Personality Correlates of Moral Reasoning and Attitudes toward Authority

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations of empathy and socialization to moral reasoning and attitudes toward authority. 105 undergraduates completed the empathy and socialization scales of the California Psychological Inventory, the Defining Issues Test, and a questionnaire on which they rated two types of authority (public, impersonal and private, personal). Subjects' moral reasoning scores were correlated with both empathy and socialization. Also, principled moral reasoning, empathy, and socialization scores all had significant, inverse relations with subjects' ratings of authority. These results are congruent with Hogan's 1973 personality-based theory of moral reasoning and moral behavior.