Moral Motivation, Moral Judgment, and Antisocial Behavior

The link between judgment and action is weak throughout psychology, including moral psychology. That is, people often do not act in accordance with their reasoning. Might moral judgment development be better viewed as a capacity that inhibits "immoral" behavior? One model that helps accoun...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Research in Character Education 2013-07, Vol.9 (2), p.149
Main Authors: Brooks, Jeff, Bock, Tonia, Narvaez, Darcia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective education
Antisocial Behavior
Business ethics
Citizenship Education
Cognitive Development
College students
Correlation
Education
Ethics
Moral education
Moral Issues
Moral Values
Morality
Motivation
Personality disorders
Predictor Variables
Self Concept
Statistical Analysis
Structural Equation Models
Student Surveys
Studies
Study and teaching
Undergraduate Students
Value Judgment
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Summary:The link between judgment and action is weak throughout psychology, including moral psychology. That is, people often do not act in accordance with their reasoning. Might moral judgment development be better viewed as a capacity that inhibits "immoral" behavior? One model that helps account for the moral judgment-action gap is Rest's (1983) Four Component Model of morality which postulates that at least 4 processes must take place for a moral behavior to ensue (sensitivity, judgment, motivation, implementation). We address judgment and motivation. We compared moral judgment and moral motivation in undergraduates to see which might be more negatively related to immoral action, specifically, antisocial behavior. In a structural equation model predicting antisocial behavior, motivation to maintain ethical focus, as measured by citizenship, unselfishness, and ethical identity, was a stronger predictor of antisocial behavior than was moral judgment, although both were unique predictors. Implications for education are discussed.
ISSN:1543-1223