Exploring the association between character strengths and moral functioning

Hyemin Han, Kelsie J. Dawson, David I. Walker, Nghi Nguyen, Youn Jeng Choi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We explored the relationship between 24 character strengths measured by the Global Assessment of Character Strengths (GACS), which was revised from the original VIA instrument, and moral functioning comprising postconventional moral reasoning, empathic traits and moral identity. Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) was employed to explore the best models, which were more parsimonious than full regression models estimated through frequentist regression, predicting moral functioning indicators with the 24 candidate character strength predictors. Our exploration was conducted with a dataset collected from 666 college students at a public university in the Southern United States. Results showed that character strengths as measured by GACS partially predicted relevant moral functioning indicators. Performance evaluation results demonstrated that the best models identified by BMA performed significantly better than the full models estimated by frequentist regression in terms of AIC, BIC, and cross-validation accuracy. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of the findings for future studies addressing character strengths and moral functioning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)286-303
Number of pages18
JournalEthics and Behavior
Volume33
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

  • Bayesian Model Averaging
  • Character strengths
  • empathy
  • moral identity
  • moral judgment

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