Development and validation of the Moral Character Questionnaire

Abstract

Although moral character may be the most central and consequential facet of one’s personality, existing measures are few and suffer from shortcomings. We present the Moral Character Questionnaire (MCQ) to focus primarily on global moral character and secondarily on six moral domains – Honesty, Compassion, Fairness, Loyalty, Respect, and Purity. All subscales assess core components of personality dispositions, including behavior, motivation, cognition, and identity. Across 14 samples and >13,000 participants, MCQ subscales are generally unidimensional, have good-to-strong reliability, and are temporally stable. Based upon hypotheses regarding 21 criterion measures, analyses reveal strong convergent/discriminant validity. Finally, we found connections between the MCQ scales and core personality traits. The MCQ is an efficient and psychometrically strong measure grounded in contemporary personality theory.