Examining the psychometric adequacy of the conscientiousness ethics scale

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Ph.D. Candidate of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

10.22055/psy.2023.44635.3106
Abstract
Background: Moral characteristics are virtues that can affect the quality of different dimensions of people's lives. Conscientiousness is one of the most critical ethical virtues. Therefore, a tool with appropriate psychometric properties must measure this ethical background with other variables. The current research aims to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of the conscientiousness ethics scale.
Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the conscientiousness ethics scale in a group of Shiraz University undergraduate students.
Methods: The undergraduate students in the present study were from Shiraz University; 440 (221 women and 219 men) were selected by the multistage random clustering method and responded to the conscientiousness ethics scale. After entering data into the software SPSS-16, The data were randomly divided into two equal parts; Thus, to perform exploratory factor analysis, Data from the first 220 samples and confirmatory factor analysis were collected from 220 other samples.
Results: The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that conscientiousness ethics is composed of two factors, conscientiousness and trustworthiness. The confirmatory factor analysis also confirmed the two-factor structure of conscientiousness ethics. The values of Cronbach's alpha coefficients also confirmed the instrument's reliability.
Conclusion: In general, the results of this research show the efficiency of the conscientiousness ethics scale; And researchers in the field of moral psychology can use it

Keywords


Ahmadian, H., JomEhri, F., Ahadi, H., & Farokhi, N. (2011). Compilation and testing the model of the relationship between personality, psychological needs and psychological well-being.‏ Psychological Achievements, 18(1), 1-18. [Persian]
Allen, A., &  Mintrom, M. (2010). Responsibility and School Governance. Educational Policy, 24(3), 439-464. https:// doi:10.1177/0895904808330172
Atashafrouz, A., & Araban, S. (2017). The causal relationship between personality traits and academic performance with mediating role of study Strategies in students.‏ Psychological Achievements, 24(1), 78-98. [In Persian]. Doi: 10.22055/psy.2017.17251.1490
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1-26.‏ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x
Bogg, T., & Roberts, B. W. (2004). Conscientiousness and Health-Related Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis of the Leading Behavioral Contributors to Mortality. Psychological Bulletin, 130(6), 887–919. https://doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.6.887 
Buchan, N. R., Croson, R. T., & Solnick, S. (2008). Trust and gender: An examination of behavior and beliefs in the Investment Game. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 68, 466–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2007.10.006
Cicchetti, D. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6(4), 284–290. https://doi:10.1037/1040-3590.6.4.284
Claxton, A., O’Rourke, N., Smith, J. Z., & DeLongis, A. (2012). Personality traits and marital satisfaction within enduring relationships: An intra-couple discrepancy approach. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29(3), 375-396.‏ https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407511431183
Cohen, T. R., Panter, A. T., Turan, N., Morse, L., & Kim, Y. (2014). Moral character in the workplace. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), 943–963. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037245
Converse, B. A., Juarez, L., & Hennecke, M. (2019). Self-control and the reasons behind our goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116(5), 860-883. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000188
Daly, S., Slack, R., Brandon, T., & Biddle, P. (2020). Pathways through trusteeship: Responding to the trustee recruitment crisis. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 25(2), 1–7.‏ https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1651
Emami, M., Moghadasian, M., Lika, M. (2024). The Discriminant Analysis of Personality Characteristics in the Determination of the Styles of Anger Experience and Expression. Psychological Achievements, 31(1), 49-76. [In Persian]. doi: 10.22055/psy.2023.40521.2836 
Fillip, I., Saheba, N., Wick, B., & Radfar, A. (2016). Morality and ethical theories in the context of human behavior. Morality and Ethical Theories, 32, 83-87.
Funder, D. C., & Fast, L. A. (2010). Personality in social psychology. In S. T. Fisk, D. T. Gilbert and Lindzey (Eds). Handbook of social psychology. 5, New York: Wiley. https://doi:10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001018
Garcia, D., Cloninger, K. M., Sikström, S., Anckarsäter, H., & Cloninger, C. R. (2020). A ternary model of personality: temperament, character, and identity. In Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications  (125-142), Springer.‏ https://doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_8
Golestaneh, M., & Askari, F. (2014). An investigation of the relationships between some important antecedents of motivational, cognition and personality variables on help seeking and avoidance help-seeking. Psychological Achievements, 21(1), 101-122.‏ [Persian]
Groth-Marnat, G. (2003). Handbook of psychological assessment (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.‏
Hashemi Sheykhshabani, S. E. (2011). The Role of Personality Characteristics in Predicting Job Performance of Police Officers. Psychological Achievements, 18(1), 153-168.‏ [Persian]
Hayton, J. C., Allen, D. G., & Scarpello, V. (2004). Factor retention decisions in exploratory factor analysis: A tutorial on parallel analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 7(2), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428104263675
Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, W., & Jurs, S. G. (2015). Applied statistics for the behavioral sciences - 5th edition. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin.
Huanhuan, Z., Yannan, K., Heyun, Z., Yan, X., & Qi, C. (2016). The Effect of Family Functioning on Adolescents' Moral Disengagement: Roles of Conscientiousness and Moral Identity. Journal of Psychological Science, 39(4), 907–913.‏
Jia, L., Hirt, E. R., & Fishbach, A. (2019). Protecting an important goal: When prior self-control increases motivation for active goal pursuit. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85, 1-11.‏ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103875
