A Systematic Review of the Concept of Moral Characters

Authors

1 Psychology departeman, Shiraz University

2 Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

10.22081/jare.2023.65562.1794

Abstract

The present research, which was conducted with the aim of investigating and explaining the efforts made in the field of conceptualization of moral character; It is a systematic review that was done using the library review method. To carry out the research, Farsi and English keywords of moral character, ethics, and character virtues were searched in well-known databases from 1970 to 2023, and 38 articles were extracted. Thirty-two articles were selected based on the criteria of the degree of connection with the research topic, the credibility of the authors, and the publishing journal, and the rest were discarded. The findings showed that moral psychologists had examined personality traits related to moral behavior in recent years to predict moral behavior. Following the recent orientations, various models have emerged under different titles but with the same theme of moral character. Among the models of moral character, the three-component model of Cohen and colleagues (2014) seems to be the one that conceptualizes moral character in the form of a multifaceted structure, including motivational, ability and identity components; it should be more comprehensive in determining and conceptualizing the constituent components and mechanisms of an ethical character. The findings of this study research can be effective both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the personality antecedents of ethical and unethical behavior have been interpreted. In addition, from the practical point of view, these findings can help psychologists interested in this field to evaluate moral character. In addition, the present research findings can effectively determine the appropriate criteria during the selection and recruitment of organizations.

Keywords

References

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Quarterly Scientific Journal of Applied Ethics Studies
Volume 18, Issue 1 - Serial Number 70
The first scientific research issue of Applied Ethics Studies Quarterly
March 2023
Pages 37-73

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History

  • Receive Date: 02 February 2023
  • Revise Date: 13 February 2023
  • Accept Date: 25 April 2023

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