The fifth element in the Wholeness Paradigm is the Moral Dimension, an essential facet of an individual’s holistic personality. This will be the point of discussion in this and forthcoming issues, wherein we shall try to decipher the all-important role of moral dimension in the holistic growth of each of us.
In the developmental psychology course that I teach at the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome, one of the chapters we study is the moral development of a person. At the start of the class, the students were asked to list all the words that came to mind related to the moral dimension of a person. They came up with the following: honesty, justice, authenticity, responsibility, courage, service, accountability, virtue, purpose, consistency and stewardship. To these I added my own list, which were, conscience, integrity, honour, ethicality and humility. Indeed, each of these words, and a few other words as well, would indicate the different contours of the moral dimension. In fact, we finished the first hour of our lessons learning the definition given by the American Psychological Association (APA): “It is the gradual and progressive development of an individual’s understanding, grasping of the wrong and right principles, conscious, ethical and religious values, social attitudes and their behaviours.”
Fr. Dr. Joseph Jeyaraj, sdb
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