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- Honesty. Honesty is one of the most important moral values. It means being truthful and fair in all your dealings with other people. Honesty also includes being willing to admit when you have made a mistake.
- Respect. Respect means treating other people with courtesy and consideration. It also includes respecting their property, their privacy, and their views and beliefs.
- Responsibility. Being responsible means being reliable and dependable. It also includes being accountable for your actions and taking responsibility for your mistakes.
- Caring. Caring means showing kindness and concern for others. It also includes being helpful and considerate. When you care about someone, you want what is best for them.
- How Morals Are Established
- Morals That Transcend Time and Culture
- Examples of Morals
- Morality vs. Ethics
- Morality and Laws
- A Word From Verywell
Morality isn’t fixed. What’s considered acceptable in your culture might not be acceptable in another culture. Geographical regions, religion, family, and life experiences all influence morals.
Scholars don’t agree on exactly how morals are developed. However, there are several theories that have gained attention over the years:
•Freud’s morality and the superego: Sigmund Freud suggested moral development occurred as a person’s ability to set aside their selfish needs were replaced by the values of important socializing agents (such as a person’s parents).
•Piaget’s theory of moral development: Jean Piaget focused on the social-cognitive and social-emotional perspective of development. Piaget theorized that moral development unfolds over time, in certain stages as children learn to adopt certain moral behaviors for their own sake—rather than just abide by moral codes because they don’t want to get into trouble.
•B.F. Skinner’s behavioral theory: B.F. Skinner focused on the power of external forces that shaped an individual’s development. For example, a child who receives praise for being kind may treat someone with kindness again out of a desire to receive more positive attention in the future.
•Kohlberg’s moral reasoning: Lawrence Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral development that went beyond Piaget’s theory. Through a series of questions, Kohlberg proposed that an adult’s stage of reasoning could be identified.
Most morals aren’t fixed. They usually shift and change over time.
Ideas about whether certain behaviors are moral—such as engaging in pre-marital sex, entering into same-sex relationships, and using cannabis—have shifted over time. While the bulk of the population once viewed these behaviors as “wrong,” the vast majority of the population now finds these activities to be “acceptable.”
The following are common morality examples that you may have been taught growing up, and may have even passed on to younger generations:
•Be polite
•Have empathy
•Don't steal
•Tell the truth
•Treat others as you want to be treated
Some scholars don’t distinguish between morals and ethics. Both have to do with “right and wrong.”
However, some people believe morality is personal while ethics refer to the standards of a community.
Both laws and morals are meant to regulate behavior in a community to allow people to live in harmony. Both have firm foundations in the concept that everyone should have autonomy and show respect to one another.
Legal thinkers interpret the relationship between laws and morality differently. Some argue that laws and morality are independent. This means that laws can’t be disregarded simply because they’re morally indefensible.
Others believe law and morality are interdependent. These thinkers believe that laws that claim to regulate behavioral expectations must be in harmony with moral norms. Therefore, all laws must secure the welfare of the individual and be in place for the good of the community.
Something like adultery may be considered immoral by some, but it’s legal in most states. Additionally, it’s illegal to drive slightly over the speed limit but it isn’t necessarily considered immoral to do so.
It can be helpful to spend some time thinking about the morals that guide your decisions about things like friendship, money, education, and family. Understanding what’s really important to you can help you understand yourself better and it may make decision making easier.
5 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
1.Merriam-Webster.A Lesson on 'Unmoral', 'Immoral', 'Nonmoral', and 'Amoral'
Merriam-Webster. A lesson on 'unmoral,' 'immoral,' 'nonmoral,' and 'amoral.'
2.Ellemers N, van der Toorn J, Paunov Y, van Leeuwen T. The psychology of morality: A review and analysis of empirical studies published from 1940 through 2017. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2019;23(4):332-366. doi:10.1177/1088868318811759
Jan 18, 2019 · We review empirical research on (social) psychology of morality to identify which issues and relations are well documented by existing data and which areas of inquiry are in need of further empiric...
- Naomi Ellemers, Jojanneke van der Toorn, Jojanneke van der Toorn, Yavor Paunov, Thed van Leeuwen
- 2019
Oct 1, 2017 · We review the contributions to this special issue and situate them within the broader contemporary literature. Our review focuses on how we learn moral values and moral rules, how we learn about personal moral character and relationships, and the philosophical implications of these emerging models.
- Fiery Cushman, Victor Kumar, Peter Railton
- 2017
Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad. Moral development refers to changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity. Moral beliefs are related to, but not identical with, moral behavior: it is possible to know the right thing to do, but not actually do it.
May 20, 2024 · There are two types of moral principles: absolute and relative. Learn examples of morals for each, as well as how to become a moral example for others to follow.
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff. To put it simply, ethics represents the moral code that guides a person’s choices and behaviors throughout their life. The idea of a moral code extends...
