Self-regard invested in standards, not the standards themselves, drives moral conduct.

Evidence

It is not the moral principles or standards per se but the investment of one’s self-regard in how one lives up to those standards that governs the motivation and self-regulation of moral conduct. Fulfilling moral standards affirms one’s positive self-view. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 221

In the behavioral form, individuals treat themselves self-rewardingly with activities they value and enjoy or self-punitively by withholding desired activities or imposing aversive ones. Restitution is a common behavioral effect of harm caused by moral violations. It is not the moral principles or standards per se but the investment of one’s self-regard in how one lives up to those standards that governs the motivation and self-regulation of moral conduct. Fulfilling moral standards affirms one’s positive self-view. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 221

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Core mechanism of the whole theory: moral behavior is governed by self-worth invested in standards, which is precisely what moral disengagement manipulates by unfastening the self-sanction link.
• XREF: This is the crux for disengagement: if self-regard is the governor, then harm becomes possible when self-regard is no longer invested in the violated standard — the precise gap the vault’s rationalization claims depend on. — connects to: Genuine regard can only reward virtue that is not performed to win regard. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1009
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 221