Abstract

Two investigations were carried out to understand the normative characteristics of the public and private social spheres in Korea. In study 1, the contents of the textbooks for ethic class for the first two levels of elementary school were analyzed. The books contained a number of norms which I classified into three categories. The norms place strong emphasis on the importance of social harmony and hierarchy in both private and public relationship, indicating no clear demarcation between private and public spheres. In study 2, students in two age groups(middle school and college) were provided three brief vignettes and asked to evaluate the action taken by the protagonist. Each vignette described a social situation where the actor acted for public justice or for private relationship. For a half of the students the vignettes described justice oriented action and for the other half, relationship orited action. The respondents favored the justice discourse but the relationship discourse was also frequently appeared. The two discourses may represent two different modes of thinking which cannot be reducible to either one. Suggestions were made with regard to ethics education in elementary school and to psychologist's approach toward social discourses in Korea.