1st Edition

The Routledge International Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development Two Volume Set

    1414 Pages 53 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Drawing from philosophy, religion, biology, behavioral and social sciences, and the arts, the Routledge International Handbooks of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development, Volumes I and II, present cutting-edge scholarship about the concept of character across the life span, the developmental and contextual bases of character, and the key organizations of societal sectors, within and across nations, that promote character development in individuals, families, and communities.

    This first volume, Conceptualizing and Defining Character explores the foundations of the field by providing an array of interdisciplinary approaches to character development including economics, education, law, literature, military science, philosophy, and many more. This second volume, Moderators, Threats, and Contexts focuses on the moderators and covariates of character development with chapters pertaining to cultural- and contextual-based exemplars of character development; grit, achievement, and resilience; hope for the future; and parenting and self-regulation. With contributions from international experts, special attention is paid to the centers of excellence at universities around the world that specialize in character development research and character education.

    These comprehensive publications are essential references for researchers and graduate students in behavioral sciences, biology, philosophy, theology, and economics, as well as practitioners leading or evaluating character education or character development programs around the world.

    Volume I

    Section 1: Introduction

     

    1. Contemporary Character Development Scholarship: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives

    Michael D. Matthews and Richard M Lerner

     

    Section 2: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Character Development

     

    2. Epigenetics and Character Virtue Development

    David S. Moore

     

    3. Character Virtues in Developmental Science

    David C. Witherington and Maria McCready

     

    4. The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue

    James J. Heckman, Bridget Galaty, and Haihan Tian

     

    5. PRIMED for Character Education: Deriving Design Principles for Effective Practice from Empirical Evidence

    Marvin W. Berkowitz and Melinda C. Bier

     

    6. Changing the Character of Schools: Promoting Servant Leadership Virtues to Solve Internationally Relevant Problems in Education

    Melinda C. Bier, Deborah S. O’Reilly, Peter Kingori, Satabdi Samtani, and Marvin W. Berkowitz

     

    7. Educating for Character in the Sexual Domain: Why It Matters and How to Do It

    Thomas Lickona

     

    8. Character Development in Higher Education

    Edward Brooks and Tom Harrison

     

    9. The Use and Inculcation of Character in Law: Challenges Reflected Throughout United States’ Legal Systems

    Roger J.R. Levesque

     

    10: Character Development in Leadership and Organizational Studies

    Patrick J. Sweeney

     

    11: Contact with the vir fortis: Character Education and the Roman Practice of Declamation

    Anthony Zupanic

     

    12. Character Virtue Development in Military Science

    Andrew Farina and Chaveso Cook

     

    13. The Philosophical Foundations of Character Virtue Development

    Andrew Peterson and Kristján Kristjánsson

     

    14. Political Science Approaches to the Character Virtues

    Hugh Liebert

     

    15. Character Virtues in Positive Psychology

    Robert E. McGrath

     

    16. Character-Minded Evaluation: Recognizing and Activating the Essential Role of Character in High-Quality Evaluation

    Jennifer Brown Urban, Miriam R. Linver, Jane Buckley, Monica Hargraves and Thomas Archibald

     

    17. The Culture of Character: Sociological Perspectives

    Jeffrey S. Dill

     

    18. Theological Perspectives on Beliefs and Communities of Practice: Virtue Systems as an Integrative Approach for Psychologists

    Pamela Ebstyne King, Rebecca E. Baer, and Tyler S. Greenway

     

    Section 3: Instances of Character Development

     

    19. Developing Civic Character

    Sunah Hyun, Diane M. Ryan, and Peter Levine

     

    20. Courage: Moral and Physical Dimensions

    Erin I. O’Connell, Roshni Joseph, Addison Shemin, and Jason Woodruff, Colin Simsarian, Francesco Yepez Coello, and Bruce Bongar

     

    21. Fairness

    Juan Pablo Dabdoub, Marvin Berkowitz, Natasha Keces, and Aitor R. Salaverría

     

    22. On Forgiveness and Character Development: Description, Explanation, and Optimization

    Jonathan M. Tirrell

     

    23. Gratitude: From Relational Emotion to Contextualized Virtue Inclusive of Indebtedness

    Jenae M. Nelson, Jo-Ann Tsang, and Sarah A. Schnitker

     

    24. Dynamics of Intellectual Humility

    Elise Murray Dykhuis

     

    25. Intellectual Virtues

    Ben Kotzee and Jason Baehr

     

    26. Kindness: A Path to Human Growth and Connectedness

    Tina Malti and Tyler Colasante

     

    27. The Development of Morality and the Character System: Implications for the Notion of Virtue

    Larry Nucci

     

