Moral Identity: Identification and Validation of Moral Traits

In order to construct a moral identity scale primarily based on Aquino and Reed (2002) model, two pilot studies were conducted. The first study aimed to identify moral traits among college students. One hundred and twenty two students (56% females) participated in a free-listing task. The participants were asked to list characteristics that a moral person possessed. A content analysis of the traits based on five criteria (Hardy et al, 2011) resulted in 26 non redundant traits. In order to obtain further evidence that these 26 traits had sufficient content validity, in a sample different from the first study 217 students (58% females) were asked to rate each trait using a scale ranging from 1(absolutely unnecessary) to 5 (absolutely necessary). The results indicated that 24 traits were judged to be above the midpoint of the scale. Investigating the results of females and males students led to identification of nine traits that had the highest ratings: polite, trustworthy, honest, self respect, rational, loyal, fair, religious, and patient. These nine traits were considered as identity-invoking stimuli for constructing moral identity scale. The implications of the findings were discussed.