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Nursing & Health Sciences Sep 2021Moral courage and understanding of its meaning are essential when nurses face ethical conflicts in their practice. This integrative review aimed to explore moral courage... (Review)
Review
Moral courage and understanding of its meaning are essential when nurses face ethical conflicts in their practice. This integrative review aimed to explore moral courage in nursing and possible associated individual and organizational factors. A database search in January 2020 identified 1308 scientific articles of which 25 were selected for the review. Inductive analysis with clear steps for defining and synthesizing themes in research reviews revealed three categories concerning moral courage in nursing: definition and descriptions of moral courage, characteristics of the morally courageous nurse, and skills and acts of the morally courageous nurse. Individual and organizational factors, such as positive personal experiences, commitment to ethical principles, supportive work environment and teamwork, were associated with moral courage in nursing, contributing to a more comprehensive description of nurses' moral courage. Findings indicate that in nursing practice, there is a need for promoting multi-professional collaboration and discussion of ethical dilemmas to provide opportunities to enhance moral courage. Developing care environments in which hierarchy does not inhibit nurses' moral courage seems justified. Further research on moral courage with varying methodologies and multi-disciplinary and international approaches is needed.
Topics: Courage; Ethics, Nursing; Humans; Morals; Nurses; Resilience, Psychological
PubMed: 33389792
DOI: 10.1111/nhs.12805 -
Annual Review of Psychology Jan 2021Research on morality has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. At the center of this research are moral judgments-evaluative judgments that a perceiver makes in... (Review)
Review
Research on morality has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. At the center of this research are moral judgments-evaluative judgments that a perceiver makes in response to a moral norm violation. But there is substantial diversity in what has been called moral judgment. This article offers a framework that distinguishes, theoretically and empirically, four classes of moral judgment: evaluations, norm judgments, moral wrongness judgments, and blame judgments. These judgments differ in their typical objects, the information they process, their speed, and their social functions. The framework presented here organizes the extensive literature and provides fresh perspectives on measurement, the nature of moral intuitions, the status of moral dumbfounding, and the prospects of dual-process models of moral judgment. It also identifies omitted questions and sets the stage for a broader theory of moral judgment, which the coming decades may bring forth.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Judgment; Morals; Punishment
PubMed: 32886588
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-072220-104358 -
Current Opinion in Psychology Feb 2022People often make judgments of others' moral character - an inferred moral essence that presumably predicts moral behavior. We first define moral character and explore... (Review)
Review
People often make judgments of others' moral character - an inferred moral essence that presumably predicts moral behavior. We first define moral character and explore why people make character judgments before outlining three key elements that drive character judgments: behavior (good vs. bad, norm violations, and deliberation), mind (intentions, explanations, capacities), and identity (appearance, social groups, and warmth). We also provide taxonomy of moral character that goes beyond simply good vs. evil. Drawing from the theory of dyadic morality, we outline a two-dimensional triangular space of character judgments (valence and strength/agency), with three key corners - heroes, villains, and victims. Varieties of perceived moral character include saints and demons, strivers/sinners and opportunists, the nonmoral, virtuous, and culpable victims, and pure victims.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Judgment; Morals; Social Perception
PubMed: 34418790
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.07.008 -
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Oct 2023I propose that young children may be a useful test case for Fitouchi et al.'s theory that certain seemingly harmless acts are moralized because they are seen as risk...
I propose that young children may be a useful test case for Fitouchi et al.'s theory that certain seemingly harmless acts are moralized because they are seen as risk factors for future poor cooperation. The theory predicts that prior to the development of certain folk-psychological beliefs about self-control, children should be untroubled by violations of puritanical morality, and that an adult-like folk psychology of self-control should develop in tandem with disapproval of such violations.
Topics: Child; Adult; Humans; Child, Preschool; Morals
PubMed: 37789546
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X23000328 -
Journal of Research on Adolescence :... Dec 2021This article provides a selective review of research on moral development in adolescence during the past decade. We begin with introducing key concepts and reviewing... (Review)
Review
This article provides a selective review of research on moral development in adolescence during the past decade. We begin with introducing key concepts and reviewing critical theoretical advances in the field of adolescent moral development. This includes integrative models to the developmental study of morality and dynamic socialization models of moral development. Next, related major empirical findings are presented on moral emotion-behavior links, morality in intergroup contexts, and the socialization of moral development. Next, methodological innovations are presented, including new techniques to assess and analyze moral emotions and moral behaviors. We conclude by pointing to promising future directions for moral development research and practices aimed at promoting ethical growth and civic responsibility in adolescents around the globe.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Emotions; Humans; Moral Development; Morals; Socialization
PubMed: 34820950
DOI: 10.1111/jora.12639 -
Annual Review of Psychology Jan 2021This review covers theory and research on the psychological characteristics and consequences of attitudes that are experienced as moral convictions, that is, attitudes... (Review)
Review
This review covers theory and research on the psychological characteristics and consequences of attitudes that are experienced as moral convictions, that is, attitudes that people perceive as grounded in a fundamental distinction between right and wrong. Morally convicted attitudes represent something psychologically distinct from other constructs (e.g., strong but nonmoral attitudes or religious beliefs), are perceived as universally and objectively true, and are comparatively immune to authority or peer influence. Variance in moral conviction also predicts important social and political consequences. Stronger moral conviction about a given attitude object, for example, is associated with greater intolerance of attitude dissimilarity, resistance to procedural solutions for conflict about that issue, and increased political engagement and volunteerism in that attitude domain. Finally, we review recent research that explores the processes that lead to attitude moralization; we integrate these efforts and conclude with a new domain theory of attitude moralization.
