Ethical Inclinations of Future Public Relations Practitioners.

To understand better the ethical inclinations of public relations students, a study examined students' self-reported ethical beliefs and behaviors regarding their college work. In two mid-Atlantic state universities, a questionnaire was administered to communication classes for college juniors and seniors during the winter term 1988, yielding 258 usable responses (70% of the eligible sample). The questionnaire consisted of 26 items in each of three "belief" and two "behavior" situations relating to college work, such as writing term papers, taking tests, and doing homework. Items were measured on five-point response categories ranging from "very unethical" to "not at all unethical," and examined the ethical beliefs of public relations students, their perceptions of the ethical beliefs of most college students, their perceptions of the ethical beliefs of their professors, their self-reported ethical behaviors, and their perceptions of the ethical behaviors of most college students. Factor analysis identified four primary ethical dimensions: (1) traditional behaviors (unethical behaviors among students); (2) normative behaviors (caused when social pressures exert influence on behavior regardless of personal beliefs); (3) collegial-support behaviors (opportunistic behaviors related to the intent to create a supportive environment for involvement in unethical behaviors); and (4) substitution behaviors (for example, taking a test for another student). Results indicated that the students' ethical beliefs were moderately high, but were rated lower than those of their professors and higher than those of their colleagues. (One figure and four tables of data are included, and 61 footnotes are appended.) (MM)