“An End Unto Itself” – Psychometric Properties of the Moral Autotelism Scale

A variety of empirical approaches and psychometric instruments aim towards the measurement of moral attitudes and behaviors. Beyond the presence of limitations, related to their ecological validity, and conceptual ambiguities, resulting from the operationalization of complex philosophical constructs, many of them ignore the existential aspects of moral behaviour. On the other hand, while moral attitudes and behaviours have been mostly addressed with respect to other-orientedness, self-oriented aspects of morality (upholding one’s own enlightened self-interest) remain addressed to a lesser extent. Therefore, the present study discusses the construct of Moral autotelism (as an expression of morally relevant beliefs, strivings, and behaviors), and outlines the construction of a moral autotelism scale, as an alternative to these approaches.