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Two moral abilities are particularly important for living together in a democracy: firstly the ability of all citizens to judge and to act in accordance with their own moral principles; secondly, the ability to solve conflicts by means of fear-free discussions instead of the use of violence and the exercise of power. As research shows, both basic abilities, which are often summed up under the overall concept of moral competence, are essential for a democratic way of life and the functioning of democratic institutions. They are important for many things, e.g., for helping people in distress (not just readiness to help), for making quick decisions, learning effectively, for tolerating ambiguity, and for rejecting violence as a means of social change. Research also shows that the school promotes moral competence less effec¬tively and less sustainably than is needed and seems possible today. In this editorial, I attempt to give a broad overview on the research on moral competence and its application in education and educational policy-making in the past thirty years, in which I have been personally involved. It is not a comprehensive handbook article, which remains to be written.

This study describes the results of interventions with the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD) by Georg Lind, with 89 economics undergraduate participants sampled from Guangdong province. The participants' mean C-score in the Moral Judgment Test increased only a little because of the teacher's little experience in using KMDD, but otherwise the intervention produced good results: the participants showed great interest in KMDD although this teaching method is very different from the typical Chinese teaching, and they enjoyed the KMDD-sessions and the classroom atmosphere created through it. Students' feedback will be useful for future application and research on KMDD in China.

Achievement goal approaches proliferated that mastery goals are associated with higher moral competence compared to performance goals. Several demographic characteristics have also been found to influence this relationship. The 2 × 2 achievement goal approach is the newest development in achievement goal approaches suggesting the existence of four achievement goals: mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. So far there has been no research evidence associating these achievement goals to moral competence and the role of demographic characteristics. The present study was designed to examine the effect of the 2 × 2 achievement goals on moral competence and the moderating role of athletes' age, experience, playing position, level and league of participation, education, job, and perceived ability. The sample of the study was comprised of 208 football and basketball athletes (Mage = 22.71 years old and SD ±5.09 years). The participants completed a Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, the Achievement Goals Questionnaire – Sport and the Moral Judgment Test. The results of the moderated hierarchical regression analyses indicated that athletes' adopting performance goals were associated with low moral competence. This relationship was moderated by several demographic characteristics such as age and experience, level of participation, and perceived ability. Among athletes adopting performance-approach goals, less moral competent athletes were found to be the older, the more experienced, and those participating in professional clubs. Among performance-avoidance-oriented athletes those with high perceived ability revealed less moral competence. No significant effect was found regarding mastery goals. These findings provide important information regarding the effect of achievement goals on moral competence and the role several demographic characteristics can play.

The introductioń to Ethics in Progress Special Issue, Vol. 7(1), No. 2 is given, with brief exposes on the articles present in the section.

The introductioń to Ethics in Progress Special Issue, Vol. 7(1), No. 2 isgiven, with brief exposes on the articles present in the section.

Often we have to decide on difficult problems and conflicts. For this, a certain level of moral competence is needed, in order to solve them as quickly and adequately as possible. Otherwise these problems and conflicts can overwhelm us, triggering a feeling of fear and panic, and making us react too slowly or inadequately, or both. Fear and panic can make us ignore problems and conflicts, attempt to "solve" them through brute force or deceit, or declare them to be beyond our responsibility and let an authority decide what to do. Often such makeshift solutions seem to work, but, more often, they have damaging effects. Therefore, society tries to curb criminal and anti-democratic activities through coercion, that is, through laws, law-enforcing institutions, and correction facilities – at high costs, and often with little efficacy. In this article I show that such coercion would not be needed if we gave all citizens an opportunity to develop their ability to solve conflicts and problems through thinking and discussion. Moral competence would immunize us against fear and panic, and thus also against immoral practices. Moral competence is not inborn in us, and it does not develop unless it is fostered through proper learning opportunities. Therefore, if we want to live together peacefully in a democratic society, we need to provide proper learning opportunities for everyone, not only of a few people. If the masses are infected by panic, a few rational people cannot stop this pandemic.

