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Character Development: Four Facets of Virtues
Author(s) -
Lerner Richard M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12315
Subject(s) - virtue , nomothetic and idiographic , character (mathematics) , character development , context (archaeology) , psychology , phronesis , epistemology , virtue ethics , character traits , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , relation (database) , social psychology , philosophy , computer science , paleontology , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , database , biology
Character virtues are morally based actions that enable and individual and his or her social world to thrive across time and place. The morally valanced relation between individual and context involved in character virtue development may be studied productively by research and program evaluation focused on four facets of virtues: (a) Character virtue development involves mutually beneficial relations between the individual and the context (individual ⇔ context relations); (b) Coherence, reflecting the Aristotelian concept of phronesis, enables understanding of the specific ways in which an individual may contribute positively to the context that, in turn, supports him or her; (c) Specific character virtues develop in specific places at specific times through specific individual ⇔ context relations; and 4. Idiographic analysis is a useful first step in the study of character virtue development. Implications of these ideas for research and the evaluation of character education programs are discussed.