Measuring Moral Pluralism and Prioritization in a Global World: Introduction to Special Section on Ethical Values Assessment (EVA)

This article introduces the special section on research that used the Ethical Values Assessment (EVA). The EVA measures endorsement of numerous values based on the Ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity (on a Likert scale), and prioritization of values (rank ordering one’s top three values). While the EVA may be used with diverse age groups, the present articles focused on emerging adults. Exploring values pertaining to ideology, love, and work are necessary tasks in emerging adulthood as is deciding upon priorities. The present articles, which included diverse socio-economic samples from the Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa, Thailand, and the U.S., show that the aspiration for Autonomy is remarkably widespread. Autonomy is the ethic of globalization, but Divinity is also boosted by globalization in some cultures. Depending on culture, Autonomy together with either Community or Divinity predicts flourishing and narrating a reflective worldview. The methods employed were quantitative and mixed-methods, and cross-sectional as well as longitudinal.