title: When Friends' and Society's Expectations Collide: A Longitudinal Study of Moral Decision-Making and Personality across College.
abstract: Early adulthood is a developmentally important time period, with many novel life events needing to be traversed for the first time. Despite this important transition period, few studies examine the development of moral decision-making processes during this critical life stage. In the present study, college students completed moral decision-making measures during their freshman and senior years of college. Results indicate that, across four years, moral decision-making demonstrates considerable rank-order stability as well as change, such that people become more likely to help a friend relative to following societal rules. To help understand the mechanisms driving changes in moral decision-making processes, we examined their joint development with personality traits, a known correlate that changes during early adulthood in the direction of greater maturity. We found little evidence that personality and moral decision-making developmental processes are related. In sum, findings indicate that while moral decision-making processes are relatively stable across a four-year period, changes do occur which are likely independent of developmental processes driving personality trait change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kathryn L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bollich
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joshua J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009014:Morals; D010551:Personality; D010553:Personality Development; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D066262:Social Norms; D012984:Software; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult