From Elementary School to Midlife: Childhood Personality Predicts Behavior During Cognitive Testing over Four Decades Later.

The current study uses a prospective, longitudinal design and lifespan perspective to understand how child personality relates to directly observed adult behavior during cognitive testing. Teacher assessments of child Big Five personality in elementary school were correlated with directly observed behaviors during a videotaped cognitive test four decades later. Past work suggested Openness and Conscientiousness may relate to task-relevant academic behaviors. Childhood Openness was associated with several behaviors, even after controlling for participant's cognitive performance. Childhood Conscientiousness was also related to behavior, but not as expected. Other Big Five ratings were not reliably related to behavior. The study examined personality stability in a unique way and suggests a further examination of how Openness in children manifests in later behavior.

Informative and inspirational contributions of exemplar studies.

The authors of this volume showcase the unique insights that can be gained from examining the lives of exemplars. For example, as individuals who stand out for living reflective, ethical lives, exemplars can reveal the human capacity to behave in exceptional ways despite most people's tendency to not exhibit these behaviors. The authors also discuss various advantages of the exemplar approach relative to the typical methods employed by social science. Using a person-centered approach, for instance, enables researchers of exemplar studies to delve more deeply into the details and dynamics of an individual's thought processes and behaviors. Through the combined efforts of the authors, this volume illuminates the potential learning opportunities from studying exemplars, provides accounts of lives that can inspire readers, and suggests potential paths for readers' own spiritual and moral fulfillment.

A model of moral identity: applications for education.

The purpose of this chapter is to build an intellectual bridge between moral psychology and education. Our hope is that the findings from moral psychology will inform and explain best practices in moral education. With that end in mind, we briefly and selectively review the moral education and character education literature highlighting some of the challenges these domains have faced. Next, we review the moral identity literature and offer our own model of moral identity formation emphasizing the "characteristic adaptations" (i.e., moral orientation, moral self, moral emotions, and social relationships and opportunities) of the model. Finally, we illustrate and explain how some of these "characteristic adaptations" have been or could be used in the development of successful moral education programs, and provide specific examples for application of our model in the domain of sex education.