Moral Development of Caring Exemplars within the L'Arche Population

The field of moral psychology is working toward a reliable and holistic explanation of exemplary moral action. Explanations of moral action have been found lacking given the evidence that moral judgment does not provide a holistic explanation for moral functioning. Recent research on moral personality has made an important contribution to the understanding of moral action by indicating that character traits of an individual may motivate or influence moral action. The present study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between moral personality and moral action by exploring the personal strivings of 47 caring moral exemplars within the L'Arche population through semi-structured interviews. Participants were grouped into four quartiles based on their years of employment in L'Arche. Interview responses were coded based on Emmons (1999) thematic coding system which is focused on personal strivings. The results demonstrate that those adults in a caring population who worked at L'Arche for 1--2 years demonstrated greater endorsement of generativity in their life narratives than those who had worked in L'Arche for longer durations; 6--10 years and 11+ years.