Inspiring or Annoying? A New Measure of Broadening and Defensive Self-Regulatory Responses to Moral Exemplars Applied to Two Real-Life Scenarios of Moral Goodness

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Y

25

Moral Values; Moral Development; Metacognition; Network Analysis; Teaching Methods; Models; Ethics; Schemata (Cognition); Learning Motivation; Measures (Individuals); Comparative Analysis; Factor Analysis; Vignettes; Foreign Countries

United States; United Kingdom

10.1080/03057240.2023.2244186

0305-7240
1465-3877

I present a new model of the self-regulation of virtue that integrates perspectives on emotion, cognition, and motivation. Across three vignette-based studies in US/UK (N = 1,540), I developed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis a multi-item measure of broadening and defensive responses, the Self-Regulation of Virtue Inventory (SRVI). I applied that measurement model to two new scenarios portraying prototypical moral exemplars (selected from a set of 12) and fitted structural models that identify key antecedents: motivational dispositions (regulatory focus and hedonic orientation) and moral comparisons (opinion- and ability-based). The findings were consistent with network analysis, providing initial evidence of their robustness. By integrating literatures on motivation, emotion, social cognition and comparison within a self-regulation framework, I provide initial evidence to advance theory on moral self-regulation and moral education, with practical implications on how to maximise the upsides of virtue while mitigating or channelling its possible drawbacks.

As Provided

2024

EJ1413165