Kohlberg's stage model of moral reasoning is able to account for some of the variability in moral
behavior, yet much remains unexplained. Recently, a number of components of personality have
been proposed as bridging the gap between moral cognition and moral behavior, including that
of identity. Kohlberg also theorized moral behavior as being based on transcendent or religious
meaning, especially at the highest stages of moral reasoning. The present study is an
investigation of the role that identity integration and religious orientation may have in leading to
moral behavior. A sample of 60 undergraduates was assessed on identity integration, religious
orientation, and level of moral reasoning, as well as moral behavior, using a self-report measure
of altruism. A measure of socially desirable responding was used to account for the degree to
which altruism scores may have been tainted by impression management. Identity integration,
an intrinsic religious orientation, moral reasoning and self-report altruism were all positively
related to one another. A regression analysis yielded a model with moral reasoning as the only
predictor of altruistic behavior, implying that it is the integration of moral knowledge into
identity that accounts for the relations between identity and moral reasoning. The discussion
focuses on this relationship, and the relations between identity integration and an intrinsic
religious orientation, suggesting that the intrinsic religious scale is a measure of identity
integration in the religious domain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10693 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Maclean, A. Michael |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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