of a certain type<\/em> rather than something specific.\u00a0 The underlying point remains valid:\u00a0 To the extent a metric is standardized, the easier it is to \u201cgame the system\u201d and produce the desired outcome through alternative causes.<\/p>\n

In such situations, the only way to separate the causal sheep from the goats is to make appeal to non-standardized factors such as context, circumstances, or history.\u00a0 The scoundrel is revealed not by the sub-standard quality of his bouquet or the slouch in his shoulders but by his reputation for a wandering eye and the fact that his old high school girlfriend was in town the night before.\u00a0 Things like moral character and raw intelligence are causes<\/em>, not effects and are most reliably revealed when the non-standardizable factors (what Aristotle might call \u201caccidental factors\u201d) make it difficult to substitute one cause for another.\u00a0 This can be seen clearly in the case of intellectual aptitude.\u00a0 Every teacher develops a sense of which students \u201cget it\u201d and which ones don\u2019t, and this recognition comes not so much from the grades on the students\u2019 exams but from unique events, and by definition what is unique is non-standard and non-reproducible as such.<\/p>\n

For example, a professor might think some student \u201cgets it\u201d because of his spontaneous response to an in-class question, or by his follow-up question.\u00a0 But once students know<\/em> that spontaneous questions are part of the evaluation process, they can prepare for them in advance.\u00a0 And if they prepare in advance, how \u201cspontaneous\u201d is their answer?\u00a0 And if they are not spontaneous, do their answers reveal raw intelligence, or rehearsal?\u00a0 The case of moral character is exactly parallel.\u00a0 Returning to the moral realm and our earlier example, we can see clearly that Alex\u2019s actions<\/em> were moral, but he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Another example from the academic world of assessing causes is the open-ended essay or term paper.\u00a0 Such methods do indeed give insight into the thought processes of the student, but only to the extent that they are open-ended.\u00a0 Theoretically, the ideal open-ended essay question could produce as many A-level responses as there are students in the class.\u00a0 But by this very fact the use of a truly standardized rubric is excluded since such a rubric, to the extent that it is standardized, must look for specific<\/em> things.<\/p>\n

What is the Remedy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is there are remedy to this situation?\u00a0 Can we devise a meaningful test of Alex\u2019s moral character?\u00a0 The answer is twofold.\u00a0 First, to the extent that standardized testing is necessary, we should accept the results for what they are.\u00a0 A standardized test principally measures the capacity to produce a desired effect.\u00a0 This information is often useful, and in some cases is what matters most.\u00a0 The primary interest of the quality control manager is that parts coming off the assembly line are as close to nominal specifications as possible.\u00a0 While the how<\/em> does matter, the emphasis is on whether or not they do.\u00a0 Similarly, the calculus professor accepts that his students might not actually \u201cget\u201d calculus until they have used it daily for many years.\u00a0 For the purposes of assigning grades in a course, the ability to arrive at the correct answer by the prescribed method is sufficient.\u00a0 In parallel fashion the same is true for assessment in ethics.\u00a0 Standardized testing might reveal the students\u2019 ability to identify and apply ethical principles, for example, but it tells us very little regarding their moral character \u2013what they will or will not do in a given situation.<\/p>\n

Second, we must recognize that any judgment of Alex\u2019s moral character (or his raw intelligence, for that matter) will come through non-standardized \u2013and non-standardizable\u2014methods.\u00a0 Just as the spontaneous question or open-ended essay reveals intelligence, so too will Alex\u2019s moral character be revealed through his thoughts and actions in non-standard situations.\u00a0 Alex, just like the rest of us, will show that he \u201cgets it\u201d in and through his ability act morally when the criteria are not established in advance and he must figure out and do<\/em> the right thing for himself.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

When generalized, the above observations also have relevance in a business context.\u00a0 For example, businesses routinely rely on standardized metrics for hiring and performance appraisals.\u00a0 While such benchmarks are quite necessary \u2013especially in a large enterprise\u2014organizations would do well to incorporate the use non-standardized (but still objective) metrics, so as to avoid an over-emphasis on effects<\/em> at the expense of causes.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Samuel B. Condic, Ph.D.<\/a>
\nVisiting Asst. Professor – Management & Marketing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn order to good deeds, it matters not only what a man does, but also how he does it; to wit, that he do it from right choice and not merely from impulse or passion.\u201d \u2014St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II.q57.a5   By Dr. Samuel B. 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