Hardy & Carlo (2011) - MORAL IDENTITY: WHAT IS IT, HOW DOES IT
DEVELOP, AND IS IT LINKED TO MORAL ACTION?
What is moral identity?
Moral identity: moral identity is the degree to which being a moral person is important to a
person’s identity. But there are a number of perspectives on the structure, mechanism, and
dynamics of moral identity.
● Blasi’s Self-Model: Blasi postulated that moral judgements might more reliably predict
moral behavior when filtered through responsibility judgments based on one’s identity
and propelled into action via the tendency toward self-consistency.
● Moral identity as unity of morality and self: Colby and Damon (1992) argued that
what moral exemplars want most is what they see as morally right. Frimer and
Walker (2009) proposed a reconciliation model: in this model, identity entails motives
relevant for agency (i.e., self-interest) and communion (i.e., other-oriented morality)
being synergistic rather than interfering or competing with each other.
● The role of schemas: moral identity may entail having morally relevant sheamus
readily accessible for social information processing. For some, moral identity is
primarily about one particular moral schema - a mental image of what it means to be
a moral person. For others, moral identity is one social identity among many that can
make up a person’s overall social self-schema.
● Trait and state moral identity: although the importance of morality to a person’s
identity may be rather stable (trait), to some extent the sense of moral identity may
be constructed “moment to moment” (state) and may be more or less activated in
particular situations.
● Deliberative and automatic aspects of moral identity: moral identity is typically
described as being primarily deliberative. Part of the motivation behind current social
cognitive approaches to moral identity is the need to better understand the role of
schemas and other automatic processes in moral identity.
How does moral identity develop?
● The merging of the moral and self-systems: most accounts of moral identity formation
argue that it likely involves the merging of moral development and identity
development rather than a unique developmental system. There is some evidence
for the presence of early precursors of moral identity in childhood. Furthermore, the
affective bases of moral identity (empathy, guilt and shame) emerge early in life, and
their integration with moral ideals and with one’s sense of self are fundamental to
moral identity formation. Moral understanding in adolescence becomes more
principled and less focused on external factors like punishment. Additionally,
adolescents are more sensitive than children to the expectation, attitude and needs
of others. In terms of identity, maturation involves the self becoming understood more
in terms of social interaction and ideologies. The integration of morality and self
during adolescence and adulthood is also enabled by the growing sense of agency
and responsibility. Compared to adolescents, children feel less accountable, less
ownership over their actions and identity, and less concern for integrity or self-
consistency.
● Predictors of the integration of morality and self: moral identity formation is
associated with certain individual characteristics, developmental context, and
opportunities for moral action.
, ○ Individual characteristics: academic achievement, prosocial moral reasoning,
epathy, agreeableness, faith development, adult attachment, identity
formation, greater salience of themes of personal agency, connection to
others, positive emotions, and overcoming and learning from adversity.
○ Developmental context: religious involvement and effective parenting are
predictive of moral identity.
○ Opportunities for moral action: e.g. community service and prosocial actions
can encourage morality and identity. Enacting moral principles in one way
individuals learn to value such principles and see themselves as capable of
making a difference in the world.
● Moral identity formation in terms of moral schema accessibility: moral schemas
include prototypes, such as one’s mental image of what it means to be a moral
person, and action scripts or event representations for specific morally relevant
behaviors. At any given phase of development, a person’s mental image of what it
means to be a moral person seems contingent on cognitive maturity (e.g., language
and abstract thought) and social learning. Individuals differ in the extent to which their
image of what it means to be a moral person is an important social identity for them,
and the degree of importance is related to the cognitive accessibility of this social
identity for information processing. Scripts or event representations of moral actions
develop through social experiences (e.g., helping someone who is hurt or
volunteering at a homeless shelter).
Is moral identity linked to moral action?
Although few mechanisms of moral identity have been systematically examined, research
has fairly consistently found moderately strong links between moral action and identity.
Moral exemplar studies demonstrate the extensive integration of self and moral goals that
adult exemplars experience and show that adolescent moral exemplars tend to describe
their self-concept using moral terms more than do comparison youth. The nature of the links
between moral identity and action is unclear. It could be that moral identity motivates moral
action, or that moral action leads people to see themselves in moral terms, or that both are
involved in some dynamic process.
Conclusion and future directions
Critical evaluation of moral identity: most criticism of moral identity has emerged from social
domain theorists, for whom the discrepancy between a moral judgment and a moral action is
not of critical importance. These theorists are hesitant to include personality variables that
may unnecessarily complicate moral functioning. Although we appreciate the attention social
domain theorists grant to the capacity of thought and behavior in real situations, they do not
sufficiently account for individual differences in labeling certain actions as moral. Further, it is
unclear what leads individuals to prioritize a moral judgment over other sorts of judgments.
Future directions: much work is needed to better articulate and critically evaluate theoretical
models of moral identity. Improvements are also needed in the methodology of moral identity
research. More sophisticated designs are needed for assessing moral identity, the
processes by which it develops, and how it relates to moral action. Because of the
limitedness of prior research, moral identity is still little understood.
