Learning virtue ethics for developing psychological sustainability

Abstract

Virtue ethics has been considered to be of utmost relevance in every aspect of education in terms of cultivating virtuous character in individuals. Moral education aims at the development of worthy moral character through the cultivation of virtues, values, attitudes, ethical conduct and habits. Eudemonic well-being suggests engaging in behaviours that people perceive to be morally right and derive a sense of personal meaning from righteous actions. Modern education has neglected concern for human virtues, which has led to the erosion of moral virtues in society at large. With this backdrop, a study which could investigate what virtues could be inculcated that are most essential to students and those that would improve their psychological sustainability seems relevant. This study aimed to practice virtue ethics as a means to learn virtues based on an Aristotelian perspective. Virtue-based lessons were prepared and taught to students based on set objectives. A Situational Judgment Test was administered as pre and post tests to analyze the effectiveness of these lessons in the treatment group. The results reveal that virtue-ethics based lessons are effective for developing the psychological sustainability of students.