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Journal of Personality Jun 2024People vary in how they perceive, think about, and respond to moral issues. Clearly, we cannot fully understand the psychology of morality without accounting for...
People vary in how they perceive, think about, and respond to moral issues. Clearly, we cannot fully understand the psychology of morality without accounting for individual differences in moral functioning. But decades of neglect of and explicit skepticism toward such individual differences has resulted in a lack of integration between moral psychology and personality psychology-the study of psychological differences between people. In recent years, these barriers to progress have started to break down. This special issue aims to celebrate and further increase the visibility of the personality psychology of morality. Here, we introduce the articles in this special issue by highlighting some important contributions a personality-based perspective has to offer moral psychology-particularly in comparison to the currently prominent social psychological approach. We show that personality psychology is well-placed to (a) contribute toward a rigorous empirical foundation for moral psychology, (b) tackle the conceptualization and assessment of stable moral tendencies, (c) assess the predictive validity of moral traits in relation to consequential outcomes, (d) uncover the mechanisms underlying individual differences in moral judgments and behavior, and (e) provide insights into moral development. For these reasons, we believe that moral psychology needs personality psychology to reach its full scholarly potential.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Personality; Individuality; Judgment
PubMed: 38450583
DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12919 -
Cognition Mar 2022Moral judgments have a very prominent social nature, and in everyday life, they are continually shaped by discussions with others. Psychological investigations of these...
Moral judgments have a very prominent social nature, and in everyday life, they are continually shaped by discussions with others. Psychological investigations of these judgments, however, have rarely addressed the impact of social interactions. To examine the role of social interaction on moral judgments within small groups, we had groups of 4 to 5 participants judge moral dilemmas first individually and privately, then collectively and interactively, and finally individually a second time. We employed both real-life and sacrificial moral dilemmas in which the character's action or inaction violated a moral principle to benefit the greatest number of people. Participants decided if these utilitarian decisions were morally acceptable or not. In Experiment 1, we found that collective judgments in face-to-face interactions were more utilitarian than the statistical aggregate of their members compared to both first and second individual judgments. This observation supported the hypothesis that deliberation and consensus within a group transiently reduce the emotional burden of norm violation. In Experiment 2, we tested this hypothesis more directly: measuring participants' state anxiety in addition to their moral judgments before, during, and after online interactions, we found again that collectives were more utilitarian than those of individuals and that state anxiety level was reduced during and after social interaction. The utilitarian boost in collective moral judgments is probably due to the reduction of stress in the social setting.
Topics: Decision Making; Emotions; Ethical Theory; Humans; Judgment; Morals
PubMed: 34872034
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104965 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Aug 2023To manage conflicts between temptation and commitment, people use self-control. The process model of self-control outlines different strategies for managing the onset...
To manage conflicts between temptation and commitment, people use self-control. The process model of self-control outlines different strategies for managing the onset and experience of temptation. However, little is known about the decision-making factors underlying strategy selection. Across three experiments (N = 317), we tested whether the moral valence of a commitment predicts how people advise attentional self-control strategies. In Experiments 1 and 2, people rated attentional focus strategies as significantly more effective for people tempted to break moral relative to immoral commitments, even when controlling for perceived temptation and trait self-control. Experiment 3 showed that as people perceived commitments to have more positive moral valence, they judged attentional focus strategies to be significantly more effective relative to attentional distraction strategies. Moreover, this effect was partly mediated by perceived differences in motivation. These results indicate that moralization informs decision-making processes related to self-control strategy selection.
Topics: Morals; Self-Control; Humans; Motivation; Decision Making; Male; Female; Adult; Attention
PubMed: 36849699
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02257-7 -
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2021This essay explores what to make of the various kinds of moral distress and moral injury increasingly discussed in multiple disciplines and fields of work. It argues for...
This essay explores what to make of the various kinds of moral distress and moral injury increasingly discussed in multiple disciplines and fields of work. It argues for transdisciplinary cooperation and inquiry and proposes a common name "moral suffering" to embrace the diversity of morally fracturing experiences that negatively impact those in health care and other helping professions. The authors offer important insights into the phenomenological relationship between moral conscience and traumatic experience, presenting questions and offering a possible hypothesis for those who want to pursue this discussion further. The essay reviews the diversity of theories regarding moral distress and moral injury advanced by health-care researchers, military clinicians, and educators. It names questions that transdisciplinary engagement can help address, such as what do the disciplines of health humanities, psychology, and education have to teach each other about prevention of moral harm and the healing of invisible wounds?
Topics: Anxiety; Humans; Military Personnel; Morals; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
PubMed: 33994394
DOI: 10.1353/pbm.2021.0020 -
Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy Dec 2022Moralization is a social-psychological process through which morally neutral issues take on moral significance. Often linked to health and disease, moralization may...