    28. Personal Liberty, Mutual Respect, and Tolerance

    David Lundie, Lee Shannon, and Antonio Zuffiano

     

    29. Feeling Good and Feeling Thankful: The Role of Positive Emotions in Sustaining Early Prosocial Behavior

    Stefen Beeler-Duden and Amrisha Vaish

     

    30. Purpose through the Lens of Character Virtue Development

    Kendall Cotton Bronk

     

    Afterword

    William Damon

    Volume II

    Section 1: Moderators and Covariates of Character Development

     

    1. Culturally Sensitive and Contextually Adapted Exemplars of Character Development:  Implications for Reimagining Frameworks

    Velma McBride Murry, Rachel Hanebutt, Hyemin Han, Marlena Debreaux and Juliet Nyanamba

     

    2. The Role of Grit in Achievement and Resilience: A Comprehensive Review

    Ryan Erbe, Ray Fredrick, Yasmine Kalkstein, Michael D. Matthews, Orin Strauchler,

    and Elizabeth Wetzler

     

    3. Organizational Grit as a Cultural Perspective

    Celeste K. Raver and Andrew Ledford

     

    4. Hope for the Future

    Nancy E. Snow

     

    5. Parenting as Panacea: Toward Generational Advancements of Early Character Virtues and Eventual Civic Responsibility

    Marc H. Bornstein

     

    6. Resilience

    Andrew C. Pool, Samantha Costello, and Kenneth R. Ginsburg

     

    7. Self-regulation: A character development perspective

    Christopher M. Napolitano, Madison N. Sewell, Heejun Yoon, Christopher Elmi

    and Brent W. Roberts

     

    Section 2: Threats to Character Development

     

    8. Can Exemplars Promote Character Development in the Wake of Adversity?

    Sara Mendonca, Michael Brady and Eranda Jayawickreme

     

    9. Why Good People Fail at Character: The Character Risk Model

    Michael D. Matthews, Andrew Farina, Patrick J. Sweeney and Jarle Eid

     

    10. What’s Wrong with the World Anyway? Psychological Origins of a Collective Failure of Humanity

    Robert J. Sternberg

     

    11. Democratic Character and Virtues: Developmental Responses to Group Conflict and Oppression

    David Moshman

     

    12. Racism and Positive Youth Development

    Eleanor K. Seaton and Rebecca M. B. White

     

    Section 3: Contexts of Character Development

     

    13. The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues

    James Arthur

     

    14. The Center for Character and Citizenship

    Marvin W. Berkowitz and Melinda C. Bier

     

    15. The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

    Andrew C. Pool, Elyse Salek, Joanna Lee Williams, Eden Pontz, Jillian L. Baker

    and Kenneth R. Ginsburg

     

    16. The Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD): Understanding What Goes Right in the Lives of Youth

    Mary H. Buckingham, Paul Chase, Dian Yu, Jonathan M. Tirrell, Elizabeth M. Dowling, Kristina Schmid Callina, Yerin Park, Carolina Goncalves, Natasha Keces and Roya Abbasi-Asl

     

    17. Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing: A Cautionary Tale

    Nancy E. Snow

     

    18. The Oxford Character Project

    Edward Brooks, Rebecca Park and Anjali Sarker

     

    19. The Montclair State University Institute for Research on Youth Thriving and Evaluation

    Jennifer Brown Urban and Miriam R. Linver

     

    20. The Stanford Center on Adolescence

    Heather Malin

     

    21. Wake Forest University’s Program for Leadership and Character: A Case Study

    Michael Lamb and Kenneth Townsend

     

    22. The Application of Character Measurement and Development within Organizations

    Brian Davidson and Troy Morgan

     

    23. International Development Agencies and their Emerging Role in Adolescent Character Development: Reflections and Opportunities

    Prerna Banati, Elizabeth M. Dowling, Nicola Jones, Keenan Madi and Agnieszka Malachowska

     

    24. International Faith-based Organizations: Integrating Science and Ideology

    Alistair Sim, Elizabeth Dowling, Jonathan M. Tirrell, Jacqueline V. Lerner and Kate Williams

     

    25. Children’s Media and Development: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Considerations and Potential

    Lacey J. Hilliard, AnneMarie K. McClain and Julie Dobrow

     

    26. Character Development in Youth Programs: Lessons from Developmental Science Research and Practice

    Andrea Vest Ettekal, Jennifer P. Agans, Barbara Bolick and Kimia Shirzad

     

    27. Philanthropic Approaches to Character Development

    Sarah Clement, Richard Bollinger and Alexandra Was

     

    28. The Templeton Philanthropies

    Heather Templeton Dill and Jennifer Templeton Simpson

     

    29. Character First, then Pathway to Excellence: A Case Study of NPX Point Avenue K12 Education Programs in Hanoi, Vietnam

    Trang Le and Danny Hwang

     

    30. Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach: Integrating Intellectual Virtues into the DNA of a School

    Eric Churchill, Jacquie Bryant and Jason Baehr

     

    31. A Developmental Journey: The Center for Character and Leadership Development at the U.S. Air Force Academy

    John Abbatiello and Douglas R. Lindsay

     

    32. Leaders of Character, The Coast Guard Academy Way

    Leonard M. Giambra, Nathaniel K. Johnson, Andrew D. Ray, Jon Heller and Ellyn D. Metcalf

     

    33. Building Trusted Army Professionals: Character Development at West Point

    Jeffrey Peterson, Diane M. Ryan and Elise Dykhuis

     

    34. Leadership and Character Development at the U.S. Naval Academy

    Jeffrey R. Macris, Joseph J. Thomas, Andrew Ledford, Kevin Mullaney and Celeste Raver

     

    Section 4: Conclusions and Implications

     

    35. Character Virtue, Social Science, and Leadership: Consequences of Ignoring Practice

    Margaret Beale Spencer

     

    36. Progress, Challenges, and Promise in Understanding, Measuring, and Educating Character

    Blaine J. Fowers, Lukas F. Novak, Nona C. Kiknadze and Alex C. Calder

     

    37. Character Development: Then, Now, and Next

    Richard M. Lerner and Michael D. Matthews

     

    Afterword

    William Damon

    Biography

    Michael D. Matthews, Ph.D., is Professor of Engineering Psychology at the United States Military Academy. He has been a military psychologist since 1980. In the past 40 years he has served on active duty as an Air Force officer (as a behavioral sciences officer), as a psychology professor at Drury University, as a research psychologist for the Army Research Institute and, since 2000, in his current capacity at West Point.

    Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D. is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. He went from kindergarten through Ph.D. within the New York City public schools, completing his doctorate at the City University of New York in 1971 in developmental psychology. Lerner has more than 800 scholarly publications, including more than 80 authored or edited books.

    “This modern encyclopedia of character is a treasure. I have immense respect for its editors and authors, as well as the breadth of topics and how they have been organized. Most of all, I love the interdisciplinary approach represented in these two volumes. I know I will turn, again and again, to the chapters in this Handbook for knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration.”

    — Angela Duckworth, CEO of the Character Lab and bestselling author of Grit

    “This Handbook is greatly needed at this time in history when basic principles of honesty and integrity seem to take a backseat to self-interest and personal financial or political gain.”

    — Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (Retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and author of To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision and coauthor of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War

    “This multi-faceted, far-reaching Handbook succeeds on many fronts. It captures the classic concerns of character that sages have examined for centuries and the vibrant contemporary work that scholars are producing at this moment… It has no near equivalent as a resource for anyone wishing to review the present state of knowledge about this most crucial dimension of human life.”

    — William Damon, Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence and author of The Path to Purpose

    “Matthews and Lerner’s monumental two-volume International Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development provides a timely and engrossing compendium of everything you ever wanted to know about character virtues—what they are, what they presage, how and where they are manifest, and how they can best be promoted and nurtured at all ages as well as in all contexts and cultures. The volumes comprise a finely written tour-de-force that will appeal especially to academics, parents, teachers, cultural critics, and those in positions of leadership throughout society even as they underscore how elusive these virtues have become in our fractured world.”

    — Michael E. Lamb, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Emeritus Fellow, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge

    “Understanding and promoting moral character may seem like gentle, uncontroversial goals. Yet, moral character is under serious threat in the world today, and these goals are as urgent as they’ve ever been. These extravagantly comprehensive volumes draw from virtually all disciplines to provide the best thinking and evidence to guide our efforts to strengthen collective and individual character. As a wonderful bonus, the handbook ends with unique resources on character-infused leadership in military professions and portraits of university-based and other centers for the study and promotion of character.”

    — Anne Colby, author of Educating Citizens and The Power of Ideals

    “To the great credit of the editors, they have taken an interdisciplinary approach to this topic, which is becoming increasingly important in today's world. The result is a highly comprehensive work with up-to-date findings — a vital resource for researchers and practitioners shaping character education worldwide.”

    — Hubert Annen, Head of Military Psychology and Military Pedagogy Studies, Swiss Military Academy at ETH Zurich

    “These knowledgeable and nuanced discussions of important topics from multidisciplinary perspectives of character and virtue will provide graduate students, researchers, and academicians with a valuable overview on a worldwide scale. Excellent resource for scholars at all levels.”

    — Updesh Kumar, Scientist ‘G’ & Head Mental Health Division, DIPR, DRDO, Delhi, India