Personal ethical value (inner wealth) in legal professionals: instrument adaptation

Abstract

The present study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural adaptation of the Inner Wealth Inventory (IWI) to Brazilian Portuguese and to examine its psychometric properties in a sample of law students and legal professionals. Recognizing that legal practice involves decisions with substantial social and moral impact—often made under conditions of institutional pressure, normative ambiguity, and conflicts of interest—there is a notable gap in the empirical assessment of internal psychological attributes that support ethical conduct beyond the formal compliance with rules. In light of the ethical demands of the legal profession and the limitations of traditional training, which is predominantly normative and prescriptive, the present study problematized the lack of validated instruments designed to assess internal resources of self-regulation, purpose, and interpersonal competence associated with resistance to unethical behavior. Within this context, the validity of the IWI was investigated. The instrument assesses internal attributes related to ethical conduct and is structured into two factors: internalizing values (e.g., self-control, self-knowledge, self-esteem, sense of purpose, and resilience) and externalizing values (e.g., social skills, confidence in interpersonal interactions, and receptivity to praise). It was hypothesized that the IWI would demonstrate a stable factorial structure appropriate to the Brazilian context, high internal consistency, and negative associations with workplace deviant behaviors, as well as the ability to discriminate between individuals with higher versus lower propensities toward unethical conduct. The study was conducted in two stages. The first involved translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and content validity assessment by expert judges and members of the target population. The second consisted of a quantitative psychometric study with a cross-sectional design, in which the factorial structure was examined through confirmatory factor analysis, along with internal consistency and evidence of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, using the Workplace Deviance Scale – Short Form as an external criterion measure. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor model (internalizing and externalizing) with excellent fit indices (CFI and TLI = 0.98; RMSEA and SRMR = 0.07). The internalizing factor demonstrated high reliability (α = 0.90) and negative correlations with workplace deviant behaviors. Additionally, statistically significant differences were observed between groups with higher versus lower levels of deviant behavior, with large effect sizes, particularly for the internalizing factor, further supporting the instrument’s predictive validity. Overall, the findings indicate that the IWI represents a psychometrically robust measure of personal ethical value, with strong potential to inform educational interventions, assessment practices, and institutional policies aimed at promoting integrity and ethical responsibility within legal practice.