Kappe, R., & Van Der Flier, H. (2012). Predicting academic success in higher education: what’s more important than being smart?. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27, 605-619.‏ https://doi:10.1007/s10212-011-0099-9
Kershnar, S. (2018). No Responsibility No Morality. In Total Collapse: The Case Against Responsibility and Morality (133–147). Springer, Cham.‏
Khormaei, F., & Ghaemi, M. (2017). Examining the psychometric properties of the moral character questionnaire. Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University. Unpublished [In Persian].
Kim, Y., & Cohen, T. R. (2015). Moral character and workplace deviance: recent research and current trends. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 134–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.002
Kline, R. B. (2016). Methodology in the social sciences. Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
Krek, J., Hodnik, T., & Vogrinc, J. (2019). The primary school moral education plan in slovenia ten years after its introduction. European Journal of Educational Research, 8(4), 84-95. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.8.4.1229
Lamb, C., & Joy, I. (2018). Diversity in governance: The what, why and how. London: New Philanthropy Capital. Retrieved from: https://www.thinknpc. 
Larsen, R. J., Buss, D. M., Wismeijer, A., Song, J., & Van den Berg, S. (2021). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (Vol. 5). McGraw-Hill.‏
Lee, L., & Misco, T. (2016). Seeking moral autonomy in a chinese context: A Study of elementary moral education standards. Journal of International Social Studies, 6(2), 84–95.
Lee, S. D., Kuncel, N. R., & Gau, J. (2020). Personality, attitude, and demographic correlates of academic dishonesty: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(11), 1042- 1058. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000300 
      Levine, E. E., Bitterly, T. B., Cohen, T. R., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2018). Who is trustworthy? Predicting trustworthy intentions and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(3), 468-494.   DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000136
  Longley, S. L., Miller, S. A., Broman-Fulks, J., Calamari, J. E., Holm-Denoma, J. M., & Meyers, K. (2017). Taxometric analyses of higher-order personality domains. Personality & Individual Differences, 108, 207–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.12.018
Luchies, L. B., Wieselquist, J., Rusbult, C. E., Kumashiro, M., Eastwick, P. W., Coolsen, M. K., & Finkel, E. J. (2013). Trust and biased memory of transgressions in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 673–694. https://doi: 10.1037/a0031054  
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20, 709–734. https://doi.org/10.2307/258792
Meyers, L. S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2016). Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. Sage publications.‏
Molden, D. C., & Finkel, E. J. (2010). Motivations for promotion and prevention and the role of trust and commitment in interpersonal forgiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 255–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.10.014
Mottahedi, A. R. , Behroozi, N. , Shehni Yailagh, M. and Hashemi Sheykhshabani, S. (2013). Investigation of Some Cognitive, Motivational, Emotional, and Personality Variables as Predictors of Academic Giftedness. Psychological Achievements, 20(2), 39-68. [Persian]
Narvaez, D. (2010). Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(2), 163–181. https://doi: 10.1177/1745691610362351
Rest, J. R., Narvaez, D., Thoma, S. J., & Bebeau, M. J. (1999). DIT2: Devising and testing a revised instrument of moral judgment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(4), 644- 659. https://doi:10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.644
Río-Martínez, L., Marquez-Arrico, J. E., Prat, G., & Adan, A. (2020). Temperament and character profile and its clinical correlates in male patients with dual schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(6), 1876.‏ https://doi: 10.3390/jcm9061876
Sah, S., Loewenstein, G., & Cain, D. M. (2013). The burden of disclosure: Increased compliance with distrusted advice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 289–304. https://doi: 10.1037/a0030527 
Schweitzer, M. E., Brooks, A. W., & Galinsky, A. D. (2015). The organizational apology. Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 44-52.‏
Schweitzer, M. E., Hershey, J. C., & Bradlow, E. T. (2006). Promises and lies: Restoring violated trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.05.005
Shackelford, T. K., Besser, A., & Goetz, A. T. (2008). Personality, marital satisfaction, and probability of marital infidelity. Individual Differences Research, 6(1), 13-25.
Simpson, J. A. (2007). Foundations of interpersonal trust. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., 587–607). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Slagt, M., Dubas, J. S., Deković, M., Haselager, G. J. T., & Aken, M. A. G. (2015). Longitudinal associations between delinquent behaviour of friends and delinquent behaviour of adolescents: Moderation by adolescent personality traits. European Journal of Personality, 29(4), 468–477. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-18805-001
Song, S. Y., & Kim, Y. K. (2018). Theory of virtue ethics: do consumers’ good traits predict their socially responsible consumption? Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4), 1159-1175.‏ https://doi:10.1007/s10551-016-3331-3
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Tanksale, D. (2015). Big Five personality traits: Are they really important for the subjective well‐being of Indians?. International Journal of Psychology, 50(1), 64-69.‏ https://doi: 10.1002/ijop.12060 
Wang, T. M., Van Witteloostuijn, A., & Heine, F. (2020). A moral theory of public service motivation. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 517763.‏
Wong, D. B. (2006). Natural moralities: A defense of pluralistic relativism. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195305396.001.0001 
Yesil, R. L. (2013). School learning responsibility scale's validity and reliability study (For Primary School Students). Melena International Journal of Education (MIJE), 3(4), 1-14. https://doi:10.13054/mije.13.40.3.4 
Zaheer, A., McEvily, B., & Perrone, V. (1998). Does trust matter? Exploring the effects of interorganizational and interpersonal trust on performance. Organization Science, 9(2), 141–159. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.9.2.141
Volume 32, Special Issue
December 2025
Pages 1-14

  • Receive Date 25 August 2023
  • Accept Date 29 November 2023