Arab Educational Information Network

This study aimed at discovering the nature of moral identity and its two dimensions: internalization and symbolization. The self-importance of moral identity scale, developed by Aquino and Reed (2002), was standardized by the researcher and applied to a sample of (206) male and (228) female students from Umm Al-Qura University. Results showed insignificant differences between subjects due to gender or age. The study also identified (9) different types of moral identity based on the interaction between its two dimensions. The first type includes those who show (high internalization and high symbolization) comprising (7.1%) of the subjects. This type represents the optimum positive consistency between both dimensions of moral identity. The majority of the subjects show moderate levels of moral identity, represented by those who fall under the type showing (moderate internalization and moderate symbolization). This type comprises (30.6%) of the subjects. The next type includes those who show (high internalization and moderate symbolization), comprising (17.5%) of the participants. The next type includes those who show (moderate internalization and high symbolization), comprising (5.5%) of the subjects. (39.1%) of the subjects have weak moral identity. This percent includes those who show (low internalization and low symbolization), comprising (5.1%) of the subjects. Furthermore, there are two other types that represent moral inconsistency which include those who show (high internalization and low symbolization) (7.1% of the subjects) and those who show (low internalization and high symbolization) (4.8% of the subjects). The other two types include those who show (moderate internalization and low symbolization) (9.2%) and those who show (low internalization and moderate symbolization) (12.9%). (Published abstract)