Naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity.

Abstract

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. AbstractBy examining folk conceptions of moral maturity, this project sought a more comprehensive understanding of moral excellence than Kohlberg's emphasis on principled justice reasoning. Study 1 and 2 involved different samples of 120 adults (17-25, 35-55, and 65+ years). Study 3 involved a sample of 180 undergraduates. In Study 1, a free-listing procedure was used to generate the attributes of a "highly moral person," as well as those for two related person-concepts. In Study 2, a rating procedure for these attributes was used to generate a prototype of a highly moral person. In Study 3, a similarity-sorting task was used to uncover laypeople's implicit typology of moral maturity. The findings suggest that naturalistic notions of moral excellence not only contain themes of principled reasoning, but also reference aspects of moral character and virtue that enlarge our understanding of the psychological functioning of the mature moral agent.iii Table of Contents Abstract. 11

Testing a social-cognitive model of moral behavior: The interactive influence of situations and moral identity centrality.

“…The moral behavior of interest was the intention to lie during the salary negotiation. Lying was chosen as a focal behavior because studies of moral prototypes show that honesty is among the traits that people use most frequently to define moral character (Aquino & Reed, 2002;Lapsley & Laskey, 2001;Walker & Pitts, 1998). Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that telling a lie is likely to be experienced by most people as violating self-standards of what it means to be a moral person.…”

“…A variety of individual characteristics have been proposed as determinants of moral behavior, including moral reasoning (Kohlberg, 1969), moral maturity (Walker & Pitts, 1998), moral commitment (Colby & Damon, 1992), moral personality (Walker & Frimer, 2007), and moral character (Blasi, 2005). Previous research generally finds that these characteristics are associated with moral behavior to varying degrees, but none appears fully capable of predicting or accounting for situational variability in moral behavior (Hardy & Carlo, 2005;Shao, Aquino, & Freeman, 2008).…”

High Five Model: Los factores Altos están Asociados con Bajo Riesgo de Enfermedades Médicas, Mentales y de Personalidad

“…Elevados factores altos se presentaron asociados con un funcionamiento óptimo y bajos factores altos se presentaron asociados con un funcionamiento relacionado, en última instancia, a la patología. Si bien la idea de continuidad sindrómica no es nueva, muy pocos modelos psicológicos han vinculado la salud y la enfermedad de forma conjunta (e.g., Leary, 1957;Millon, 1996;Millon & Everly, 1994;Offer & Sabshin, 1991;Strack & Lorr, 1994). El modelo de personalidad de Millon y el abordaje del continuo salud-enfermedad del modelo de Keyes son dos importantes excepciones.…”

Positive Youth Development

“…The prototype of the just person was described as a moderate blend of nurturance and dominance, and aligned with conscientiousness and openness to experience. An earlier study (Walker & Pitts, 1998) reported a relationship between trait dimensions and three kinds of moral exemplars. The brave exemplar was linked with a complex of traits associated with extraversion; the caring exemplar was associated with agreeableness; while the just exemplar was a complex mixture of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.…”

“…Similarly, Walker (2004;Walker & Pitts, 1998) has pursued naturalistic studies of the prototype structure of a " highly moral person" and has identified clusters or themes that commonly show up in people's understanding of moral maturity. One cluster, for example, is a set of "principled-idealistic" commitments to strongly held values.…”