the moral reasoning of student athletes and athletic training students

CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
Research Method
This will be a descriptive study with two parts that will: 1) pilot the Ergogenic Aids Moral
Competence Inventory for validation purposes and 2) examine the general moral reasoning of
Division I college student athletes’ and athletic training students’ compared with their moral
reasoning about doping in sport as one measure of character development in higher education.
This study will identify what, if any correlations exist between measured levels of moral
reasoning and attitudes toward doping in athletes and athletic training students. The Institutional
Review Board approval was granted for this study on March 1, 2007. The IRB file number is
9596-a. (See appendix A).
Participants
Participants will include volunteer student athletes from the women’s crew, men’s and
women’s track and football teams of a division I athletic institution. It will also include students
currently enrolled in an athletic training education program. Each participant will be given a
brief background to the study, and opportunity to ask questions and then asked to sign an
informed consent. Athletic training students will be given the opportunity to volunteer for this
study during a class time for a course in which they are all enrolled.
Instruments
Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI)
The Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (see Appendix B) is an instrument that
measures moral reasoning in sport. The instrument is based in deontological moral theory
(Frankena, 1973) Rawls Theory of Justice (1971), Kohlberg’s Philosophy of moral development
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