Virtue

Scenario-Based Motivation Assessment

The survey is scenario-based: each of the 18 items presents a realistic, undergraduate-relevant situation (e.g., responding to disagreement in class, helping an overwhelmed peer, persisting after a setback, or integrating complex ideas). Students then rate multiple SDT-aligned reasons for their engagement—from external pressures to fully internalized and virtue-oriented motivations—allowing a nuanced profile of what truly drives their participation in character-relevant practices.

Virtuous Motivation Model

VM does not measure virtue itself—it measures the internalized motivations that energize and sustain virtuous practice over time. By focusing on students’ self-reported reasons rather than observed behaviors, traits, or outcomes, the survey isolates the motivational architecture that precedes character formation, capturing how strongly students endorse autonomous, value-aligned reasons (identified, integrated, or intrinsic) versus controlled or disengaged ones—revealing not whether students “are virtuous,” but the genuine self-endorsement in their engagement with virtue-relevant practices.

Virtuous Motivation Survey

Purpose of the Survey

Scenario-Based Motivation Assessment

Virtuous Motivation Model

Our Request

The survey is scenario-based: each of the 18 items presents a realistic, undergraduate-relevant situ

Why Participate?

Project Leads

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I so appreciate your emphasis on systems thinking and personal connection! A combination of these intentions with the rich set of theories you draw upon appears genuinely capable of revising our highly antiquated education systems.