Virtues as Properly Motivated, Self-Integrated Traits

Virtues as Properly Motivated, Self-Integrated Traits

Blaine Fowers, Ph.D. (co-PI)
Professor of Psychology
University of Miami, Miami, FL

Bradford Cokelet, Ph.D. (co-PI)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Samantha Lang, M.S.Ed., Ph.D.
Student in Counseling Psychology
University of Miami, Miami, FL

Alexandra Lane, Ph.D.
Student in Counseling Psychology
University of Miami, Miami, FL

Project Summary

This project includes a 2-year interdisciplinary collaboration studying the virtues of justice and kindness through philosophical and psychological approaches. The project incorporated significant moral philosophical analysis throughout its course. Our contention is that, properly understood, virtues are properly motivated traits that are regularly expressed in real-world circumstances, and deeply integrated with the self. We embrace psychological realism and define virtue as a trait-based pattern of activity that is manifested in different degrees, is situation-sensitive, and dependent on motivation and self-concordance. These starting points also make virtues more quantitatively tractable.

Our definition of virtue clarifies that single timepoint self-report studies of virtue are insufficient to demonstrate the existence of virtues. Therefore, we conducted a 14-day experience sampling study (four reports per day) in which we asked respondents to describe the degree to which their behavior, motivation, and self were justice- and kindness-related. This allowed us to assess justice and kindness as traits by assessing the level and consistency of trait-related actions over time. We also assessed the individual’s motivation and the degree to which their actions were self-concordant.

Although our experience sampling method provides more accurate assessments of day-to-day behavior that are much less susceptible to social desirability than single time-point summary self-reports, our experience sampling methods still rely on self-reports. Therefore, we also report on an experimental study that includes a behavioral assessment of fairness. In the development of our experimental study, we recognized that there were no suitable fairness trait measures, so we conducted a psychometric study of fairness trait measures.

We have completed data collection on the three studies we proposed. We have now collected experience sampling data on 72 participants, a sample with ample power. These individuals were recruited through Qualtrics and they comprise a national sample. They responded to four prompts per day for 14 days. We have analyzed the data for the virtues of fairness and kindness. There are three important innovations in this project. First, we assessed three components of virtue: virtue-related behavior, motivation, and self-integration. Second, we assessed the settings in which the virtue-related activity took place to examine trait by situation interactions. Third, we collected 6-month follow-up data on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being to assess the virtue-eudaimonia relationship. We have conducted narrative interviews with 10 participants each for the virtues of fairness and kindness. This is another innovation that will allow us to contextualize and enrich the interpretation of our quantitative results. We are currently analyzing the narrative interview data.

We also completed our experimental study of the virtue trait of justice as expressed in interpersonal fairness with 102 participants. This study contained several innovations. In a psychometric study, we created Justice Behavior and Justice Disposition scales for use in the study. These scales assess two components of the fairness virtue. For the experimental study, we created an innovative resource game to assess fairness behavior. This game represents fairness more directly than any previously used economic game. The initial draft of the manuscript describing this study has been completed and will be submitted for peer review in April 2018.

Significant Research Accomplishments

We have assembled a data set with 72 participants who completed 14 scales 4 times for 14 days. To our knowledge, this is the most intensive study of the virtues of fairness and kindness to date. This study indicated that these virtues are trait-like in evidencing both within person consistency and between persons differences, without any substantial influence of social desirability. This study documented that the three components of virtues (behavior, motivation, and self-integration) were best modeled as separate components and contributed to a second order virtue latent trait. We also found that virtue expression was moderated by setting and recipient of the virtues. This is the first time that this kind of moderation has been assessed. In addition, this data set includes a six-month follow-up assessment of well-being to assess the relationships among virtues and well-being. The six-month follow-up data has not yet been included in the analyses.

In preparation for our experimental study of fairness, we completed a psychometric study of two self-report justice measures (Justice Behavior and Justice Disposition). This study included 211 participants in a national sample. These two scales were found to be very reliable and to have good construct validity. The two measures were not distinctive, so the Justice Behavior measure was used in our experimental study of 102 participants who completed a set of self-report measures and participated in an economic resource game that provided behavioral results. We found the expected interaction of a virtue trait of fairness with experimental conditions. The interaction indicated that those with a strong fairness trait were not influenced by situational factors, but those with a weak fairness trait were more likely to act unfairly when the situation encouraged it.

We did not include the development of a theoretical model of virtue in our proposed project, but the collaborative work we cultivated led to the creation of the STRIVE-4 Model of virtue. This model is a combination of conceptual analysis primarily provided by Cokelet and an empirical sensibility provided by Fowers. The model posits that virtues are Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, that Interact with situational factors, help to accomplish Valued ends that are related to Eudaimonia, and that virtues have four components (behavior, knowledge, emotion/motivation, and disposition). This Model is philosophically informed and intended to guide empirical research on virtues.

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