MAP: exploring the interplay between Morality, Attachment, and Personality

People hold very different beliefs about what is right and what is wrong, and often the views of others seem difficult to understand or even illogical. But who is right, and who is righteous? Does our attachment style influence our moral reasoning or our experience of moral situations? Are certain personality traits associated with political and moral leanings?

This project is an observational study based on the Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt et al., 2017) and its central tool, the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. This theory considers five key aspects for understanding morality: care versus harm, fairness versus cheating, loyalty versus betrayal, authority versus subversion, and sanctity versus degradation.

The MAP Study is an empirical exploration of the associations between moral reasoning, adult attachment styles, and personality traits. The project uses the Moral Foundations Questionnaire to evaluate people’s moral orientations, the Relationship Structures Questionnaire (ECR RS) to assess attachment style, and the 44 item Big Five Inventory to measure personality traits. Participant recruitment aimed for a diverse and representative sample in terms of age and political orientation, as these factors are known to be associated with moral beliefs, along with other demographic variables.

By examining the interplay between morality, attachment, and personality, this project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the psychological factors that underlie individual differences in moral judgment and belief.