Moral identity: what is it, how does it develop, and is it linked to moral action? 

Hardy & Carlo 

Kohlberg was convinced that mature moral reasoning would inherently motivate moral action. But several factors have led to a greater interest in looking beyond moral reasonings: 1) moral reasoning is only a modest predictor of moral action. 2) highly moral people don't necessarily have unusually sophisticated moral reasoning capacities. This article: what is moral identity? How does it develop? Is it linked to moral action? 

What is moral identity? 

Moral identity: the degree to which being a moral person is important to a person's identity. Perspectives: 

• Blasi's self-model 

• Links between moral judgment and action: before leading to moral action, a moral judgement can pass through a judgment of responsibility such that an action is seen not only as moral but also as something the individual is responsible for doing. Criteria stem from individual differences in the extent to which being moral is central or essential to one's sense of self. 

• Moral identity as unity of morality and self 

• What differentiates highly moral people from others is the degree to which they experience unity between their sense of morality and their personal goals. 

• Role of schemas 

• Schemas are conceptualized as mental knowledge structures that represent various aspects of ourselves, our relationships and our experiences. Moral identity may entail having morally relevant schemas readily accessible for social information processing. 

• There are various ways to think about moral identity in terms of schemas: for some, moral identity is primarily about one particular moral schema (one social identity), for others, moral identity more broadly entails having a set of moral schemas (only one of which might be one's mental image of a moral person).  

• Trait and state moral identity 

• Social cognitive approaches: the importance of morality to a person's identity may be rather stable, to some extent the sense of moral identity may be constructed “moment to moment" and may be more or less in particular situations. 

• Deliberative and automatic aspects of moral identity 

• It is unclear whether deliberative processes (such as wanting to live in a manner consistent with one's identity) are the primary mechanisms of 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. In fact, it may be that morality and identity are two facets of the same 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 ideas and with one's sense of self are fundamental to moral identity formation.  

Throughout childhood and adolescence, developments in moral understanding and identity pave the way for further integration of morality and identity. Moral understanding becomes more interpersonal and ideological > adolescents are more sensitive than children to the expectations, attitudes and needs of others. 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 

Academic achievement as a positive predictor of moral identity 2 years later, whereas internalizing was a negative predictor. Prosocial moral reasoning and empathy in adolescence are also predictive of indices of prosocial disposition in adulthood. Other predictors: greater salience of themes of personal agency, connections to others, positive emotions and overcoming and learning from adversity. In terms of developmental contexts, religious involvement and effective parenting are predictive of moral identity.  

Several factors related to effective parenting (parental involvement, parental demandingness and overall family support) have been found to be predictive of moral identity. Furthermore, parental use of inductive discipline and parental warmth has been positively linked to greater internalization of moral values into the self. The integration of morality and identity can also be encouraged by providing opportunities for acting on moral principles, such as community service and other prosocial actions. 

Moral identity formation in terms of moral schema accessibility 

If moral schemas are a critical part of moral identity, then moral identity formation should also involve the building of rich networks of chronically accessible moral schemas. Compared to adults, children likely have fewer moral schemas, and those they do have may be less elaborate and less accessible for information processing. 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 and social learning. 

In addition to individual differences in the content and structure of moral prototypes, there is individual variability in the degree to which prototypes are important to the self and cognitively accessible > 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.  

Is moral identity linked to moral action? 

Moral identity may be an important source of moral motivation; in fact, some argue that It could be the best predictor of moral actions and commitment. The exact mechanisms involved depend on how moral identity is conceptualized and might include self-consistency, goal integration, moral schemas and self-narratives. Research has fairly found moderately strong links between moral identity and action.  

The nature of these 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.