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BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Jul 1994The "four principles plus scope" approach provides a simple, accessible, and culturally neutral approach to thinking about ethical issues in health care. The approach,... (Review)
Review
The "four principles plus scope" approach provides a simple, accessible, and culturally neutral approach to thinking about ethical issues in health care. The approach, developed in the United States, is based on four common, basic prima facie moral commitments--respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice--plus concern for their scope of application. It offers a common, basic moral analytical framework and a common, basic moral language. Although they do not provide ordered rules, these principles can help doctors and other health care workers to make decisions when reflecting on moral issues that arise at work.
Topics: Beneficence; Bioethical Issues; Decision Making; Delivery of Health Care; Ethical Theory; Ethics, Medical; Humans; Moral Obligations; Morals; Patient Advocacy; Personal Autonomy; Principle-Based Ethics; Resource Allocation; Value of Life
PubMed: 8044100
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.309.6948.184 -
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 -
Journal of Medical Ethics Oct 2003The four principles approach to medical ethics plus specification is used in this paper. Specification is defined as a process of reducing the indeterminateness of...
The four principles approach to medical ethics plus specification is used in this paper. Specification is defined as a process of reducing the indeterminateness of general norms to give them increased action guiding capacity, while retaining the moral commitments in the original norm. Since questions of method are central to the symposium, the paper begins with four observations about method in moral reasoning and case analysis. Three of the four scenarios are dealt with. It is concluded in the "standard" Jehovah's Witness case that having autonomously chosen the authority of his religious institution, a Jehovah's Witness has a reasonable basis on which to refuse a recommended blood transfusion. The author's view of the child of a Jehovah's Witness scenario is that it is morally required-not merely permitted-to overrule this parental refusal of treatment. It is argued in the selling kidneys for transplantation scenario that a fair system of regulating and monitoring would be better than the present system which the author believes to be a shameful failure.
Topics: Adult; Bioethical Issues; Blood Transfusion; Casuistry; Child; Commerce; Ethical Analysis; Ethics, Clinical; Humans; Jehovah's Witnesses; Judgment; Kidney Transplantation; Living Donors; Morals; Personal Autonomy; Principle-Based Ethics; Social Justice; Third-Party Consent; Tissue and Organ Procurement; Treatment Refusal
PubMed: 14519835
DOI: 10.1136/jme.29.5.269 -
Scientific Reports May 2023The study of moral judgement and decision making examines the way predictions made by moral and ethical theories fare in real world settings. Such investigations are...
The study of moral judgement and decision making examines the way predictions made by moral and ethical theories fare in real world settings. Such investigations are carried out using a variety of approaches and methods, such as experiments, modeling, and observational and field studies, in a variety of populations. The current Collection on moral judgments and decision making includes works that represent this variety, while focusing on some common themes, including group morality and the role of affect in moral judgment. The Collection also includes a significant number of studies that made theoretically driven predictions and failed to find support for them. We highlight the importance of such null-results papers, especially in fields that are traditionally governed by theoretical frameworks.
Topics: Negative Results; Judgment; Morals; Decision Making
PubMed: 37169894
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34899-x -
Annual Review of Psychology Jan 2024Nearly five billion people around the world now use social media, and this number continues to grow. One of the primary goals of social media platforms is to capture and... (Review)
Review
Nearly five billion people around the world now use social media, and this number continues to grow. One of the primary goals of social media platforms is to capture and monetize human attention. One means by which individuals and groups can capture attention and drive engagement on these platforms is by sharing morally and emotionally evocative content. We review a growing body of research on the interrelationship of social media and morality as well its consequences for individuals and society. Moral content often goes viral on social media, and social media makes moral behavior (such as punishment) less costly. Thus, social media often acts as an accelerant for existing moral dynamics, amplifying outrage, status seeking, and intergroup conflict while also potentially amplifying more constructive facets of morality, such as social support, prosociality, and collective action. We discuss trends, heated debates, and future directions in this emerging literature.
