Moral Character Traits and Workplace Behavior

Taya R. Cohen's research dataset from Carnegie Mellon University uses diary studies and surveys to identify psychological traits distinguishing adults with high versus low moral character. The data includes self-reported measures of personality (e.g., Honesty-Humility, Conscientiousness) and links them to observed workplace behaviors like harmful acts and helpfulness. Self-reports from this dataset predict consequential behaviors months after the initial assessment.

Use Cases

• Predicting harmful or helpful workplace behaviors based on self-reported personality traits.
• Testing situationist vs. personality-based theories of ethical behavior in organizational settings.
• Modeling the relationship between moral identity and attitudes toward unethical negotiation tactics.
• Analyzing the diagnostic value of traits like guilt proneness and empathic concern for moral character.

Strengths

• Data is derived from multiple methodological sources, including two 3-month diary studies and a large cross-sectional survey.
• Analyses controlled for demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, income) and workplace attributes, strengthening causal inference.
• Self-reported measures demonstrated predictive validity for real-world behaviors months after initial assessment.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing, including row count, specific column names, and the exact date of the last update.
• Sources conflict on the license, with one listing 'Open Access (green)' and another listing 'closed'.
• The dataset's scale and specific file formats are unknown, limiting reproducibility.

Provenance

Source

Taya R. Cohen, Carnegie Mellon University

Collection Method

Combined methodology using two 3-month diary studies and a large cross-sectional survey with self-reports and coworker observations.