The orientation towards the common good: an exploratory study.

The research presents a practical method for assessing what kind of orientation to the common good people express in public ethics situations. The study defines four types of orientation to the common good (personal, group, national and global) and describes the construction of a measure to study individual differences in an adult population. The questionnaire is based on story dilemmas – designed to elicit moral judgment and to invoke a conflict between the different orientations – using a mixed-method that links recognition and production measures. The measure were administered to one hundred and fifty adolescents and displays an high inter-rater reliability, showing an acceptable association with socio-moral reasoning, intended as the main reference construct for the measurement.