Topics: Humans; Social Media; Morals; Punishment; Social Support
PubMed: 37906950
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-022123-110258 -
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 -
Health and Human Rights Dec 2021Two problems are considered here. One relates to who has moral status, and the other relates to who has moral responsibility. The criteria for mattering morally have...
Two problems are considered here. One relates to who has moral status, and the other relates to who has moral responsibility. The criteria for mattering morally have long been disputed, and many humans and nonhuman animals have been considered "marginal cases," on the contested edges of moral considerability and concern. The marginalization of humans and other species is frequently the pretext for denying their rights, including the rights to health care, to reproductive freedom, and to bodily autonomy. There is broad agreement across cultural and philosophical traditions about the capacities and responsibilities of moral agents. I propose an inclusive and expansive way of thinking about moral status, situating it not in the characteristics or capacities of individuals, but in the responsibilities and obligations of moral agents. Moral agents, under this view, are not privileged or entitled to special treatment but rather have responsibilities. I approach this by considering some African communitarian conceptions of moral status and moral agency. I propose that moral agency can also be more expansive and include not just individual moral agents but collective entities that have some of the traits of moral agents: power, freedom, and the capacity to recognize and act on the demands of morality and acknowledge and respect the rights of others. Expanding who and what is a moral agent correspondingly extends moral responsibility for respecting rights and fostering the conditions for the health and wellbeing of humans and animals onto the collective entities who uniquely have the capacity to attend to global-scale health threats such as pandemics and human-caused climate change.
Topics: Animals; Freedom; Human Rights; Humans; Moral Obligations; Moral Status; Morals
PubMed: 34966225
DOI: No ID Found -
Sleep Jul 2014
Topics: Humans; Job Satisfaction; Morale; Sleep; Stress, Psychological; Work Schedule Tolerance; Workload
PubMed: 25061242
DOI: 10.5665/sleep.3826 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2022Due to diffusion of responsibility, majority voting may induce immoral and selfish behavior because voters are rarely solely responsible for the outcome. Across three... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Due to diffusion of responsibility, majority voting may induce immoral and selfish behavior because voters are rarely solely responsible for the outcome. Across three behavioral experiments (two preregistered; n = 1983), we test this hypothesis in situations where there is a conflict between morality and material self-interest. Participants were randomly assigned to make decisions about extracting money from a charity either in an experimental referendum or individually. We find no evidence that voting induces immoral behavior. Neither do we find that people self-servingly distort their beliefs about their responsibility for the outcome when they vote. If anything, the results suggest that voting makes people less immoral.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Social Behavior; Politics
PubMed: 36587028
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24360-w -
Psychological Bulletin Mar 2015The relationship between religion and morality has long been hotly debated. Does religion make us more moral? Is it necessary for morality? Do moral inclinations emerge... (Review)
Review
The relationship between religion and morality has long been hotly debated. Does religion make us more moral? Is it necessary for morality? Do moral inclinations emerge independently of religious intuitions? These debates, which nowadays rumble on in scientific journals as well as in public life, have frequently been marred by a series of conceptual confusions and limitations. Many scientific investigations have failed to decompose "religion" and "morality" into theoretically grounded elements; have adopted parochial conceptions of key concepts-in particular, sanitized conceptions of "prosocial" behavior; and have neglected to consider the complex interplay between cognition and culture. We argue that to make progress, the categories "religion" and "morality" must be fractionated into a set of biologically and psychologically cogent traits, revealing the cognitive foundations that shape and constrain relevant cultural variants. We adopt this fractionating strategy, setting out an encompassing evolutionary framework within which to situate and evaluate relevant evidence. Our goals are twofold: to produce a detailed picture of the current state of the field, and to provide a road map for future research on the relationship between religion and morality.
Topics: Cross-Cultural Comparison; Humans; Morals; Religion; Social Behavior
PubMed: 25528346
DOI: 10.1037/a0038455