Effects of Moral Judgement, Emotional Control and Problem Solving on Information Ethics of Gifted Students in Computer Science

The importance of information ethics has emerged with the advent of the information and knowledge society. Especially, information ethics education and research about gifted students in computer science (CS gifted students), who play key influencers in IT development, is becoming more important. But the amount of systematic research on CS gifted students´ information ethics is insufficient. This study measured the information ethics level of CS gifted students and also analyzed various factors that influence information ethics. For this study, 30 CS gifted students were selected and their levels of information ethics, moral judgment and problem solving abilities with regards to computer science (CS problem solving) were measured, then their abilities to control their emotions were measured through a cognitive psychological method. The results of the analysis showed that there were no significant demographic component differences (gender and grade level), but moral judgment level and emotional control were the highest correlating variables for information ethics, with moral judgment being the most influential factor.