"Background: For Moral Case Deliberation (MCD), like any form of Clinical ethics support (CES), it is important to know whether it reaches its presumed goal of supporting healthcare professionals in their ethical challenges. Evaluation is needed to gain insight in the value of MCD. Therefore, the Euro-MCD instrument was developed to assess outcomes of MCD, and has now been revised. The aim of this presentation is to present the revised Instrument: the Euro-MCD 2.0. Methods: The revision process was an iterative dialogue in which field study findings were integrated with theoretical reflections and expert-input. Results: The Euro-MCD 2.0 has three domains: 1) Moral Competence, 2) Moral Teamwork and 3) Moral Action. Moral Competence includes items on moral sensitivity, analytical skills and a virtuous attitude, like 'I speak up in ethically difficult situations'. Moral Teamwork refers to open dialogue and supportive relationships, for example 'We feel secure to share emotions in ethically difficult situations'. Moral Action includes items about moral decision-making and responsible care, like 'We are able to explain and justify our care towards patients and their families'. Discussion: The Euro-MCD 2.0 is shorter and more strongly substantiated by empirical data and theoretical reflections. At the conference, we will reflect on the revision process and the underlying foundations of the domains. The revised instrument helps to get insight in the MCD related outcomes for healthcare professionals in their daily practice. Our research can further improve implementation of MCD and contribute to the research field of evaluation of CES in general. "

The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 sharply cast the relationships between the Republics of post-Soviet space and Russia back, mutual trust was lost, economic and cultural interaction was practically stopped. The global changes of the 1990s in the field of political order, social and economic lifestyle in the countries of the former socialist camp brought up to severe demographic situation (depopulation), impoverishment of its significant part, criminalization of society and, what is quite important, to negative changes in consciousness and behavior of its population, including deformation of ethical code of personality, for long time fixing the acute social-cultural situation. A. Zhuravlev & A. Yurevich call that the moral collapse. It is worth mentioning that the economic crisis of the 90s in Georgia was considerably more serious than in Russia. Attempt to teach norms of "new" morale were done by M. Saakashvili (2009–2013), who declared that during 20 years he would be able to change the mentality of Georgians – rejection of the Russian culture and language up to prohibition and adherence to anti-Russian policy at a level of the State. The author reports on that project and she intends to find the difference of how moral competence is understood by the generation which was formed in 1990s and the generation formed under the Soviet Union.

The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 sharply cast the relationships between the Republics of post-Soviet space and Russia back, mutual trust was lost, economic and cultural interaction was practically stopped. The global changes of the 1990s in the field of political order, social and economic lifestyle in the countries of the former socialist camp brought up to severe demographic situation (depopulation), impoverishment of its significant part, criminalization of society and, what is quite important, to negative changes in consciousness and behavior of its population, including deformation of ethical code of personality, for long time fixing the acute social-cultural situation. A. Zhuravlev & A. Yurevich call that the moral collapse. It is worth mentioning that the economic crisis of the 90s in Georgia was considerably more serious than in Russia. Attempt to teach norms of "new" morale were done by M. Saakashvili (2009–2013), who declared that during 20 years he would be able to change the mentality of Georgians – rejection of the Russian culture and language up to prohibition and adherence to anti-Russian policy at a level of the State. The author reports on that project and she intends to find the difference of how moral competence is understood by the generation which was formed in 1990s and the generation formed under the Soviet Union.

