Reasons for High School Students to Mistrust Most People: A Study in the Context of Values Education.
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: This studyaims to determine high school students' reasons for mistrust other people. In this qualitative study the data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The study group was se-.ected by using the purposeful sampling method of criterion sampling. 87 students in the study group were asked to complete open-ended guestions and 10 were invited for interviews. The data collection technigues ir the study were the open-ended form designed by the researcher and a semi-structured interview form. The con¬tent analysis showed that students did not trust other people as everyone thinks about their own self-interest the human nature was not reliable, people today were different, people might disappoint, it was hard to know oeople, people did not keep secrets, and money controlled everyone. These findings were discussed in relator to values education and the recommendations were made for educational institutions Key Words Interpersonal Trust, Trust in Humans, Mistrust, Cynicism, Values Education. Trust is having positive expectations on other people's future behaviors or intentions (Lewicki, McAllister, & Bies, 1998; Rotter, 1967; Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998; Sztompka, 2001). Trust is also defined as one party being sure that the other party will not abuse their weaknesses (Korczynski, 2003), lack of feelings such as worry and fear (Solomon & Flores, 2001). Trustful be¬havior reflects concepts such as moral duties and promises (Tyler & Kramer, 1996). When explain¬ing trust building behaviors, value laden terms such as virtue, morality, good (Kipnis, 1996), sin- cerity, authenticity, honesty and honor (Solomon & Flores). Research on trust lends significant sup¬port to the idea that trust has a moral base. How¬ever, trust is also built on information on other people (Uslaner, 2001). At the same time, trust is an important strategy to cope with the unpredict¬able, vague and uncontrollable future (Sztompka). Trust is examined in four headings: basic trust, sim¬ple trust, blind trust, and real trust. Basic trust is considered basic because it generally starts without much thought and provides a general orientation towards the world. In simple trust which does not require thought, informed preference, research or justification, there is no place for doubt (Solomon & Flores, 2001). Usually, a big part of human life involves and unconscious and spontaneous trust, instead of conscious trust behaviors (Blois, 1998). Blind trust does not include rational evaluation and is unconditional (Nooteboom, 2002). Real trust arises when caution, calculation, thinking and conditions enter the process of trust (Solomon & Flores). Sztompka (2001) states that trust in others requires a certain level of self-confidence. Trusting People Trusting in people is giving the message that they are with respect to character values and cognitive competencies. A trusted person receives the message you know your responsibilities, are moral and adequate and feels honored. While our schools teach being trustworthy as a value, they do not view trusting others as a value (Akbas, 2004). When secondary school curricula are examined, it can be seen that values and affective characteristics do not have a prominent place, and the values of re¬liability and trust do not appear at all (MEB, 2011). Mistrust Mistrust describes a negative expectation about other people's behaviors (Lewicki et al., 1998). Previous research has shown that people tend to mistrust rather than trust. The strongest and most effective learning function of the brain is to retain and automatically use stimuli created by threats (Ladoux, 2006). People also tend to over emphasize the power of personal benefits that motivate the be¬haviors of others (Miller & Ratner, 1998). They are keen to consider themselves more ethical, fair and sociable than others (Allison, Messick, & Goethals, 1989; Fetchenhauer & Dunning, 2009; Van Lange & Sedikides, 1998). …
Author: Oktay Akbaş
Language: English
Topic: Values and Moral Education
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W214775663