Moralization is a social-psychological process through which morally neutral issues take on moral significance. Often linked to health and disease, moralization may sometimes lead to good outcomes; yet moralization is often detrimental to individuals and to society as a whole. It is therefore important to be able to identify when moralization is inappropriate. In this paper, we offer a systematic normative approach to the evaluation of moralization. We introduce and develop the concept of 'mismoralization', which is when moralization is metaethically unjustified. In order to identify mismoralization, we argue that one must engage in metaethical analysis of moralization processes while paying close attention to the relevant facts. We briefly discuss one historical example (tuberculosis) and two contemporary cases related to COVID-19 (infection and vaccination status) that we contend to have been mismoralized in public health. We propose a remedy of de-moralization that begins by identifying mismoralization and that proceeds by neutralizing inapt moral content. De-moralization calls for epistemic and moral humility. It should lead us to pull away from our tendency to moralize-as individuals and as social groups-whenever and wherever moralization is unjustified.
Topics: Humans; Public Health; COVID-19; Morals
PubMed: 36045179
DOI: 10.1007/s11019-022-10103-1 -
The New Bioethics : a Multidisciplinary... Mar 2021The recent case of the Glasgow midwives, Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood, highlighted again the scope of the 'conscience clause' relating to the 1967, and to which tasks...
The recent case of the Glasgow midwives, Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood, highlighted again the scope of the 'conscience clause' relating to the 1967, and to which tasks it could be applied in relation specifically to their role as Labour Ward Co-ordinators. However, as members of the Catholic Church, this case had specific resonances for them in relation to their beliefs, both from a moral-theological and canonical perspective, the latter of which carries potential ecclesiastical penalties. This article looks at the decisions handed down by the courts, and analyses the issues arising in relation to principles of Catholic morality and the relevant canons in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
Topics: Abortion, Induced; Conscience; Female; Humans; Morals; Pregnancy
PubMed: 33395375
DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2020.1865023 -
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare... Jul 2021
Topics: Humans; Moral Obligations; Moral Status; Morals; Personhood
PubMed: 34109932
DOI: 10.1017/S0963180120000961 -
Journal of Patient Safety Jun 2021Reducing seclusion and restraint use is a prominent focus of efforts to improve patient safety in inpatient psychiatry. This study examined the poorly understood...
OBJECTIVES
Reducing seclusion and restraint use is a prominent focus of efforts to improve patient safety in inpatient psychiatry. This study examined the poorly understood relationship between seclusion and restraint rates and organizational climate and clinician morale in inpatient psychiatric units.
METHODS
Facility-level data on hours of seclusion and physical restraint use in 111 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in 2014 to 2016 were obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Responses to an annual census survey were identified for 6646 VA inpatient psychiatry clinicians for the same period. We examined bivariate correlations and used a Poisson model to regress hours of seclusion and restraint use on morale and climate measures and calculated incident rate ratios (IRRs).
RESULTS
The average physical restraint hours per 1000 patient hours was 0.33 (SD, 1.27; median, 0.05). The average seclusion hours was 0.31 (SD, 0.84; median, 0.00). Physical restraint use was positively associated with burnout (IRR, 1.76; P = 0.04) and negatively associated with engagement (IRR, 0.22; P = 0.01), psychological safety (IRR, 0.48; P < 0.01), and relational climate (IRR, 0.69; P = 0.04). Seclusion was positively associated with relational climate (IRR, 1.69; P = 0.03) and psychological safety (IRR, 2.12; P = 0.03). Seclusion use was also nonsignificantly associated with lower burnout and higher engagement.
CONCLUSIONS
We found significant associations between organizational climate, clinician morale, and use of physical restraints and seclusion in VA inpatient psychiatric units. Health care organization leadership may want to consider implementing a broader range of initiatives that focus on improving organizational climate and clinician morale as one way to improve patient safety.
Topics: Aged; Humans; Inpatients; Medicare; Morale; Patient Isolation; Restraint, Physical; United States
PubMed: 33871417
DOI: 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000827 -
Geriatric Nursing (New York, N.Y.) 2022Studies that objectively investigate patterns of everyday physical activity in relation to well-being and that use measures specific to older adults are scarce. This...
Studies that objectively investigate patterns of everyday physical activity in relation to well-being and that use measures specific to older adults are scarce. This study aimed to explore objectively measured everyday physical activity and sedentary behavior in relation to a morale measure specifically constructed for older adults. A total of 77 persons (42 women, 35 men) aged 80 years or older (84.3 ± 3.8) wore an accelerometer device for at least 5 days. Morale was measured with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS). PGCMS scores were significantly positively associated with number of steps, time spent stepping, and time spent stepping at >75 steps per minute. Sedentary behavior did not associate with PGCMS. Promoting PA in the form of walking at any intensity-or even spending time in an upright position-and in any quantity may be important for morale, or vice versa, or the influence may be bidirectional.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Aged; Sedentary Behavior; Exercise; Morale; Accelerometry
PubMed: 36099778
DOI: 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2022.08.007 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Aug 2022Self-control refers to the ability to choose options with greater long-term benefits over more immediately tempting options. For personal choices that do not affect...
Self-control refers to the ability to choose options with greater long-term benefits over more immediately tempting options. For personal choices that do not affect others, self-control is often conceptualized as morally irrelevant. However, four focal experiments and five supplemental experiments demonstrate that self-control success in apparently nonmoral domains enhances evaluations of moral character, but self-control failure is not regarded as evidence of moral corruption. This asymmetry supports our : self-control is regarded as the ability to bring about intended outcomes, which is believed necessary for moral goodness but not moral badness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Character; Humans; Morals
PubMed: 34990158
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001169