Moral motivation
Ηθική πρόθεση
The step where a judgement about what is right turns into an intention to act on it, in competition with everything else a person also wants at that moment. Because it is a separate step, somebody can be reliable at judging and weak here, so the useful question is which step keeps failing rather than whether you are an ethical person.
How to spot it
Check whether you have the exact words written down, and not the topic. If what you have is the subject rather than the sentence, this step has not happened yet.
The research behind the term
The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.
Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory — πηγή
What it found
- The Four Component Model describes moral behaviour as a sequence of distinct processes rather than as a single unified ability.
- Formal education is associated with the level of moral judgement.
- Moral education programmes produce improvements of moderate size.
- No differences are found between the two sexes.
How it found it
A book that presents the theoretical framework and assesses the data from the Defining Issues Test, drawn both from the research group's own studies and from hundreds of other researchers.
What it means for ethical decision making
A moral decision can fail at four different points — recognition, judgement, intention, execution — and practice needs to identify which of them a person falls short on.
Practised in
The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.
Eight Minutes to Say It
Sources
Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.
- Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory — Source on search.worldcat.org