Anotācija Promocijas darba mērķis ir izpētīt morālās spriešanas spēju, morāles intuitīvo pamatu, politiskās orientācijas un reliģiozitātes savstarpējās sakarības. Pētījuma teorētiskais pamats ir kognitīvi racionālā pieeja morāles psiholoģijā (Linda morāles divu aspektu teorija) un sociāli intuitīvā pieeja morāles psiholoģijā (morāles intuitīvo pamatu teorija). Pētījums ir teorētisks un empīrisks mēģinājums izpētīt abu morālās psiholoģijas pieeju – kognitīvi racionālās un sociāli intuitīvās – saskares punktus, sevišķi tos, kas attiecas uz morāles kognitīvo un afektīvi intuitīvo aspektu mērījumu savstarpējām attiecībām. Promocijas darba pētījumos meklēti psiholoģiskie mehānismi, kas varētu izskaidrot konservatīvisma, reliģiozitātes un morālās spriešanas spēju negatīvo saistību. Promocijas darbā veikts kvazieksperimentāls (pirmais pētījums) un korelatīvs (otrais pētījums) pētījums. Pirmajā pētījumā piedalījās 348 respondenti (68,1 % sieviešu un 31,9 % vīriešu) vecumā no 18 līdz 67 gadiem. Otrajā pētījumā piedalījās 361 respondents (72,9 % sieviešu un 27,1 % vīriešu) vecumā no 16 līdz 74 gadiem. Morālās spriešanas spējas mērītas ar Linda Moral Judgment Test, MJT (Lind, 2000), savukārt morāles intuitīvie pamati – ar Moral Foundations Questionnaire: 30-Item Full Version MFQ 30 (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2008). Pirmajā pētījumā politiskā orientācija noteikta, izmantojot pašnovērtējuma skalu, bet otrajā pētījumā izmantota promocijas darbā izveidotā Sociālā konservatīvisma skala (Dimdiņš, Trups-Kalne, 2011). Reliģiozitāte pirmajā pētījumā mērīta, izmantojot 6 ballu skalu, bet otrajā – izmantojot Hubera (Huber, 2004) reliģijas Centralitātes skalu (Zentralitätskala Z-10). Pētījuma dati savākti, izstrādājot aptaujas gan papīra formā, gan elektroniskā formā internetā. Kvazieksperimentālā pētījuma rezultāti apstiprina, ka respondentiem ar zemiem morālās spriešanas spēju rādītājiem saistību morāles pamati ir svarīgāki nekā indivīdiem ar augstiem morālās spriešanas spēju rādītājiem. Savukārt korelatīvā pētījuma rezultāti apliecina, ka morālās spriešanas spējas ir negatīvi saistītas ar politisko konservatīvismu un ortodokso reliģiozitāti, kā arī atklāj sakarības morāles pamatu svarīguma mediatora lomu morālās spriešanas spēju negatīvajā saistībā ar politisko konservatīvismu un ortodokso reliģiozitāti. Pētījuma rezultāti norāda, ka, aplūkojot morāles psiholoģijas neskaidros jautājumus gan no kognitīvi racionālās, gan sociāli intuitīvās pieejas pozīcijām, var nonākt pie dziļākas indivīda morālās funkcionēšanas psiholoģisko mehānismu izpratnes, kas palīdzētu uzlabot politisko dialogu sabiedrībā un morālās audzināšanas mērķus un metodes izglītībā. Atslēgvārdi: morālās spriešanas spējas, morāles intuitīvie ; Summary The objective of the dissertation was to study interconnections of moral competence, moral foundations, political orientation and religiosity. The theoretical ground of the research is formed by the rationalist approach in the moral psychology (Lind's dual-aspect theory of moral development) and the social intuitionist approach in the moral psychology (moral foundations theory). The given research was a theoretical and empirical attempt to investigate points of tangency of both approaches of the moral psychology – the cognitive and rational approach and the social and intuitive approach, in particular, the ones that are related to interconnections of measurements of the cognitive and affective and intuitive aspects of moral judgement. In research performed within the framework of the dissertation, the author looked for the psychological mechanisms that may explain the negative connection of conservativism, religiosity and moral competence. A quasi-experimental (Study 1) and correlative (Study 2) research was performed within the framework of the dissertation. 348 research participants took part in Research 1 (women – 68.1% and men – 31.9%) aged from 18 to 67 years; 361 research participant took part in Research 2 (women – 72.9% and men – 27.1%) aged from 16 to 74 years. The moral competence was measured using Lind's Moral Judgment Test, MJT (Lind, 2000), moral foundations were measured using Moral Foundations Questionnaire: 30-Item Full Version MFQ 30 (Graham, Haidt & Nosek, 2008); in Research 1, the political orientation was determined using a self-report scale, but in Research 2, a social conservativism scale created within the framework of the dissertation was used (Dimdiņš, Trups-Kalne, 2011). In Research 1, religiosity was measured using 6-point scale, but in Research 2, Huber's (Huber, 2004) Centrality Scale was used (Zentralitätskala Z-10). Research data were collected by means of internet polling and paper questionnaires. Results of the quasi-experimental research confirmed an assumption that the binding moral foundations are more important for respondents with low moral competence indices than for individuals with high moral competence indices; in its turn, results of the correlative research confirmed assumptions that moral competence is negatively related to the political conservatism and orthodox religiosity, as well as revealed a mediator role of the importance of binding moral foundations in the negative connection of the moral competence with the political conservatism and orthodox religiosity. Key words: moral competence, moral foundations, political ideology, religiosity