The Emerging Science of Virtue

Abstract

Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact–value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute E udaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.

Phronesis (Practical Wisdom) as a Type of Contextual Integrative Thinking

“…The recent resurgence of interest in phronesis goes hand in hand with a latter-day retrieval of character-and-virtue research in psychology (Fowers et al, 2021;McGrath & Brown, 2020;Narvaez, 2010;Ng & Tay, 2020;Wright et al, 2021). That retrieval, often referred to as a new "science of virtue" (Fowers et al, 2021), has been encouraged by the advent of positive psychology in general and, in particular, its research into universal character strengths, virtues, and the flourishing life (McGrath, 2019;Peterson & Seligman, 2004;Seligman, 2011). Briefly, a neo-Aristotelian perspective suggests that virtues are the habitual actions that make it possible to live a good or eudaimonic life, and phronesis is the wisdom an individual recruits to recognize what virtues are appropriate to a specific situation so that action conduces to that good life.…”

“…Under threat from decades of psychological research indicating situational malleability of character traits (Doris, 2002) and, more recently, from the revival of a social intuitionist model that reduces the role of reason in moral decision-making to post hoc rationalizations (Haidt, 2001), the new character scientists in psychology have tried out various models that are meant to circumvent those misgivings, such as the recent STRIVE-4 model, according to which virtues are Scalar Traits that are Role-sensitive, include situation-by-trait Interactions and are related to important Values that help constitute Eudaimonia (Fowers et al, 2021). All the variables in this model require empirical evaluation, however, even within the general virtue-science camp, suggesting that the current state of virtue research is a "patchwork" that lacks a generally agreedupon "framework" (Fowers et al, 2021;Kristjánsson, 2018a). For example, some theorists emphasize cross-situational consistency as evidenced by "density distributions" of virtue-relevant actions (Jayawickreme & Fleeson, 2017), while others insist on within-situation-type consistency only (Ng & Tay, 2020).…”

Courage, Justice, and Practical Wisdom as Key Virtues in the Era of COVID-19

“…We take a neo-Aristotelian approach to virtues that portrays them with multiple features: Virtues (1) are acquired traits that (2) vary in strength across individuals, (3) are responsive to social roles, ( 4) are sensitive to the specifics of the situation, (5) facilitate the pursuit of valued aims, (6) make it possible to live well, ( 7) show up in behavior, ( 8) are based on knowledge, ( 9) are fully and properly motivated, and ( 10) are guided by practical wisdom (Fowers et al, 2021). Virtuous action means that one knowingly chooses to act in ways that conduce to worthwhile goals, given the specifics of the situation, and with the kind of harmonious motivation and emotion that arises from having a settled disposition to do so.…”

Using the VIA Classification to Advance a Psychological Science of Virtue

“…Virtues can be conceptualized as personal traits that are in general practice both personally and communally valuable, such as the tendency to be kind or critically evaluate information. A science of virtue would therefore focus on issues such as the measurement of these traits, how they develop, and how their development can be encouraged (for further details, see Fowers et al, in press ).…”

“…It is noteworthy that we are not the only psychologists calling for the scientific study of virtues as person traits ( Cokelet and Fowers, 2019 ; Fowers et al, in press ). Several points can be raised to support virtue as a worthwhile topic of scientific and psychological study.…”