Moral standards are personally constructed, not passively absorbed

Evidence

The self-construction of standards is complicated, with so much diversity and inconsistency in the standards being socially prescribed and modeled. Different people adopt different standards and often do not practice what they preach. The exercise of morality involves a fair amount of selectivity and hypocrisy. Even the same individuals may adhere to different moral standards in different settings and domains of activity. For example, they may behave morally in their social relationships but transgressively on their income tax returns. In short, the standards people adopt are not merely facsimiles of what they have been taught or prescribed or have seen modeled. Rather, they are constructions based on reflections on diverse sources of morally relevant information. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 217

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• DEFINE: Clarifies that self-constructed moral standards depart from what society prescribes or models.

Related

• Moral standards vary by setting and allow selective application (similarity 0.92)
• Moral standards form from the reactions of emotionally attached others (similarity 0.83)
• Acquired moral standards do not regulate conduct unceasingly (similarity 0.83)
• People abandon moral conduct without abandoning moral standards (similarity 0.83)
• People routinely compromise their moral standards when facing social predicaments. (similarity 0.82)
• People routinely use psychosocial means to circumvent their moral principles (similarity 0.82)
• Moral disengagement is common in ordinary daily life, not just atrocities (similarity 0.82)
• People live by mixed moral principles, not one universal theory (similarity 0.81)
• People can suspend moral standards only for specific harmful activities while keeping them elsewhere. (similarity 0.79)
• Behavior after moral standards adoption yields social and self-evaluation consequences (similarity 0.78)
• Self-regard invested in standards, not the standards themselves, drives moral conduct. (similarity 0.78)
• People retain their moral standards while selectively suspending them for harm. (similarity 0.78)
• Explaining inhumane conduct alongside moral conduct is the harder test of moral theory (similarity 0.78)