Psychology

Document Type

Article

Abstract

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. © 2026 Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood and SAGE Publishing.

Publication Title

Emerging Adulthood

Publication Date

2026

Volume

14

Issue

6

First Page

1165

Last Page

1173

ISSN

2167-6968

Keywords

emerging adulthood, Ethical Values Assessment (EVA), global psychological science, moral pluralism, moral prioritization, three ethics

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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