Topics: Attitude; Group Processes; Humans; Morals
PubMed: 32886586
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-063020-030612 -
Current Opinion in Psychology Apr 2022In this review, we examine relationships between empathy, prosocial behavior, and moral judgment. We focus on recent evidence for these relationships, with a focus on... (Review)
Review
In this review, we examine relationships between empathy, prosocial behavior, and moral judgment. We focus on recent evidence for these relationships, with a focus on motivated empathy regulation as an important process that shapes empathic and moral outcomes. In particular, we highlight tradeoffs in contexts that involve competing victims with different needs, such as in large-scale suffering situations and sacrificial moral dilemmas, as well as on effects on punishment and recursive effects of morality on empathy. Our aim is to integrate motivation frameworks in empathy regulation and social cognition with prosocial and moral judgments.
Topics: Emotions; Empathy; Humans; Judgment; Morals; Motivation
PubMed: 34695643
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.011 -
The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Jul 2020After expressing our gratitude to the commentators for their valuable analyses and assessments of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, we respond to several particular...
After expressing our gratitude to the commentators for their valuable analyses and assessments of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, we respond to several particular critiques raised by the commentators under the following rubrics: the compatibility of different sets of principles and rules; challenges to the principle of respect for autonomy; connecting principles to cases and resolving their conflicts; the value of and compatibility of virtues and principles; common morality theory; and moral status. We point to areas where we see common agreement with our commentators and respond to their critical evaluations.
Topics: Bioethics; Ethical Theory; Humans; Principle-Based Ethics; Virtues
PubMed: 32726810
DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhaa011 -
Nursing Ethics Mar 2021Nurses find themselves in a unique position - between patient and physicians, and in close proximity to the patient. Moral sensitivity can help nurses to cope with the...
Nurses find themselves in a unique position - between patient and physicians, and in close proximity to the patient. Moral sensitivity can help nurses to cope with the daily turmoil of demands and opinions while delivering care in concordance with the value system of the patient. This article aims to reconsider the concept of moral sensitivity by discussing the function of emotions in morality. We turn to the ideas of historic and contemporary authors on the function of emotions in morality to expand our understanding of moral sensitivity. Ancient philosophers and contemporary psychologists uphold different strategies on the orientation of morality being (a) personal growth or (b) community living, and the primordial function of (c) reason and (d) emotions in the creation of judgements about good and bad. The theoretical discussion on the function of emotions in morality shows that by focusing on reason alone, one leaves out an essential part of morality. The concept of moral sensitivity should (1) include an initial judgment of good and bad based on emotions, (2) hold the ability to reflect on the initial judgement and the associated emotions, (3) include the ability to understand other stakeholders' perspectives based on the ideal-types and (4) include a personal decision on the right course of action.
Topics: Emotions; Humans; Judgment; Morals
PubMed: 32787609
DOI: 10.1177/0969733020930407 -
Cognition Jan 2022Is humanity's existence worthwhile? If so, where should the human species be headed in the future? In part, the answers to these questions require us to morally evaluate...
Is humanity's existence worthwhile? If so, where should the human species be headed in the future? In part, the answers to these questions require us to morally evaluate the (potential) human population in terms of its size and aggregate welfare. This assessment lies at the heart of population ethics. Our investigation across nine experiments (N = 5776) aimed to answer three questions about how people aggregate welfare across individuals: (1) Do they weigh happiness and suffering symmetrically?; (2) Do they focus more on the average or total welfare of a given population?; and (3) Do they account only for currently existing lives, or also lives that could yet exist? We found that, first, participants believed that more happy than unhappy people were needed in order for the whole population to be net positive (Studies 1a-c). Second, participants had a preference both for populations with greater total welfare and populations with greater average welfare (Study 3a-d). Their focus on average welfare even led them (remarkably) to judge it preferable to add new suffering people to an already miserable world, as long as this increased average welfare. But, when prompted to reflect, participants' preference for the population with the better total welfare became stronger. Third, participants did not consider the creation of new people as morally neutral. Instead, they viewed it as good to create new happy people and as bad to create new unhappy people (Studies 2a-b). Our findings have implications for moral psychology, philosophy and global priority setting.
Topics: Happiness; Humans; Intuition; Morals; Philosophy
PubMed: 34749045
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104941