Personal Projects and the Development of Virtue: How Characteristic Adaptations Enact and Encourage Virtue

Abstract

How does the development of virtue play out in the context of personal projects—key elements of identity in which progress is crucial for well-being—such as those related to relationships, vocation, and self-improvement? In a sample of 200 undergraduates, this longitudinal study will investigate how characteristic adaptations (goals, interpretations, and strategies adapted to an individual’s particular life circumstances) develop over time and whether their enaction in the context of personal projects both expresses and leads to the development of virtue. We will use an innovative method called personal projects analysis to assess characteristic adaptations and asso-ciated virtues, and we will test whether a future-authoring intervention, designed to help people envision their ideal future and hone their goals and strategies, facilitates the development of vir-tue. We hypothesize that characteristic adaptations expressed in personal projects predict the development of virtue and that this process can be facilitated by future-authoring. If a brief in-tervention has a measurable effect on the development of virtue, it may provide a powerful tool for improving human life.