Character Psychology And Character Education - by Daniel K Lapsley & F Clark Power (Paperback)

About the Book

A collection of essays about character and character education by some of the top scholars in the fields of ethical theory, moral development research, and education

Book Synopsis

This collection of essays provides new perspectives on the nature of character and moral education by utilizing insights from the disciplines of moral psychology, moral philosophy, and education. The volume draws from personality and developmental research as well as educational and ethical theory. Character Psychology and Character Education distinguishes itself by bringing moral philosophers, who believe that ethical reflection about virtue and character must be tied to defensible notions of personality and selfhood, into dialogue with academic psychologists, who believe that the developmental study of the moral self requires adequate grounding in various psychological literatures. The first group embraces a "naturalized" ethics, while the second group favors a "psychologized" morality.

Among the topics explored in this volume are the constructs of moral selfhood, personality, and identity, as well as defensible models of character education. One of the primary arguments of the volume is that problems of character education cannot be addressed until an adequate model of character psychology is developed. In addition to the excellent theoretical essays, this collection includes applied chapters that consider the challenge of character education in the context of schools, families, and organized sports. This book will be an invaluable resource both for scholars and practitioners in the fields of psychology and education.

Contributors: Daniel K. Lapsley, F. Clark Power, Darcia Narvaez, Christine McKinnon, Augusto Blasi, Ann Higgins-D'Alessandro, David Light Shields, Brenda Light Bredemeier, Craig A. Cunningham, Joel J. Kupperman, Matthew L. Davidson, Robert J. Nash, Marvin W. Berkowitz, Melinda Bier, Jeannie Oakes, Karen Hunter Quartz, Steve Ryan, Martin Lipton, and Jay W. Brandenberger.

Review Quotes

". . . an impressive compendium of articles written by diverse professors of psychology and presents a critical assembly of essays offering new views on the nature of character and moral education, drawing from the disciplines of moral psychology, moral philosophy, and education." --Midwest Book Review

"Contributors have expertise in personality and developmental research as well as educational and ethical theory. Readers interested in the fields of psychology and moral education should learn from these essays. Highly recommended." --Choice

"The psychologist Kurt Lewin famously observed, 'There is nothing so practical as a good theory.' Moral educators such as Lawrence Kohlberg and Ralph Mosher reminded us that there is nothing so instructive for theory as good practice. If there is not now a fruitful interchange between character psychology and character education, this rich, provocative, and uniquely valuable volume is an invitation to deepen the dialogue." --Tom Lickona, SUNY Cortland

"This is an important new collection of essays about character and character education by some of the top scholars in the fields of ethical theory, moral development research, and education." --Don Collins Reed, Wittenberg University

"This new collection of essays on the moral education of character, edited by two distinguished contemporary theorists of moral education and including contributions by other psychologists and philosophers of reputation, would appear to mark something of a turning point in latter day theorizing about moral education. . . it represents something of a shift from the dominant Kohlbergian 'cognitive developmental' paradigm of the past half century towards the more recently emerging paradigm of character education. . . they raise profound and unresolved questions about the vexed relationship of empirical psychology to ethics in the theory of moral development and education. It is greatly to the credit of the editors and other contributors to this work that they have not shirked such hard questions, and that they have sought honestly to address them in bold and interesting ways. From this viewpoint, despite some inevitable variable quality, this volume may be regarded as something of a landmark in the contemporary theory of moral education and the questions that it raises merit attention and much further discussion." --Journal of Moral Education

"This volume takes virtue seriously as an empirically based and testable ethical phenomenon. More unusual, it takes moral character seriously as something more than a compilation of virtues, and as something quite different--a true identity system of a richly cognitive and development sort. It is about time a book of this sort has been written, and it will be well-received and well-used by researchers and faculty." --William Puka, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

"The thinkers contributing to Character Psychology and Character Education engage us at the crossroads of discussion and dialogue. They harmonize in one respect: the choice of character. In choosing to speak of character, they speak to moral functioning more generally and accept that a deep understanding of moral character entails deeper integration with all relevant psychological literatures. . . a rich tapestry of insights, a flourishing of emergent systems of thought, and courage to embrace the challenge." --PsycCRITIQUES

About the Author

F. Clark Power is professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame.