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Sample records for positive employee morale

  1. Studies of the relationship between employee`s safety consciousness, morale, and supervisor`s leadership in nuclear power plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Misumi, Jyuji; Hiraki, Tadao; Sakurai, Yukihiro [Institute of Nuclear Safety System Inc., Kyoto (Japan); Yoshida, Michio; Misumi, Emiko; Tokudome, Eiji

    1996-09-01

    This study examined the relationship between employee`s safety consciousness, morale, and supervisor`s leadership using multiple regression analysis. Respondents were 2152 male employees who were working at nuclear power plants (operation division, maintenance division, and joint companies). Main results were as follows. (1) Individual morale variables, such as `work motivation` and `mental hygine`, were correlated with leadership M behavior rather than with P behavior. On the other hand, group morale variables, such as `teamwork` and `meeting quality`, were correlated with both P and M behavior. These results shows P and M leadership affect the employee`s morale. (2) With regard to safety consciousness variables, `communication` and `work place norm` to ensure safety were strongly correlated to leadership both P and M behavior. However, neither `sense of tension to ensure safety` nor `experiencing cold shiver` were related to leadership P or M behavior. It was suggested that practices for accidents prevention in workplace are related to supervisor`s P and M leadership behavior. (3) `Sense of tension` to ensure safety and `experiencing cold shiver` were negatively correlated with `mental hygine`, but positively correlated with `work motivation`. These results suggest that increase of the work motivation might improve employee`s awareness and ability for detecting human errors. (author)

  2. Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Identification and Moral Identity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Wei; Fu, Ying; Qiu, Huiqing; Moore, James H; Wang, Zhongming

    2017-01-01

    Corporate social responsibility (CSR) research is not new, but its importance to today's socially conscious market environment is even more evident in recent years. This study moves beyond CSR as simply the socially responsible actions and policies of organizations and focuses on the complex psychology of CSR as it relates to individuals within the organization. Given CSR can positively affect both the individuals within the organization and the organization itself, better understanding and leveraging the mechanisms and conditions of CSR that facilitate desired employee outcomes is crucial for organizational performance. However, scholars lack consensus in determining a theoretical framework for understanding how and under what conditions CSR will make an impact on employees and ultimately organizational performance. This study adds clarity by exploring the effect of perceived CSR on a more comprehensive set of employees' attitudinal and behavioral reactions (i.e., turnover intention, in-role job performance, and helping behavior) via the mediating mechanism of organizational identification and the moderating condition of moral identity. Hypotheses were derived using social identity theory. Results were based on data obtained from 340 Chinese manufacturing employee-supervisor dyads. This study found that employees' perceived CSR had an indirect relationship via organizational identification with each of the variables: (1) turnover intention, (2) in-role job performance, and (3) helping behavior. Specifically, the negative relationship between perceived CSR and turnover intention was stronger when employees had higher moral identity and the positive relationship between perceived CSR and in-role job performance and helping behavior was amplified by moral identity. Our findings show how the mediating mechanism of organizational identity and the moderating condition of moral identity work together to improve organizational effectiveness. The findings reveal several

  3. EMPLOYEE MORALE IN THE NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Employee morale is a very important and sensitive phenomenon in work ... desire to do the best possible job or to exert the maximum effort to perform assigned tasks”. (Gomez ... past experience, practice in the task, and motivation”. .... Table 5: Average Responses of Male and Female NEPA Employees on How They are.

  4. Studies of the relationship between employee's safety consciousness, morale, and supervisor's leadership in nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Misumi, Jyuji; Hiraki, Tadao; Sakurai, Yukihiro; Yoshida, Michio; Misumi, Emiko; Tokudome, Eiji.

    1996-01-01

    This study examined the relationship between employee's safety consciousness, morale, and supervisor's leadership using multiple regression analysis. Respondents were 2152 male employees who were working at nuclear power plants (operation division, maintenance division, and joint companies). Main results were as follows. (1) Individual morale variables, such as 'work motivation' and 'mental hygine', were correlated with leadership M behavior rather than with P behavior. On the other hand, group morale variables, such as 'teamwork' and 'meeting quality', were correlated with both P and M behavior. These results shows P and M leadership affect the employee's morale. (2) With regard to safety consciousness variables, 'communication' and 'work place norm' to ensure safety were strongly correlated to leadership both P and M behavior. However, neither 'sense of tension to ensure safety' nor 'experiencing cold shiver' were related to leadership P or M behavior. It was suggested that practices for accidents prevention in workplace are related to supervisor's P and M leadership behavior. (3) 'Sense of tension' to ensure safety and 'experiencing cold shiver' were negatively correlated with 'mental hygine', but positively correlated with 'work motivation'. These results suggest that increase of the work motivation might improve employee's awareness and ability for detecting human errors. (author)

  5. Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Identification and Moral Identity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Wang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Corporate social responsibility (CSR research is not new, but its importance to today’s socially conscious market environment is even more evident in recent years. This study moves beyond CSR as simply the socially responsible actions and policies of organizations and focuses on the complex psychology of CSR as it relates to individuals within the organization. Given CSR can positively affect both the individuals within the organization and the organization itself, better understanding and leveraging the mechanisms and conditions of CSR that facilitate desired employee outcomes is crucial for organizational performance. However, scholars lack consensus in determining a theoretical framework for understanding how and under what conditions CSR will make an impact on employees and ultimately organizational performance. This study adds clarity by exploring the effect of perceived CSR on a more comprehensive set of employees’ attitudinal and behavioral reactions (i.e., turnover intention, in-role job performance, and helping behavior via the mediating mechanism of organizational identification and the moderating condition of moral identity. Hypotheses were derived using social identity theory. Results were based on data obtained from 340 Chinese manufacturing employee-supervisor dyads. This study found that employees’ perceived CSR had an indirect relationship via organizational identification with each of the variables: (1 turnover intention, (2 in-role job performance, and (3 helping behavior. Specifically, the negative relationship between perceived CSR and turnover intention was stronger when employees had higher moral identity and the positive relationship between perceived CSR and in-role job performance and helping behavior was amplified by moral identity. Our findings show how the mediating mechanism of organizational identity and the moderating condition of moral identity work together to improve organizational effectiveness. The

  6. BREEAM Excellent: Business Value Vs Employee Morale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Nova; Arif, Mohammed

    2012-05-01

    BREEAM is gaining popularity in the UK. Similar green building standards have gained popularity worldwide. However, it is important that we analyse the actual value added to a business by having a BREEAM rated facility. It is also important to analyze the impact on employee performance of such a facility. This paper presents a case study of a BREEAM excellent rated building with impact on the morale and performance of the employees. The data for the paper was collected using semi-structured interviews of a group of employees who work at this facility located in Glasgow. The results suggest that it is important to highlight the tangible benefits and value added through the implementation of the BREEAM standard.

  7. 48 CFR 31.205-13 - Employee morale, health, welfare, food service, and dormitory costs and credits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... AND PROCEDURES Contracts With Commercial Organizations 31.205-13 Employee morale, health, welfare... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Employee morale, health, welfare, food service, and dormitory costs and credits. 31.205-13 Section 31.205-13 Federal Acquisition...

  8. Organisational Stress and Employee Dissatisfaction at Work: A Case Study to Boost Employee Satisfaction

    OpenAIRE

    Upma Goel

    2014-01-01

    Employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and comfortable and fulfilling their desires and needs at work. Many measures purport that employee satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, and positive employee morale in the workplace.Employee satisfaction, while generally a positive in your organization, can also be a downer if mediocre employees stay because they are satisfied with your work environment.Employee satisf...

  9. Employee satisfaction: creating a positive work force.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, M

    1998-01-01

    In the early 1990s, El Camino Hospital (ECH) streamlined its operations in order to remain competitive. In 1992, the hospital's District Board voted to turn the hospital's management over to a nonprofit company and it became an integrated delivery system (IDS). Hospital employees continued to suffer as their work and work schedules changed in ongoing efforts by the new administration to streamline. Finally, in early 1997, the IDS, Camino Healthcare, was dissolved. The director of radiology and radiation oncology services became aware of increasing employee problems, from high turnover rates and increased absenteeism, to morale and productivity issues. Employees also worried about job redesign, re-engineering and a lack of clear direction and expectations from department leadership. The director of the department created a task force to respond to the needs of staff members. With so much anger directed at department leadership, supervisory staff were not included in the task force. The task force worked first to identify rumors and innuendos and followed with a plan to resolve such issues. The second step was to agree to focus on issues that they could change and to let go of those they couldn't. They selected five priority issues or concerns. The group met weekly and made progress by replacing negative talk and attitudes with positive ones. Meanwhile, the director researched employee satisfaction issues so she would be prepared to discuss such issues and concerns with employees. She focused on a common theme, of having a personal mission or goal for one's self. She encouraged staff members to be aware of their own behavior when communicating with others. Although several informal surveys proved there was still much work to be done, there was positive response--a light at the end of the long tunnel.

  10. Getting even for customer mistreatment: the role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skarlicki, Daniel P; van Jaarsveld, Danielle D; Walker, David D

    2008-11-01

    Research on the "dark side" of organizational behavior has determined that employee sabotage is most often a reaction by disgruntled employees to perceived mistreatment. To date, however, most studies on employee retaliation have focused on intra-organizational sources of (in)justice. Results from this field study of customer service representatives (N = 358) showed that interpersonal injustice from customers relates positively to customer-directed sabotage over and above intra-organizational sources of fairness. Moreover, the association between unjust treatment and sabotage was moderated by 2 dimensions of moral identity (symbolization and internalization) in the form of a 3-way interaction. The relationship between injustice and sabotage was more pronounced for employees high (vs. low) in symbolization, but this moderation effect was weaker among employees who were high (vs. low) in internalization. Last, employee sabotage was negatively related to job performance ratings.

  11. Moral character in the workplace.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Taya R; Panter, A T; Turan, Nazli; Morse, Lily; Kim, Yeonjeong

    2014-11-01

    Using two 3-month diary studies and a large cross-sectional survey, we identified distinguishing features of adults with low versus high levels of moral character. Adults with high levels of moral character tend to: consider the needs and interests of others and how their actions affect other people (e.g., they have high levels of Honesty-Humility, empathic concern, guilt proneness); regulate their behavior effectively, specifically with reference to behaviors that have positive short-term consequences but negative long-term consequences (e.g., they have high levels of Conscientiousness, self-control, consideration of future consequences); and value being moral (e.g., they have high levels of moral identity-internalization). Cognitive moral development, Emotionality, and social value orientation were found to be relatively undiagnostic of moral character. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that employees with low moral character committed harmful work behaviors more frequently and helpful work behaviors less frequently than did employees with high moral character, according to their own admissions and coworkers' observations. Study 3 revealed that adults with low moral character committed more delinquent behavior and had more lenient attitudes toward unethical negotiation tactics than did adults with high moral character. By showing that individual differences have consistent, meaningful effects on employees' behaviors, after controlling for demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, income) and basic attributes of the work setting (e.g., enforcement of an ethics code), our results contest situationist perspectives that deemphasize the importance of personality. Moral people can be identified by self-reports in surveys, and these self-reports predict consequential behaviors months after the initial assessment.

  12. Are Bank Employees Stressed? Job Perception and Positivity in the Banking Sector: An Italian Observational Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alice Mannocci

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: The epidemiology of stress on bank workers in Europe is only at the introductory stages. This study investigated for the first time the association between occupational stress level in bank-employees using the BEST8, Karasek-Model and socio-demographic and working factors in Italy. Methods: The observational pilot study involved 384 employees. Three questionnaires were adopted to collect data: Karasek-Model, BEST8 (p < 0.001 and Positivity-Scale. Results: 25% of the sample belonged to high stress group. The workers more stressed were older with a commercial role and consumer of antidepressants/sedatives. Women were much more likely to agree with the perception of feeling unsafe in a possible robbery (OR = 2.42; 95% CI: 1.50–3.91 and with that sales requests were in conflict with one’s own personal moral code (OR = 2.31; 95% CI: 1.38–3.87. Older employees declared feeling inadequate in the workplace (OR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.07–3.65 and younger employees referred to be anxious about meeting financial budget goals. Workers who had a low positivity had a lower probability of adaptation (OR = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.83–0.93. Conclusions: The occupational stress level in the banking sector involves many aspects: gender, type of bank, role, personal morals, high job-demands, low level of decision-making. This study recommended that banks should implement strategic interventions for well-being of employees, and consequently for their productivity.

  13. Survey of Programs Designed to Improve Employee Morale in Seven Major American Shipyards

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1992-01-01

    ... and therefore his productivity. This study is purposely limited to those employee morale improvement programs which were designed to improve productivity and which in the opinion of management did, in fact, cause an increase in productivity whether or not that increase in productivity is quantifiable.

  14. Deviance and exit: The organizational costs of job insecurity and moral disengagement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Guo-Hua; Wellman, Ned; Ashford, Susan J; Lee, Cynthia; Wang, Li

    2017-01-01

    This study examines why and when employees might respond to job insecurity by engaging in workplace deviance and developing intentions to leave-2 activities that are costly for organizations. Drawing on social exchange theory and the theory of moral disengagement, we propose that job insecurity increases workplace deviance and intentions to leave by encouraging employees to morally disengage. We further propose that the strength of the positive association between job insecurity, moral disengagement, and these outcomes is contingent upon 2 aspects of the situation-employees' perceived employment opportunities outside the organization and the quality of the exchange relationship they have developed with their supervisors (leader-member exchange, or LMX). Two time-lagged studies of Chinese workers provide support for the hypothesized 1st-stage moderated mediation model. Specifically, the indirect effect of job insecurity on organizational and interpersonal deviance and intentions to leave via moral disengagement was positive and significant when individuals had more employment opportunities or when LMX was lower but not when they had fewer employment opportunities or when LMX was higher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Positively versus negatively charged moral emotion expectancies in adolescence: the role of situational context and the developing moral self.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krettenauer, Tobias; Johnston, Megan

    2011-09-01

    The study analyses adolescents' positively charged versus negatively charged moral emotion expectancies. Two hundred and five students (M= 14.83 years, SD= 2.21) participated in an interview depicting various situations in which a moral norm was either regarded or transgressed. Emotion expectancies were assessed for specific emotions (pride, guilt) as well as for overall strength and valence. In addition, self-importance of moral values was measured by a questionnaire. Results revealed that positively charged emotion expectancies were more pronounced in contexts of prosocial action than in the context of moral transgressions, whereas the opposite was true for negatively charged emotions. At the same time, expectations of guilt and pride were substantially related to the self-importance of moral values. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

  16. A research study to determine the effect of Total Quality Management (TQM) on employee morale in Plant Procedures Division at EG&G, Rocky Flats, Inc.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Casey, Erleen F. [Univ. of Phoenix, AZ (United States)

    1994-01-01

    EG&G at Rocky Flats, Golden, Colorado, experienced a high amount of low morale, due to the plant site having been designated to close, and the uneasiness of the working force was very visible. Some employees accepted early retirement in October 1992, however, all received letters of 120 days notice in March 1993, and were advised several cuts Would be made by October 1, 1993. This information alone caused many insecurities in employees, and caused morale to decrease even more. This is an in depth study of morale, which was upgraded in Plant Procedures Group (PPG), through the effect of TQM. The primary research included a survey of employees with results included. The study also increased additional questions in PPG, some of which were added to the agenda of the Process Improvement Team (PIT) to improve PPG in the eyes of customers. Statistics did show that morale improved, not necessarily because of TQM or the progress of the Process Improvement Team (PIT), but due to efforts of the staff implementing the principles of TQM the best they knew how.

  17. Morality in Interactions: On the Display of Moral Behavior by Leaders and Employees

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. van Gils (Suzanne)

    2012-01-01

    textabstractRecent research has tried to understand moral behavior in the workplace mainly from an intra-personal perspective, blaming ethical failures on the person’s moral character, moral development or moral identity, or on isolated aspects of the situation. In doing so, little attention has

  18. Self-managed working time and employee effort: Microeconometric evidence

    OpenAIRE

    Beckmann, Michael; Cornelissen, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Based on German individual-level panel data, this paper empirically examines the impact of self-managed working time (SMWT) on employee effort. Theoretically, workers may respond positively or negatively to having control over their own working hours, depending on whether SMWT increases work morale, induces reciprocal work intensification, or encourages employee shirking. We find that SMWT employees exert higher effort levels than employees with fixed working hours, but after accounting for o...

  19. Diversity management: the treatment of HIV-positive employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yap, Matthew H T; Ineson, Elizabeth M

    2012-01-01

    Socio-demographic dimensions such as age, gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity are commonly included in diversity studies. With a view to helping Asian hospitality managers to manage HIV-positive employees in their workplaces through diversity management (DM) theory, this research extends the boundaries of previous diversity studies by considering Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection as a diverse characteristic. Both quantitative and qualitative primary data were collected from purposively selected Asian hospitality managers through postal questionnaire and follow-up telephone interviews. Transformed raw data were analysed using summary statistics and template analysis. Asian hospitality managers agreed that DM would be appropriate in the management of HIV-positive employees and that it could generate substantial benefits for employees and employers. However, they believe that the successful adoption and implementation of DM is not easy; it requires training and, ideally, the recruitment of experienced directors. Nevertheless, Asian hospitality managers are confident that implementing DM to manage HIV-positive employees can enhance tolerance, improve understanding and promote equality. The purposive sampling technique and the small number of respondents have impacted the external validity of the study. However, this exploratory study initiates an equality discussion to include HIV-positive employees in DM discourse beyond antidiscrimination legislation. It also supplements the sparse literature addressing HIV-positive employees in the Asian hospitality workplace. Asian hospitality managers are advised to understand and employ DM to treat HIV-positive employees fairly to overcome hospitality workplace marginalisation, discrimination and stigmatisation.

  20. How to boost a low-morale medical practice team: twenty-five strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hills, Laura

    2014-01-01

    Low morale can decrease productivity and cooperation among medical practice employees, and increase work errors, absenteeism, and turnover. That is why practice managers must be mindful of their employees' morale and develop a toolkit of strategies that they can use to assess and boost waning morale. This article suggests 25 practical and affordable strategies medical practice managers can use to increase their staffs' morale. It explores the high cost of low morale, including five invisible costs that are often overlooked but that nonetheless drain practice resources. Furthermore, this article suggests 25 warning signs of low morale and suggests 10 causes of low morale in the workplace. It also provides practice managers with a quick 10-question quiz to administer to their employees to help them assess employee morale. Finally, this article describes five easy and affordable games practice managers can play with their employees to build camaraderie and teamwork and to increase staff morale.

  1. Morality in Interactions: On the Display of Moral Behavior by Leaders and Employees

    OpenAIRE

    Gils, Suzanne

    2012-01-01

    textabstractRecent research has tried to understand moral behavior in the workplace mainly from an intra-personal perspective, blaming ethical failures on the person’s moral character, moral development or moral identity, or on isolated aspects of the situation. In doing so, little attention has been paid to the interplay between the person and the interpersonal context in which this behavior takes place. Thus, an important angle for investigating the question why good people do bad things ha...

  2. Does ethical membership matter? Moral identification and its organizational implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    May, Douglas R; Chang, Young K; Shao, Ruodan

    2015-05-01

    This research meaningfully connects the literatures on identification and business ethics by proposing the new construct of moral identification. Moral identification is defined here as the perception of oneness or belongingness associated with an organization that exhibits ethical traits (e.g., care, kindness, and compassion), which also involves a deliberate concern of the membership with an ethical organization. Integrating social identity theory with theory on the moral self, this research examines an overall theoretical model where moral identification plays a significant role in explaining employee attraction, motivation, and retention (i.e., 3 components of the overall theoretical framework). These components were examined separately in 3 empirical studies and findings from these studies first revealed that moral identification explained why job seekers with strong (vs. weak) moral identities were more attracted to a socially responsible organization (Study 1). Second, moral identification was associated with lower employee unethical proorganizational behavior (Study 2). Finally, moral identification was negatively related to employees' turnover intentions. Organizations' legal compliance moderated this relation such that it was stronger when organizations have higher (vs. lower) levels of legal compliance (Study 3). Taken together, these studies suggest that moral identification offers new insights in explaining both potential and current employees' behaviors when morality is contextually relevant and subjectively meaningful. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

  3. Are Bank Employees Stressed? Job Perception and Positivity in the Banking Sector: An Italian Observational Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mannocci, Alice; Marchini, Laura; Scognamiglio, Alfredo; Sinopoli, Alessandra; De Sio, Simone; Sernia, Sabina; La Torre, Giuseppe

    2018-04-10

    Background : The epidemiology of stress on bank workers in Europe is only at the introductory stages. This study investigated for the first time the association between occupational stress level in bank-employees using the BEST8, Karasek-Model and socio-demographic and working factors in Italy. Methods : The observational pilot study involved 384 employees. Three questionnaires were adopted to collect data: Karasek-Model, BEST8 ( p banking sector involves many aspects: gender, type of bank, role, personal morals, high job-demands, low level of decision-making. This study recommended that banks should implement strategic interventions for well-being of employees, and consequently for their productivity.

  4. Divergent Effects of Different Positive Emotions on Moral Judgment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strohminger, Nina; Lewis, Richard L.; Meyer, David E.

    2011-01-01

    Positive emotions are often treated as relatively similar in their cognitive-behavioral effects, and as having unambiguously beneficial consequences. For example, Valdesolo and DeSteno (2006) reported that a humorous video made people more prone to choose a utilitarian solution to a moral dilemma. They attributed this finding to increased positive…

  5. Assembling a solid staff. Job rotation, job shaping and cross-training help employee retention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redling, Robert

    2003-03-01

    Qualified workers for medical practices are in short supply, and you want to keep the good staff you have. Here are strategies to match employees with the right positions, ease workplace stress, heighten morale and ensure coverage of duties when you're down a position or two.

  6. Testing Moral Foundation Theory: Are Specific Moral Emotions Elicited by Specific Moral Transgressions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landmann, Helen; Hess, Ursula

    2018-01-01

    Moral foundation theory posits that specific moral transgressions elicit specific moral emotions. To test this claim, participants (N = 195) were asked to rate their emotions in response to moral violation vignettes. We found that compassion and disgust were associated with care and purity respectively as predicted by moral foundation theory.…

  7. The Invisible Employee: University Housekeeping Employees' Perceptions of Physical Activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Bhibha M; Sartore-Baldwin, Melanie; Mahar, Matthew T

    2016-09-01

    A significant literature links race and socioeconomic status with physical inactivity and negative health outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore physical activity (PA) perceptions of an underserved, lower socioeconomic minority sector of the workforce. Two focus groups were conducted to examine university housekeepers' perceptions of physical activity. Demographic and anthropometric data were also obtained. Participants (N = 12; 100% female, 100% African-American) overwhelmingly associated PA with traditional exercise (eg, going to a gym). The most important barrier to PA was the perception of being active on the job, thus not needing to do leisure time PA. The most important perceived benefit to PA was improvement of physical and mental health. Employees perceived that a university investment in employees' health might improve morale, especially within low-pay employee sectors where low levels of job satisfaction may be present. Although perceived benefits to PA in this population are consistent with other employee sectors, perceived barriers to PA may be unique to this sector of the workforce. PA promotion programs should focus on providing resources as well as guidelines that demonstrate the need for PA outside of the workplace setting. Such programs may improve employee health, morale, and productivity.

  8. The ethics of silence: Does conflict of interest explain employee silence?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, James

    2018-03-01

    Employee silence constitutes a significant threat to organizational success. This article argues that silence is a by-product of a structural Conflict of Interest (COI) between employees and their employers. This argument turns on the claim, also defended here, that employees are in a privileged position vis-à-vis knowledge of their work and that leaders-whether they recognize it or not-are dependent on their employees for reliable information about the work they are doing. Employee voice, therefore, is an organizational necessity. It is also a moral achievement as it involves risking one's personal interests for the sake of the organization. Leaders must take steps to mitigate COI and encourage employee voice; this article provides several strategies for doing exactly that.

  9. Moral issues in workplace health promotion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robroek, Suzan J W; van de Vathorst, Suzanne; Hilhorst, Medard T; Burdorf, Alex

    2012-04-01

    There is debate to what extent employers are entitled to interfere with the lifestyle and health of their workers. In this context, little information is available on the opinion of employees. Within the framework of a workplace health promotion (WHP) program, moral considerations among workers were investigated. Employees from five companies were invited to participate in a WHP program. Both participants (n = 513) and non-participants (n = 205) in the program filled in a questionnaire on individual characteristics, lifestyle, health, and opinions regarding WHP. Nineteen percent of the non-participants did not participate in the WHP program because they prefer to arrange it themselves, and 13% (also) preferred to keep private life and work separate. More participants (87%) than non-participants (77%) agreed with the statement that it is good that employers try to improve employees' health (χ(2) = 12.78, p = 0.002), and 26% of the non-participants and 21% of the participants think employer interference with their health is a violation of their privacy. Employees aged 50 year and older were more likely to agree with the latter statement than younger workers (OR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.02-2.39). This study showed that most employees support the importance of WHP, but in a modest group of employees, moral considerations may play a role in their decision whether or not to participate in WHP. Older workers were more likely to resist employer interference with their health. Therefore, special attention on such moral considerations may be needed in the communication, design, and implementation of workplace health promotion programs.

  10. Evaluation of moral case deliberation at the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seekles, Wike; Widdershoven, Guy; Robben, Paul; van Dalfsen, Gonny; Molewijk, Bert

    2016-05-21

    Moral case deliberation (MCD) as a form of clinical ethics support is usually implemented in health care institutions and educational programs. While there is no previous research on the use of clinical ethics support on the level of health care regulation, employees of regulatory bodies are regularly confronted with moral challenges. This pilot study describes and evaluates the use of MCD at the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ). The objective of this pilot study is to investigate: 1) the current way of dealing with moral issues at the IGZ; 2) experience with and evaluation of MCD as clinical ethics support, and 3) future preferences and (perceived) needs regarding clinical ethics support for dealing with moral questions at the IGZ. We performed an explorative pilot study. The research questions were assessed by means of: 1) interviews with MCD participants during four focus groups; and 2) interviews with six key stakeholders at the IGZ. De qualitative data is illustrated by data from questionnaires on MCD outcomes, perspective taking and MCD evaluation. Professionals do not always recognize moral issues. Employees report a need for regular and structured moral support in health care regulation. The MCD meetings are evaluated positively. The most important outcomes of MCD are feeling secure and learning from others. Additional support is needed to successfully implement MCD at the Inspectorate. We conclude that the respondents perceive moral case deliberation as a useful form of clinical ethics support for dealing with moral questions and issues in health care regulation.

  11. Moral emotions and moral behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tangney, June Price; Stuewig, Jeff; Mashek, Debra J

    2007-01-01

    Moral emotions represent a key element of our human moral apparatus, influencing the link between moral standards and moral behavior. This chapter reviews current theory and research on moral emotions. We first focus on a triad of negatively valenced "self-conscious" emotions-shame, guilt, and embarrassment. As in previous decades, much research remains focused on shame and guilt. We review current thinking on the distinction between shame and guilt, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two moral emotions. Several new areas of research are highlighted: research on the domain-specific phenomenon of body shame, styles of coping with shame, psychobiological aspects of shame, the link between childhood abuse and later proneness to shame, and the phenomena of vicarious or "collective" experiences of shame and guilt. In recent years, the concept of moral emotions has been expanded to include several positive emotions-elevation, gratitude, and the sometimes morally relevant experience of pride. Finally, we discuss briefly a morally relevant emotional process-other-oriented empathy.

  12. 78 FR 61153 - Post-Employment Conflict of Interest Regulations; Exempted Senior Employee Positions

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-10-03

    ... Regulations; Exempted Senior Employee Positions AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE). ACTION: Final rule... notice of the revocation of certain regulatory exemptions of senior employee positions at the Securities... employee'' for a period of one year from knowingly making, with the intent to influence, any communication...

  13. Ethical Leadership and Reporting of Ethical Problems: The Roles of Moral Potency and Moral Identity%伦理型领导与伦理问题报告:道德效力与道德认同的作用

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    章发旺; 廖建桥

    2017-01-01

    组织中的非伦理行为不仅普遍存在而且具有隐蔽性,鼓励员工报告身边的伦理问题成为组织强化伦理管理的重要方式.基于社会学习理论和道德意动能力视角,探讨伦理型领导对员工伦理问题报告的影响,尤其是道德效力在二者间的中介作用与道德认同的调节效应.采用两阶段问卷调查方式收集多个企业的326名员工样本,运用层级线性回归和Bootstrapping方法对假设进行检验.结果显示,伦理型领导显著正向影响员工的伦理问题报告,道德效力在二者间起部分中介作用.当员工的道德认同较高时,伦理型领导对伦理问题报告具有更强的正向作用;当员工的道德认同较低时,伦理型领导对道德效力具有更强的正向影响,并且通过道德效力对伦理问题报告的间接作用更强.研究结果为理解伦理型领导如何激发员工报告伦理问题提供了新的视角,对于加强组织的伦理管理具有重要的现实意义.%Given the prevalence and concealment of unethical behaviors in organizations,reporting of ethical problems to management represents an important ethical management resource for organizations.Based on social learning theory and moral conation perspective,we examine the relationship between ethical leadership and followers' reporting of ethical problems,and especially explore the mediating role of moral potency and the moderating effect of moral identity between them.Through a two-stage survey-based study of 326 employees in multiple organizations,hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap are applied to test our hypotheses.The results reveal that ethical leadership has a positive effect on employees' reporting of ethical problems and moral potency partially mediates the relationship between the two.When employee has higher moral identity,ethical leadership is more positively related to reporting of ethical problems.For the employee with low moral identity

  14. From moral agents to moral factors: the structural ethics approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brey, Philip A.E.; Kroes, P.; Verbeek, P.P.C.C.

    2014-01-01

    It has become a popular position in the philosophy of technology to claim that some or all technological artifacts can qualify as moral agents. This position has been developed to account for the moral role of technological artifacts in society and to help clarify the moral responsibility of

  15. Impact of employment instability on socio-economic position of employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Bobkov

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The subject of the article is the relationships in labor utilization. The article analyzes the impact of employment instability on the socio-economic situation of employees in Russia. Questions revealing the concept content of employment instability, its real forms and socio-economic consequences for employees are considered. Methods of statistical and sociological data analysis are applied. Indicators to measure the scope and level of employment instability of employees are calculated. The dynamics in the time of the size of employment instability in Russia are analyzed. The obtained results can be applied within national economic and social policy. The findings indicate that employment instability is high, and it threatens socio-economic position of the great number of employees in Russia. It is argued that, in these conditions, the most appropriate in the fight against the spread of employment instability are the set of government initiatives, proactive position of the Russian society and the expansion of societal forms of control over the government.

  16. Defining Legal Moralism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thaysen, Jens Damgaard

    2015-01-01

    This paper discusses how legal moralism should be defined. It is argued that legal moralism should be defined as the position that “For any X, it is always a pro tanto reason for justifiably imposing legal regulation on X that X is morally wrong (where “morally wrong” is not conceptually equivalent...... to “harmful”)”. Furthermore, a distinction between six types of legal moralism is made. The six types are grouped according to whether they are concerned with the enforcement of positive or critical morality, and whether they are concerned with criminalising, legally restricting, or refraining from legally...... protecting morally wrong behaviour. This is interesting because not all types of legal moralism are equally vulnerable to the different critiques of legal moralism that have been put forth. Indeed, I show that some interesting types of legal moralism have not been criticised at all....

  17. Reconciling the self and morality: an empirical model of moral centrality development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frimer, Jeremy A; Walker, Lawrence J

    2009-11-01

    Self-interest and moral sensibilities generally compete with one another, but for moral exemplars, this tension appears to not be in play. This study advances the reconciliation model, which explains this anomaly within a developmental framework by positing that the relationship between the self's interests and moral concerns ideally transforms from one of mutual competition to one of synergy. The degree to which morality is central to an individual's identity-or moral centrality-was operationalized in terms of values advanced implicitly in self-understanding narratives; a measure was developed and then validated. Participants were 97 university students who responded to a self-understanding interview and to several measures of morally relevant behaviors. Results indicated that communal values (centered on concerns for others) positively predicted and agentic (self-interested) values negatively predicted moral behavior. At the same time, the tendency to coordinate both agentic and communal values within narrative thought segments positively predicted moral behavior, indicating that the 2 motives can be adaptively reconciled. Moral centrality holds considerable promise in explaining moral motivation and its development.

  18. Impact of positive psychological capital on employee well-being over time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avey, James B; Luthans, Fred; Smith, Ronda M; Palmer, Noel F

    2010-01-01

    The recently recognized core construct of psychological capital or PsyCap (consisting of the positive psychological resources of efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) has been demonstrated to be related to various employee attitudinal, behavioral, and performance outcomes. However, to date, the impact of this positive core construct over time and on important employee well-being outcomes has not been tested. This study meets this need by analyzing the relationship between a broad cross-section of employees' (N = 280) level of PsyCap and two measures of psychological well-being over time. The results indicated that employees' PsyCap was related to both measures of well-being and, importantly, that PsyCap explained additional variance in these well-being measures over time. The limitations, needed future research, and practical implications conclude the article.

  19. Insured without moral hazard in the health care reform of China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Chack-Kie; Cheung, Chau-Kiu; Tang, Kwong-Leung

    2012-01-01

    Public insurance possibly increases the use of health care because of the insured person's interest in maximizing benefits without incurring out-of-pocket costs. A newly reformed public insurance scheme in China that builds on personal responsibility is thus likely to provide insurance without causing moral hazard. This possibility is the focus of this study, which surveyed 303 employees in a large city in China. The results show that the coverage and use of the public insurance scheme did not show a significant positive effect on the average employee's frequency of physician consultation. In contrast, the employee who endorsed public responsibility for health care visited physicians more frequently in response to some insurance factors. On balance, public insurance did not tempt the average employee to consult physicians frequently, presumably due to personal responsibility requirements in the insurance scheme.

  20. International employee perspectives on disability management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner, Shannon; Buys, Nicholas; Yu, Ignatius; Geisen, Thomas; Harder, Henry; Randall, Christine; Fraess-Phillips, Alex; Hassler, Benedikt; Scott, Liz; Lo, Karen; Tang, Dan; Howe, Caroline

    2018-05-01

    To provide an international analysis of employees' views of the influence of disability management (DM) on the workplace. An international research team with representation from Australia, Canada, China, and Switzerland collected survey data from employees in public and private companies in their respective regions. Due to lack of availability of current measures, a research team-created survey was used and a total of 1201 respondents were collected across the four countries. Multiple linear (enter) regression was also employed to predict DM's influence on job satisfaction, physical health, mental health, workplace morale and reduced sickness absence, from respondents' perceptions of whether their company provided disability prevention, stay-at-work, and return-to-work initiatives within their organization. One-way ANOVA comparisons were used to examine differences on demographic variables including company status (public versus private), union status (union versus nonunion), and gender. The perceived influence of DM programs was related to perceptions of job satisfaction; whereas, relationships with mental health, physical health, morale, and sickness absence were variable according to type of DM program and whether the response was related to self or others. Difference analyses (ANOVA) revealed significantly more positive perceptions for private and nonunion organizations; no gender effects were found. There is perceived value of DM from the perspective of employees, especially with respect to its value for coworkers. Implications for Rehabilitation Rehabilitation efforts should continue to focus attention on the value of disability management (DM). In particular, DM that is fully committed to the biopsychosocial model would be supported by this research. Employees reported the most value in the psychosocial variables addressed by DM, such that rehabilitation professionals could focus on these valued aspects to improve buy-in from employees. The interest in

  1. Employee motivation: quality versus business concerns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunn, R A; Kazemek, E A

    1986-03-01

    The traditional factors that influence employee motivation and morale remain important in healthcare organizations. However, the nursing staff tends to be more self-motivated than many employees in other occupations because of values that are intrinsic to the nursing profession. When the humanist values of the nursing profession conflict or compete with business values, erosion of nursing morale and motivation may result with attendant employee "burnout" that undermines the organization's business objectives. There are several steps that both management and nursing educators can take to lessen the cultural conflict and avert motivational breakdowns. The future may teach us that an ideal blend of business and humanist values may result in a situation where good business decisions are good humanist decisions, and vice versa.

  2. Does Employee Recognition Affect Positive Psychological Functioning and Well-Being?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merino, M Dolores; Privado, Jesús

    2015-09-14

    Employee recognition is one of the typical characteristics of healthy organizations. The majority of research on recognition has studied the consequences of this variable on workers. But few investigations have focused on understanding what mechanisms mediate between recognition and its consequences. This work aims to understand whether the relationship between employee recognition and well-being, psychological resources mediate. To answer this question a sample of 1831 workers was used. The variables measured were: employee recognition, subjective well-being and positive psychological functioning (PPF), which consists of 11 psychological resources. In the analysis of data, structural equation models were applied. The results confirmed our hypothesis and showed that PPF mediate the relationship between recognition and well-being. The effect of recognition over PPF is two times greater (.39) with peer-recognition than with supervisor-recognition (.20), and, the effect of PPF over well-being is .59. This study highlights the importance of promoting employee recognition policies in organizations for the impact it has, not only on well-being, but also on the positive psychological functioning of the workers.

  3. Examining the Link between Organizational Democracy and Employees' Moral Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pircher Verdorfer, Armin; Weber, Wolfgang G.

    2016-01-01

    While much is understood about the role of the family context and educational experiences for moral development, less attention has been devoted to the occupational context. In this research, we used Kohlberg's approach of moral education as a framework and investigated the relationship between structurally anchored organizational democracy and…

  4. NEGATIVITY AND POSITIVITY EFFECTS IN PERSON PERCEPTION AND INFERENCE : ABILITY VERSUS MORALITY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    MARTIJN, C; SPEARS, R; VAN DER PLIGT, J; JAKOBS, E

    1992-01-01

    The present paper deals with negativity and positivity effects in trait inferences and impression formation. In the first experiment we tested the suggestion of Skowronski and Carlston (1987) that in the domain of morality negative information is more diagnostic, will therefore receive more weight

  5. Proscriptive versus prescriptive morality: two faces of moral regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie; Sheikh, Sana; Hepp, Sebastian

    2009-03-01

    A distinction is made between two forms of morality on the basis of approach-avoidance differences in self-regulation. Prescriptive morality is sensitive to positive outcomes, activation-based, and focused on what we should do. Proscriptive morality is sensitive to negative outcomes, inhibition-based, and focused on what we should not do. Seven studies profile these two faces of morality, support their distinct motivational underpinnings, and provide evidence of moral asymmetry. Both are well-represented in individuals' moral repertoire and equivalent in terms of moral weight, but proscriptive morality is condemnatory and strict, whereas prescriptive morality is commendatory and not strict. More specifically, in these studies proscriptive morality was perceived as concrete, mandatory, and duty-based, whereas prescriptive morality was perceived as more abstract, discretionary, and based in duty or desire; proscriptive immorality resulted in greater blame, whereas prescriptive morality resulted in greater moral credit. Implications for broader social regulation, including cross-cultural differences and political orientation, are discussed.

  6. Employers should disband employee weight control programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Alfred; Khanna, Vikram; Montrose, Shana

    2015-02-01

    American corporations continue to expand wellness programs, which now reach an estimated 90% of workers in large organizations, yet no study has demonstrated that the main focus of these programs-weight control-has any positive effect. There is no published evidence that large-scale corporate attempts to control employee body weight through financial incentives and penalties have generated savings from long-term weight loss, or a reduction in inpatient admissions associated with obesity or even long-term weight loss itself. Other evidence contradicts the hypothesis that population obesity rates meaningfully retard economic growth or manufacturing productivity. Quite the contrary, overscreening and crash dieting can impact employee morale and even harm employee health. Therefore, the authors believe that corporations should disband or significantly reconfigure weight-oriented wellness programs, and that the Affordable Care Act should be amended to require such programs to conform to accepted guidelines for harm avoidance.

  7. CSR: FOCUS ON EMPLOYEES. ITALIAN CASES.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrizia Gazzola

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to analyze the Corporate Social Responsibilitys (CSR influence on employees considering the fact that employees are primary stakeholders who directly contribute to the success of the company. CSR relates to employees helps to motivate the employees themselves. Job quality should be a key objective of any employer because the happy employees can create happy customers, which produce good business results. Research clearly indicates, with the help of statistical data and with the case study methodology, that committing to CSR boosts the morale and commitment of workers in a positive way. Employees who are satisfied with the organization s commitment to social and environmental responsibilities demonstrate more commitment, engagement and productivity. A conceptual framework is proposed based on literature. The author predominantly uses methods of qualitative research. In the research the case study methodology, which has been developed within the social sciences, is used. The paper starts with a concise introduction of CSR. In the first part the potential impact of CSR on employees is explained, considering why CSR may represent a special opportunity to positively influence employees’ and prospective employees’ perceptions of companies. In the second part the research considers three Italian companies that have distinguished themselves for their CSR strategy for employees: Luxottica, Brunello Cucinelli and Ferrero. A growing number of studies have been done regarding the benefits of CSR. However, most are concerned with the external view of shareholders and customer perspective. CSR research on the employee level is not well developed now. In order to better understand its effect on the employees, this study explore the impact of employees' perception of CSR on subsequent work attitudes and behaviors. CSR has a significant effect and it could improve employees' attitudes and behaviors, contribute to corporations' success

  8. Use of Opioid Medications for Employees in Critical Safety or Security Positions and Positions with Safety Sensitive Duties

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-30

    can cause harm) to the physical well-being of or jeopardize the security of the employee , co-workers, customers or the general public through a lapse...DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY US ARMY PUBLIC HEALTH CENTER 5158 BLACKHAWK ROAD ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MARYLAND 21010-5403 Directorate of Clinical... Employees in Critical Safety or Security Positions and Positions with Safety Sensitive Duties. 1. REFERENCES. A. Army Regulation 40-5, Preventive

  9. Replacing Military Personnel in Support Positions With Civilian Employees

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-12-01

    burdened costs , as they are known, would include the per-person share of costs for recruit -processing centers, schools, and training bases and would...sector so that, in principle, those same positions could be filled by civilian employees. To cut costs , DoD could transfer some of those positions to...functions more cost -effectively. DoD competed and outsourced many positions outlined in those plans. However, CBO does not have information showing

  10. How to handle part-time, flex-time, and job-sharing employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sachs, L

    2001-01-01

    Offering employment structures other than traditional full-time positions in your practice can help you draw excellent job applicants and also can enable you to increase morale, job satisfaction, and productivity. However, there are many decisions you must make when offering a part-time, flex-time, or job-sharing position. This article explores the pros and cons of offering alternative job structures. It suggests ways to make part-time, flex-time, or job-sharing positions work most effectively, both for the employee and for your practice. In addition, this article suggests which positions are best suited to alternative structures.

  11. Moral competence as a positive youth development construct: conceptual bases and implications for curriculum development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Hing Keung

    2006-01-01

    Moral competence refers to the orientation to perform altruistic behavior and the ability to judge moral issues logically, consistently and at an advanced level of development. A brief review of the concepts of altruism and justice is presented. The gender and cultural issues are also discussed. The contents of moral competence program units include four major topics: (1) Fairness, (2) Proper conduct (mainly altruistic and prosocial orientation), (3) Responsibility and altruistic orientation, and (4) Integrity and fairness. The general goal is to help students to develop an altruistic orientation and a judgment structure of a high level of justice. This paper is part of the development of the positive youth development program in Hong Kong.

  12. Moral competence as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Hing Keung

    2012-01-01

    Moral competence refers to the affective orientation to perform altruistic behaviors and the ability to judge moral issues logically. A five-stage theory of moral development is proposed. Both western and Chinese perspectives are incorporated in the elaboration of the characteristics of each stage. A brief review of the antecedents of moral competence is presented. The relationship between moral competence and adolescent developmental outcomes is also discussed. Some practical ways to promote moral competence are suggested. School-based programs may be effective in the promotion of moral competence provided it is based on all-round or whole-person development and the length of the program should be sufficiently long.

  13. Moral identity and the experience of moral elevation in response to acts of uncommon goodness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aquino, Karl; McFerran, Brent; Laven, Marjorie

    2011-04-01

    Four studies using survey and experimental designs examined whether people whose moral identity is highly self-defining are more susceptible to experiencing a state of moral elevation after being exposed to acts of uncommon moral goodness. Moral elevation consists of a suite of responses that motivate prosocial action tendencies. Study 1 showed that people higher (vs. lower) in moral identity centrality reported experiencing more intense elevating emotions, had more positive views of humanity, and were more desirous of becoming a better person after reading about an act of uncommon goodness than about a merely positive situation or an act of common benevolence. Study 2 showed that those high in moral identity centrality were more likely to recall acts of moral goodness and experience moral elevation in response to such events more strongly. These experiences were positively related to self-reported prosocial behavior. Study 3 showed a direct effect on behavior using manipulated, rather than measured, moral identity centrality. Study 4 replicated the effect of moral identity on the states of elevation as well as on self-reported physical sensations and showed that the elevation mediates the relationship between moral identity, witnessing uncommon goodness, and prosocial behavior.

  14. Is equal moral consideration really compatible with unequal moral status?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossi, John

    2010-09-01

    The issue of moral considerability, or how much moral importance a being's interests deserve, is one of the most important in animal ethics. Some leading theorists--most notably David DeGrazia--have argued that a principle of "equal moral consideration" is compatible with "unequal moral status." Such a position would reconcile the egalitarian force of equal consideration with more stringent obligations to humans than animals. The article presents arguments that equal consideration is not compatible with unequal moral status, thereby forcing those who would justify significantly different moral protections for humans and animals to argue for unequal consideration.

  15. 25 CFR 38.13 - Status quo employees in education positions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... approval, an involuntary change in position shall not affect the current status of status quo education... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Status quo employees in education positions. 38.13 Section 38.13 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR EDUCATION EDUCATION PERSONNEL...

  16. Strategic Employee Development (SED) Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Johnny; Guevara (Castano), Nathalie; Thorpe, Barbara; Barnett, Rebecca

    2017-01-01

    As with many other U.S. agencies, succession planning is becoming a critical need for NASA. The primary drivers include (a) NASAs higher-than-average aged workforce with approximately 50 of employees eligible for retirement within 5 years; and (b) employees who need better developmental conversations to increase morale and retention. This problem is particularly concerning for Safety Mission Assurance (SMA) organizations since they traditionally rely on more experienced engineers and specialists to perform their organizations functions.In response to this challenge, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) SMA organization created the Strategic Employee Development (SED) program. The SED programs goal is to provide a proactive method to counter the primary drivers by creating a deeper bench strength and providing a more comprehensive developmental feedback experience for the employee. The SED is a new succession planning framework that enables customization to any organization, and in this case, specifically for an SMA organization. This is accomplished via the identification of key positions, the corresponding critical competencies, and a process to help managers have relevant and meaningful development conversations with the workforce. As a result of the SED, several tools and products were created that allows management to make better strategic workforce decisions. Although there are opportunities for improvement for the SED program, the most important impact has been on the quality of developmental discussions for employees.

  17. Amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal: Children's moral status in child welfare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knezevic, Zlatana

    2017-11-01

    This article is a discursive examination of children's status as knowledgeable moral agents within the Swedish child welfare system and in the widely used assessment framework BBIC. Departing from Fricker's concept of epistemic injustice, three discursive positions of children's moral status are identified: amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal. The findings show the undoubtedly moral child as largely missing and children's agency as diminished, deviant or rendered ambiguous. Epistemic injustice applies particularly to disadvantaged children with difficult experiences who run the risk of being othered, or positioned as reproducing or accommodating to the very same social problems they may be victimised by.

  18. Moral distress in emergency nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez-Parsons, Robin; Rodriguez, Lori; Goyal, Deepika

    2013-11-01

    For nurses, moral distress leads to burnout, attrition, compassion fatigue, and patient avoidance. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional, and descriptive design, we assessed the frequency, intensity, and type of moral distress in 51 emergency nurses in 1 community hospital using a 21-item, self-report, Likert-type questionnaire. Results showed a total mean moral distress level of 3.18, indicative of overall low moral distress. Situations with the highest levels of moral distress were related to the competency of health care providers and following family wishes to continue life support, also known as futile care. Moral distress was the reason given by 6.6% of registered nurses for leaving a previous position, 20% said that they had considered leaving a position but did not, and 13.3% stated that they are currently considering leaving their position because of moral distress. Copyright © 2013 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. 5 CFR 9701.231 - Conversion of positions and employees to the DHS classification system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Conversion of positions and employees to... Provisions § 9701.231 Conversion of positions and employees to the DHS classification system. (a) This... from the GS system, a prevailing rate system, the SL/ST system, or the SES system, as provided in...

  20. The effect of cultural diversity on employee productivity in work ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    International Journal of Development and Management Review ... to improving workers' skills and knowledge to the detriment of employees' daily ... Since conflict arising from cultural differences wastes time and reduces employee morale, this ...

  1. Automatic ethics: the effects of implicit assumptions and contextual cues on moral behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Scott J; Leavitt, Keith; DeCelles, Katherine A

    2010-07-01

    We empirically examine the reflexive or automatic aspects of moral decision making. To begin, we develop and validate a measure of an individual's implicit assumption regarding the inherent morality of business. Then, using an in-basket exercise, we demonstrate that an implicit assumption that business is inherently moral impacts day-to-day business decisions and interacts with contextual cues to shape moral behavior. Ultimately, we offer evidence supporting a characterization of employees as reflexive interactionists: moral agents whose automatic decision-making processes interact with the environment to shape their moral behavior.

  2. CAN CSR INFLUENCE EMPLOYEES SATISFACTION?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrizia Gazzola

    2016-07-01

    employees. The role of CSR on employees is becoming more present in the business world, one of the reasons being that successful companies should attract and retain the best work force. By creating a good working environment and developing the internal CSR strategies, companies can stimulate productivity and satisfaction among employees. The research shows a model that clearly indicates that committing to CSR boosts the morale and commitment of workers in a positive way. This framework explains how employees‘ perceptions of CSR trigger attitudes and behavior in the workplace, which affect organizational, social and environmental performance.

  3. Free choice access to multipoint wellness education and related services positively impacts employee wellness: a randomized and controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sforzo, Gary A; Kaye, Miranda P; Calleri, David; Ngai, Nancy

    2012-04-01

    Examine effects of voluntary participation in employer-sponsored, multipoint wellness education programming on employee wellness. A randomized and controlled design was used to organize 96 participants into an education + access group; an access-only group, and control group. Outcome measures were made at start and end of a 12-week intervention period. Education + access improved wellness knowledge, which, in turn, enhanced life satisfaction, employee morale, and energy, and nearly improved stress level. Those who received facility access without educational programming did not reap health benefits. Employees voluntarily used the fitness facility and healthy meal cards only 1.3 and 1.5 times per week, respectively. Participants made limited and likely inadequate use of wellness opportunities. As a result, physical health benefits (eg, blood pressure, fitness parameters) were not seen in the present study. However, multipoint wellness education resulted in psychosocial health benefits in 12 weeks.

  4. Meetings as a positive boost? How and when meeting satisfaction impacts employee empowerment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Allen, J.A.; Lehmann-Willenbrock, N.K.; Sands, S.

    2016-01-01

    Meetings constitute an important context for understanding organizational behavior and employee attitudes. Employees spend ever-increasing time in meetings and often complain about their meetings. In contrast, we explore the positive side of meetings and argue that satisfying meetings can empower

  5. Current aspects of the principal of protecting employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jovanović Predrag

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The principal of protecting employees is traditionally present in labor law. Particular categories of employees, also traditionally, enjoy special protection (young people, women, the disabled. However, the issue of protection of moral integrity of the employees has only recently been addressed. That makes the general principle of the protection of employees in labor relations very current, and it is from that perspective that this paper points out to certain standards of protection of employees in light of international, European and domestic law.

  6. MENGUNGKAP MORAL HAZARD PADA AKAD MURABAHAH AL-WAKALA DI SEBUAH BANK SYARIAH DI PROVINSI GORONTALO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sri Apriyanti Husain

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Sharia banks as part of Islamic financial institutions are inseparable from moral hazard practices. Moral hazard is an act born from the existence of information asymmetry. This study aims to explore how customers and employees perform moral hazard on murabahah al-wakalah in a Syariah Bank in Gorontalo Province. This research uses etnometodology as a research methodology. using etnometodology is because etnometodology is a suitable methodology to reveal how customers and employees perform moral hazard on murabahah al-wakalah in a Syariah Bank in Gorontalo Province. Moral hazard that occurs in a Sharia Bank in Gorontalo Province is conducted by banks and financing customers. Moral hazard conducted by the bank first, the bank does not provide transparency akad used. Second, banks do not provide transparency of product financing information. Third, banks are more concerned with customer installments. Fourth, banks do not conduct monitoring and evaluation. Fifth, the bank only asks the customer just to sign without explaining to the customer.

  7. Factors affecting staff morale on inpatient mental health wards in England: a qualitative investigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Moli

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Good morale among staff on inpatient psychiatric wards is an important requirement for the maintenance of strong therapeutic alliances and positive patient experiences, and for the successful implementation of initiatives to improve care. More understanding is needed of mechanisms underlying good and poor morale. Method We conducted individual and group interviews with staff of a full range of disciplines and levels of seniority on seven NHS in-patient wards of varying types in England. Results Inpatient staff feel sustained in their potentially stressful roles by mutual loyalty and trust within cohesive ward teams. Clear roles, supportive ward managers and well designed organisational procedures and structures maintain good morale. Perceived threats to good morale include staffing levels that are insufficient for staff to feel safe and able to spend time with patients, the high risk of violence, and lack of voice in the wider organisation. Conclusions Increasing employee voice, designing jobs so as to maximise autonomy within clear and well-structured operational protocols, promoting greater staff-patient contact and improving responses to violence may contribute more to inpatient staff morale than formal support mechanisms.

  8. Moral issues in workplace health promotion

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S.J.W. Robroek (Suzan); S. van de Vathorst (Suzanne); M.T. Hilhorst (Medard); A. Burdorf (Alex)

    2012-01-01

    textabstractPurpose: There is debate to what extent employers are entitled to interfere with the lifestyle and health of their workers. In this context, little information is available on the opinion of employees. Within the framework of a workplace health promotion (WHP) program, moral

  9. Moral intelligence and its position in nursing profession

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pooneh Yousefi

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Moral intelligence is one of the aspects of intelligence which can provide a framework for proper performance of the humans, which is known as a forecaster factor of behavior. MI is a vital intelligence for humans owing to guidance of other shapes of intelligence toward valuable tasks . It is  a combination of knowledge, interest and resolve, also includes the method of thinking, feeding and acting. The role and importance of MI is outstanding because of making balance and improvement in individual's interactions and social terms, especially in occupations related to medical and nursing field which directly deals with people's life. The goal of this study is the definition and identification of MI and its application in medical science, especially nursing. Methods: This research is a retrospective article in which other researchers' study has been investigated and analyzed. Therefore, three main keywords; intelligence, morality, MI, has been searched in different nursing field databases such as SID, CVID, PUBMED, CINAHL, SCIENCE, MAGIRAN DIRECT, GOOGLE SCHOLAR and SCOPUS. Hence, based on these criteria, published articles from 2000  up to the present has been found and abstracted or editors interpretation ones eliminated. Only full text articles have been used. Definitions and applications of MI in nursing, presented in articles has been organized and revised in this article. Results: The results showed that MI education is a revolution and essential requirement in nursing, since changing to a descent nurse not only depends on theoretical knowledge and clinical skills but also needs applying moral knowledge and responsibility. Following moral criterion in nurse's performance is more important than other care issues as moral behavior accompany nurses' responsibility can be an effective factor in patients' remission and recovery. Conclusion: Achievement of MI skills leads to nursing profession advancement by basic changes in nurse

  10. Living with organizational politics: An exploration of employees' behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhar, Rajib Lochan

    2011-01-01

    This study aims to explore the employee's perception of organizational politics, the phase that they go through while working and the ways they adopt to cope with it. Participants were working as employees in three automobile manufacturing companies having offices in Pune, India. They were selected via randomized quota sampling to reflect a mix of age, positions, genders and experience within the organization. Data collection was done through qualitative methods which included in-depth interviews with 26 employees. Analysis of the data was done using the coding process. Findings of this study led to the emergence of four major themes i.e. (a) The Perceived threat, (b) Attitude towards players, (c) Coping Strategies and (d) Intentions to leave. Based on the study findings, the researcher concludes that politics is being perceived as an evil and is negatively affecting the morale of the employees. Hence, it is imperative that the organizational forerunners and department heads continue to use research findings to get to know the culture prevailing in the organization and understand the emotional status and feelings that employees develop while working in such an environment.

  11. Amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal: Children’s moral status in child welfare

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knezevic, Zlatana

    2017-01-01

    This article is a discursive examination of children’s status as knowledgeable moral agents within the Swedish child welfare system and in the widely used assessment framework BBIC. Departing from Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice, three discursive positions of children’s moral status are identified: amoral, im/moral and dis/loyal. The findings show the undoubtedly moral child as largely missing and children’s agency as diminished, deviant or rendered ambiguous. Epistemic injustice applies particularly to disadvantaged children with difficult experiences who run the risk of being othered, or positioned as reproducing or accommodating to the very same social problems they may be victimised by. PMID:29187776

  12. Can there be an immoral morality? Dark personality traits as predictors of moral foundations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Međedović Janko

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Previous researches have shown that some aspects of Moral foundations do not correlate with indicators of immoral behavior, or even have positive correlations with them. The aim of this study was to explore the relations of Moral foundations with general (HEXACO personality model and “dark” personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism and sadism. Data was gathered via on-line survey (N=402; 70% females. The results have shown that Openness is the best predictor from the set of basic personality traits: It has positive relations with Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity and negative with the other three moral foundations. Psychopathy was negatively associated with Harm/Care and positively with Ingroup/Loyalty foundation. Machiavellianism was a positive predictor of Ingroup/Loyalty and Authority/ Respect. Results confirmed the existence of fundamental differences between moral foundations. Ingroup/Loyalty and Authority/Respect are partly based on immoral personal dispositions, which bring into question their conceptual status as human moral foundations. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47011: Crime in Serbia: phenomenology, risks and the possibilities of social intervention

  13. Employee recognition: a key to motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magnus, M

    1981-02-01

    Productivity--why it's low and how to enhance it--is on everyone's mind these days. A major component of productivity is employee satisfaction. If an employee is dissatisfied, feels unappreciated or under-compensated, that employee will not perform to the best of his or her ability. How is the personnel administrator to address this pressing problem? One answer that emerges is employee recognition programs. In many cases, properly run recognition programs can boost awareness of the organization, build employee pride, raise morale and, ultimately, increase productivity. As some of our respondents observed, higher salary is not the best answer. While a larger paycheck is always appreciated, everyone's pride is boosted by a public demonstration of appreciation.

  14. The importance of moral construal: moral versus non-moral construal elicits faster, more extreme, universal evaluations of the same actions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jay J Van Bavel

    Full Text Available Over the past decade, intuitionist models of morality have challenged the view that moral reasoning is the sole or even primary means by which moral judgments are made. Rather, intuitionist models posit that certain situations automatically elicit moral intuitions, which guide moral judgments. We present three experiments showing that evaluations are also susceptible to the influence of moral versus non-moral construal. We had participants make moral evaluations (rating whether actions were morally good or bad or non-moral evaluations (rating whether actions were pragmatically or hedonically good or bad of a wide variety of actions. As predicted, moral evaluations were faster, more extreme, and more strongly associated with universal prescriptions-the belief that absolutely nobody or everybody should engage in an action-than non-moral (pragmatic or hedonic evaluations of the same actions. Further, we show that people are capable of flexibly shifting from moral to non-moral evaluations on a trial-by-trial basis. Taken together, these experiments provide evidence that moral versus non-moral construal has an important influence on evaluation and suggests that effects of construal are highly flexible. We discuss the implications of these experiments for models of moral judgment and decision-making.

  15. The Dispersion of Employees' Wage Increase and Firm Performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grund, Christian; Westergård-Nielsen, Niels Chr.

    2008-01-01

    than the dispersion of wage levels. It is reasonable to expect greater dispersion of wage increases to be associated with higher monetary incentives, but also with increased perceptions of unfairness. The authors' analysis of linked employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1992-97 shows......Previous studies examining intra-firm wage dispersion and firm performance have focused on wage levels. The authors of this study argue that for purposes of comparing wage dispersion's positive incentive effects with its adverse morale effects, the dispersion of wage increases is more revealing...

  16. Why Be Moral? Children's Explicit Motives for Prosocial-Moral Action

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia eSengsavang

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Recent research on young children's morality has stressed the autonomous and internal nature of children's moral motivation. However, this research has mostly focused on implicit moral motives, whereas children's explicit motives have not been investigated directly. This study examined children’s explicit motives for why they want to engage in prosocial actions and avoid antisocial behavior. A total of 195 children aged 4 to 12 years were interviewed about their motives for everyday prosocial-moral actions, as well as reported on their relationship with their parents. Children's explicit motives to abstain from antisocial behavior were found to be more external and less other-oriented than their motives for prosocial action. Motives that reflected higher levels of internal motivation became more frequent with age. Moreover, positive parent-child relationships predicted more other-oriented motives and greater explication of moral motives. Overall, the study provides evidence that children’s explicit moral motivation is far more heterogeneous than prominent theories of moral development (past and present suggest.

  17. Why be moral? Children's explicit motives for prosocial-moral action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sengsavang, Sonia; Willemsen, Kayleen; Krettenauer, Tobias

    2015-01-01

    Recent research on young children's morality has stressed the autonomous and internal nature of children's moral motivation. However, this research has mostly focused on implicit moral motives, whereas children's explicit motives have not been investigated directly. This study examined children's explicit motives for why they want to engage in prosocial actions and avoid antisocial behavior. A total of 195 children aged 4-12 years were interviewed about their motives for everyday prosocial-moral actions, as well as reported on their relationship with their parents. Children's explicit motives to abstain from antisocial behavior were found to be more external and less other-oriented than their motives for prosocial action. Motives that reflected higher levels of internal motivation became more frequent with age. Moreover, positive parent-child relationships predicted more other-oriented motives and greater explication of moral motives. Overall, the study provides evidence that children's explicit moral motivation is far more heterogeneous than prominent theories of moral development (past and present) suggest.

  18. Moral foundations, worldviews, moral absolutism and belief in conspiracy theories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leone, Luigi; Giacomantonio, Mauro; Lauriola, Marco

    2017-09-05

    In the present research, we examined whether individual differences in basic moral concerns might be related to a greater endorsement of conspiracy theories. Building on the notion that conspiracy theories often deal with super-individual relevant events in which a group perspective is central, we proposed that individual differences in moral concerns pertaining to group- and community-concerns (i.e., binding moral foundations) rather than to individual well-being (i.e., individualising moral foundations) would be positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. We further hypothesised that such relations would be totally mediated by beliefs in a dangerous world and by embracing moral absolutism. We found support for these predictions in two community samples (Ns: 319; 514). Theoretical implications were discussed. © 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.

  19. How moral disagreement may ground principled moral compromise

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kappel, Klemens

    2018-01-01

    In an influential article, Simon C. May forcefully argued that, properly understood, there can never be principled reasons for moral compromise (May, 2005). While there may be pragmatic reasons for compromising that involve, for instance, concern for political expediency or for stability, there a......In an influential article, Simon C. May forcefully argued that, properly understood, there can never be principled reasons for moral compromise (May, 2005). While there may be pragmatic reasons for compromising that involve, for instance, concern for political expediency or for stability......, there are properly speaking no principled reasons to compromise. My aim in the article is to show how principled moral compromise in the context of moral disagreements over policy options is possible. I argue that when we disagree, principled reasons favoring compromises or compromising can assume a more significant...... part of what makes a position all things considered best, and in this way disagreement can ground moral compromise....

  20. Moral Disengagement in media and Moral Identity activation: their interactive effect on support of war

    OpenAIRE

    Liebnitzky, Jan

    2015-01-01

    People can disengage from their internalized moral standards and self-regulation in order to perform immoral behaviour by using different Moral Disengagement mechanisms. These mechanisms within media have a positive effect on immoral behaviour. However, Moral Identity activation is said to counter arguments of Moral Disengagement. In this study, both concepts are applied to the context of war. An additional assumption took into account in how far participants’ internalized moral standards con...

  1. Procedural fairness and the power of giving voice to employees

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    N. Hoogervorst (Niek)

    2014-01-01

    markdownabstract__Absttract__ A perennial question faced by managers is how much they should listen to their employees. Let no employee have a say and you encourage foot-dragging, hurt morale, and develop a reputation as an unfair manager. Listen too much and you may paralyse the

  2. Purpose as a Moral Virtue for Flourishing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hyemin

    2015-01-01

    Positive psychology has significantly influenced studies in the fields of moral philosophy, psychology and education, and scholars in those fields have attempted to apply its ideas and methods to moral education. Among various theoretical frameworks, virtue ethics is most likely to connect positive psychology to moral educational studies because…

  3. Integrity and moral residue: nurses as participants in a moral community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardingham, Lorraine B

    2004-07-01

    This paper will examine the concepts of integrity and moral residue as they relate to nursing practice in the current health care environment. I will begin with my definition and conception of ethical practice, and, based on that, will go on to argue for the importance of recognizing that nurses often find themselves in the position of compromising their moral integrity in order to maintain their self-survival in the hospital or health care environment. I will argue that moral integrity is necessary to a moral life, and is relational in nature. When integrity is threatened, the result is moral distress, moral residue, and in some cases, abandonment of the profession. The solution will require more than teaching bioethics to nursing students and nurses. It will require changes in the health care environment, organizational culture and the education of nurses, with an emphasis on building a moral community as an environment in which to practise ethically.

  4. Identity as a Source of Moral Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hardy, Sam A.; Carlo, Gustavo

    2005-01-01

    Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his…

  5. The Moral Capture of "Being Good"

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærgaard, Annemette Leonhardt; Morsing, Mette

    layer of institutional control for identity work that emerges beyond managerial influence, as employees as well as managers are morally inclined to comply with the corporate CSR promise of “being good”. Importantly, our findings show that members comply with the CSR message in four ways that include...... devotion but also suppression of overt forms of critique and resistance. We refer to these four compliance modes as the “moral capture of CSR”. We discuss the implications of compliance to CSR as a form of control of identity work, as we propose that CSR images “captivate” member identity in discursive...... closure and impede future development of CSR....

  6. The Concept of Employee Engagement: A Comprehensive Review from a Positive Organizational Behavior Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeung, Chang-Wook

    2011-01-01

    Employee engagement has been understood from various academic and practical perspectives, mainly due to its recent popularity. This study explores not only positive movements--positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship (POS), and positive organizational behavior (POB)--as a background of engagement but also the conceptualization,…

  7. The Role of Gratitude and Moral Elevation in Moral Identity Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pohling, Rico; Diessner, Rhett; Strobel, Anja

    2018-01-01

    Experiencing the moral emotions of gratitude and moral elevation are responses to witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Both emotions have been found to share similar features and behavioral consequences, including the stimulation of personal development. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions indicates that gratitude and elevation…

  8. The effects of social solidarity on moral emotions and morality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. A. ATUDOREI

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyses the impact of social solidarity on moral emotions such as embarrassment, shame and guilt at a social level. The effect of moral emotions on individual morality is presented. The paper emphasizes the fact that solidarity, which is generally perceived as having positive effects, may also produce social anomie. This situation is reached by a silent agreement concerning intellectual fraud which goes unpunished at a social level and can, thus, lead to deviant behaviour being considered tolerable as a result of rational reasoning which could shake social structure.

  9. The Positive Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Employee Performance: The Moderating Role of Power Distance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Honglei; Guan, Bichen

    2018-01-01

    Based on goal setting theory, this study explores the positive effect and influencing process of authoritarian leadership on employee performance, as well as the moderating role of individual power distance in this process. Data from 211 supervisor-subordinate dyads in Chinese organizations indicates that authoritarian leadership is positively associated with employee performance, and learning goal orientation mediates this relationship. Furthermore, power distance moderates the effect of authoritarian leadership on learning goal orientation, such that the effect was stronger when individual power distance was higher. The indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee performance via learning goal orientation is also moderated by power distance. Theoretical and managerial implications and future directions are also discussed.

  10. The Positive Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Employee Performance: The Moderating Role of Power Distance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Honglei; Guan, Bichen

    2018-01-01

    Based on goal setting theory, this study explores the positive effect and influencing process of authoritarian leadership on employee performance, as well as the moderating role of individual power distance in this process. Data from 211 supervisor-subordinate dyads in Chinese organizations indicates that authoritarian leadership is positively associated with employee performance, and learning goal orientation mediates this relationship. Furthermore, power distance moderates the effect of authoritarian leadership on learning goal orientation, such that the effect was stronger when individual power distance was higher. The indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee performance via learning goal orientation is also moderated by power distance. Theoretical and managerial implications and future directions are also discussed. PMID:29628902

  11. The Moral Dimensions of Infrastructure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epting, Shane

    2016-04-01

    Moral issues in urban planning involving technology, residents, marginalized groups, ecosystems, and future generations are complex cases, requiring solutions that go beyond the limits of contemporary moral theory. Aside from typical planning problems, there is incongruence between moral theory and some of the subjects that require moral assessment, such as urban infrastructure. Despite this incongruence, there is not a need to develop another moral theory. Instead, a supplemental measure that is compatible with existing moral positions will suffice. My primary goal in this paper is to explain the need for this supplemental measure, describe what one looks like, and show how it works with existing moral systems. The secondary goal is to show that creating a supplemental measure that provides congruency between moral systems that are designed to assess human action and non-human subjects advances the study of moral theory.

  12. The cure for employee malaise--motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawson, K M; Dawson, S N

    1991-01-01

    Although working conditions, hours, pay, and advancement opportunities are better now than in the 1950s--the "golden age" of American business--today's workers are significantly less satisfied. Why? The authors believe the cause of this malaise is lack of motivation. This article examines several techniques to cure employee malaise and discusses the long-term benefits of these techniques, which include empowerment, recognition, career development, the Pygmalion effect, incentives, and rewards. By making a commitment to these motivational techniques, managers will boost the morale and enthusiasm of their employees and their organization. This motivational process is not quick and easy; developing your employees is an ongoing process.

  13. Moral intuitions, moral expertise, and moral reasoning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Musschenga, A.W.

    2009-01-01

    In this article I examine the consequences of the dominance of intuitive thinking in moral judging and deciding for the role of moral reasoning in moral education. I argue that evidence for the reliability of moral intuitions is lacking. We cannot determine when we can trust our intuitive moral

  14. High-performance HR practices, positive affect and employee outcomes

    OpenAIRE

    Mostafa, Ahmed

    2017-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the affective or emotional mechanisms that underlie the relationship between high-performance HR practices (HPHRP) and employee attitudes and behaviours. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), this paper examines a mediation model in which HPHRP influence positive affect which in turn affects job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Design/methodology/approach – Two-wave data was collected from a sampl...

  15. Assédio moral e gestão de pessoas: uma análise do assédio moral nas organizações e o papel da área de gestão de pessoas.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcus Vinicius Soares Siqueira

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available This essay analyses the procedure of moral harassment in organizations and therole of the human resources management area, specially, in practices adopted foridentifying and managing work circumstances factors which may propitiate theappearance of the moral harassment phenomenon. In order to accomplish thisobjective we have used a new point of view, since most researches show the viewof harassed employees, of victims, and in this essay, we have tried to analyze managers’perception of moral harassment in work environment and what is the best way for organizations to avoid this to happen. Since organizations are looking fora more ethical orientation and the improvement of work environment, the discussionof this subject has a huge significance. From this point of view, the analysisidentified that employees feel safer in denouncing cases of moral harassment inenterprises with a clear policy about the subject, with appropriated communicationchannels, with a less hierarchical work structure, and with a respectful and trustfulorganizational climate.

  16. Unhappy? Low morale? Try the 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Paul E

    2012-01-01

    Communicating appreciation to staff is critical in healthcare settings today. Five specific Languages of Appreciation have been identified that can be communicated in individualized ways in the workplace to affirm, encourage, mediate stress, and improve employee morale. In tight budget environments, such an employee recognition program doesn't require financial resources or a line item in the budget.

  17. Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosen, Christopher C; Levy, Paul E; Hall, Rosalie J

    2006-01-01

    The authors proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high levels of informal supervisor and coworker feedback are associated with lower employee perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, these lowered perceptions of politics were proposed to result in higher employee morale (as reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment) and, through morale, to higher levels of task performance and organizational citizenship. The proposed mediational model was supported with empirical results from 150 subordinate-supervisor dyads sampled across a variety of organizations. Higher quality feedback environments were associated with lower perceptions of organizational politics, and morale mediated the relationships between organizational politics and various aspects of work performance. These findings suggest that when employees have greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work, perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced. (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

  18. Predictors of Moral Disengagement in Sport.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shields, David Light; Funk, Christopher D; Bredemeier, Brenda Light

    2015-12-01

    Researchers have made productive use of Bandura's (1991) construct of moral disengagement (MD) to help explain why sport participants deviate from ethical ideals. In this study of intercollegiate athletes from diverse sports (N = 713), we examined MD in relation to other character-related variables: empathy, moral identity, moral attentiveness, and contesting orientations. We also examined whether moral attentiveness conforms to the pattern of "bracketed morality" found in moral reasoning (Shields & Bredemeier, 1995) and moral behavior (Kavussanu, Boardley, Sagar, & Ring, 2013). Results indicated that MD correlated positively with perceptual moral attentiveness and war contesting orientation; MD correlated negatively with empathy, moral identity, reflective moral attentiveness, and partnership contesting orientation. Results of hierarchical regression demonstrated that gender, contesting orientations, moral identity, and one form of moral attentiveness were significant predictors of MD. Finally, sport participants were found to be less morally attentive in sport than in everyday life.

  19. Distributed morality in an information society.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floridi, Luciano

    2013-09-01

    The phenomenon of distributed knowledge is well-known in epistemic logic. In this paper, a similar phenomenon in ethics, somewhat neglected so far, is investigated, namely distributed morality. The article explains the nature of distributed morality, as a feature of moral agency, and explores the implications of its occurrence in advanced information societies. In the course of the analysis, the concept of infraethics is introduced, in order to refer to the ensemble of moral enablers, which, although morally neutral per se, can significantly facilitate or hinder both positive and negative moral behaviours.

  20. Moral Punishment in Everyday Life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofmann, Wilhelm; Brandt, Mark J; Wisneski, Daniel C; Rockenbach, Bettina; Skitka, Linda J

    2018-05-01

    The present research investigated event-related, contextual, demographic, and dispositional predictors of the desire to punish perpetrators of immoral deeds in daily life, as well as connections among the desire to punish, moral emotions, and momentary well-being. The desire to punish was reliably predicted by linear gradients of social closeness to both the perpetrator (negative relationship) and the victim (positive relationship). Older rather than younger adults, conservatives rather than people with other political orientations, and individuals high rather than low in moral identity desired to punish perpetrators more harshly. The desire to punish was related to state anger, disgust, and embarrassment, and these were linked to lower momentary well-being. However, the negative effect of these emotions on well-being was partially compensated by a positive indirect pathway via heightened feelings of moral self-worth. Implications of the present field data for moral punishment research and the connection between morality and well-being are discussed.

  1. Binding Moral Foundations and the Narrowing of Ideological Conflict to the Traditional Morality Domain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malka, Ariel; Osborne, Danny; Soto, Christopher J; Greaves, Lara M; Sibley, Chris G; Lelkes, Yphtach

    2016-09-01

    Moral foundations theory (MFT) posits that binding moral foundations (purity, authority, and ingroup loyalty) are rooted in the need for groups to promote order and cohesion, and that they therefore underlie political conservatism. We present evidence that binding foundations (and the related construct of disgust sensitivity) are associated with lower levels of ideological polarization on political issues outside the domain of moral traditionalism. Consistent support for this hypothesis was obtained from three large American Internet-based samples and one large national sample of New Zealanders (combined N = 7,874). We suggest that when political issues do not have inherent relevance to moral traditionalism, binding foundations promote a small centrist shift away from ideologically prescribed positions, and that they do so out of desire for national uniformity and cohesion. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  2. Authentic leadership and its effect on employees' organizational citizenship behaviours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edú Valsania, Sergio; Moriano León, Juan A; Molero Alonso, Fernando; Topa Cantisano, Gabriela

    2012-11-01

    The studies that have verified the positive association of authentic leadership with organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), have used global measures of both constructs. Therefore, the goal of this work is to analyze the effect of authentic leadership on employees' OCBs, specifically focusing on the relations of the four components of authentic leadership with the individual and organizational dimensions of the OCBs. The participants of this study were 220 Spanish employees (30.9% men and 69.1% women) who completed a questionnaire that included the variables of interest in this study: Authentic Leadership, OCB and Sociobiographical control variables. The results, obtained with stepwise multiple regression analysis, show that two components of authentic leadership-moral perspective and relational transparency-present significant relationships with OCB. Moreover, authentic leadership is a better predictor of employees' OCB when these behaviors are impersonal and directed towards the organization than when they are directed towards other people. These results have practical implications for human resources management in organizations, especially in selection processes and when training top executives.

  3. Moralized Health-Related Persuasion Undermines Social Cohesion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susanne Täuber

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Integrating theory and research on persuasion, moralization, and intergroup relations, the present research aims to highlight the far-reaching impact of health-related persuasion on society. I propose that governments’ health-related persuasion leads to the emergence of new social norms, and in particular moral norms. Importantly, moral norms provide strong behavioral imperatives and are seen as binding for group members. This suggests that moralized persuasion has a strong potential to divide society along the lines of citizens who conform to and citizens who deviate from health-related moral norms. Thus, departing from the traditional focus on targets of persuasion, the present research focuses on those holding a moralized view on health and lifestyle. Key aspects of social cohesion as defined by the OECD (2011 have been tested across four studies. The main hypothesis tested is that those conforming to the norm (e.g., non-smokers, normal weight people, people with healthy lifestyles will stigmatize those deviating from the norm (e.g., smokers, overweight people, people with unhealthy lifestyles. Flowing from stigmatization, less inclusion, lower solidarity with and greater endorsement of unequal treatment of those deviating from the moral norm are predicted. Four survey studies (total N = 1568 examining the proposed associations among non-smokers, normal weight people, and employees with healthy lifestyles are presented. The studies provide unanimous support for the hypothesis, with meta-analysis providing further support for the reliability of the findings. Consistent across studies, social cohesion indicators were negatively affected by health moralization through stigmatization of those deviating from health-related moral norms. Findings highlight an under-acknowledged potential of moralized health-related persuasion to divide society, thereby undermining cohesion and the achievement of important societal goals. In the discussion

  4. FORMATION OF MORAL VALUES OF STUDENTS OF PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana Mikhaylovna Borisova

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. The article is devoted, in terms of improving the education system in Russia, political and economic reality, the subject of moral education of future teachers. The subject of analysis are the pedagogical conditions of education of moral values. The author aims to reveal the value of the spiritual culture of the people in the education of moral values at the future teachers. Methodology. The basis of the research form the theoretical and methodological analysis, equity and advanced pedagogical experience, diagnostic methods. Results. The results concluded that the author notes a significant increase in the level of formation of moral values in students of the experimental group. Practical implications. The proposed system of pedagogical conditions, technologies, forms and methods as a holistic innovation process can be used in the work of teachers and educators of secondary schools, employees of institutions of additional education.

  5. Employees’ intention to blow the whistle: The role of fairness and moral identity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karin Proost, Adríana Pavlinská, Elfi Baillien, Lieven Brebels, Anja Van den Broeck

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available In this study we focused on key concepts – moral identity and fairness – in order to explain whistleblowingintention. We examined the relationship between intention to blow the whistle and moral identity, and exploredthe moderating effect of perceived supervisor procedural fairness in this relationship. Our results showed thatemployees (N = 278 with a strong moral identity were more likely to blow the whistle on wrongdoing of whichthey had become aware of, and employees who were low in moral identity were less likely to blow the whistle.Furthermore, we found that the impact of moral identity on the intention to blow the whistle is increased by highprocedural fairness, and that low procedural fairness leaves this relationship insignificant. These findingsrepresent new insights into the study of whistleblowing.

  6. Neural evidence for moral intuition and the temporal dynamics of interactions between emotional processes and moral cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gui, Dan-Yang; Gan, Tian; Liu, Chao

    2016-01-01

    Behavioral and neurological studies have revealed that emotions influence moral cognition. Although moral stimuli are emotionally charged, the time course of interactions between emotions and moral judgments remains unknown. In the present study, we investigated the temporal dynamics of the interaction between emotional processes and moral cognition. The results revealed that when making moral judgments, the time course of the event-related potential (ERP) waveform was significantly different between high emotional arousal and low emotional arousal contexts. Different stages of processing were distinguished, showing distinctive interactions between emotional processes and moral reasoning. The precise time course of moral intuition and moral reasoning sheds new light on theoretical models of moral psychology. Specifically, the N1 component (interpreted as representing moral intuition) did not appear to be influenced by emotional arousal. However, the N2 component and late positive potential were strongly affected by emotional arousal; the slow wave was influenced by both emotional arousal and morality, suggesting distinct moral processing at different emotional arousal levels.

  7. An Uncertain Wage Contract Model with Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiulan Wang

    2014-01-01

    it can be characterized as an uncertain variable. Moreover, the employee's effort is unobservable to the employer, and the employee can select her effort level to maximize her utility. Thus, an uncertain wage contract model with adverse selection and moral hazard is established to maximize the employer's expected profit. And the model analysis mainly focuses on the equivalent form of the proposed wage contract model and the optimal solution to this form. The optimal solution indicates that both the employee's effort level and the wage increase with the employee's ability. Lastly, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.

  8. Extending the multifoci perspective: The role of supervisor justice and moral identity in the relationship between customer justice and customer-directed sabotage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skarlicki, Daniel P; van Jaarsveld, Danielle D; Shao, Ruodan; Song, Young Ho; Wang, Mo

    2016-01-01

    The multifoci perspective of justice proposes that individuals tend to target their (in)justice reactions toward the perceived source of the mistreatment. Empirical support for target-specific reactions, however, has been mixed. To explore theoretically relevant reasons for these discrepant results and address unanswered questions in the multifoci justice literature, the present research examines how different justice sources might interactively predict target-specific reactions, and whether these effects occur as a function of moral identity. Results from a sample of North American frontline service employees (N = 314, Study 1) showed that among employees with lower levels of moral identity, low supervisor justice exacerbated the association between low customer justice and customer-directed sabotage, whereas this exacerbation effect was not observed among employees with higher levels of moral identity. This 3-way interaction effect was replicated in a sample of South Korean employees (N = 265, Study 2). (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. Employees' negative and positive work-home interaction and their association with depressive symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nitzsche, Anika; Jung, Julia; Pfaff, Holger; Driller, Elke

    2013-05-01

    Depression is the leading cause of disability and high costs worldwide. One possibility for preventing depression in the workplace, which has received little consideration so far, is the promotion of a successful balance between work and personal life. The aim of this study was to investigate employees' negative and positive work-home interaction and their association with depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the micro- and nanotechnology sector in Germany. A stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed using data from N = 213 employees. The results suggest that while negative work-home interaction is associated with an increased risk for depressive symptoms, positive work-home interaction is correlated with a lower risk. Neither positive nor negative interaction in the home-to-work direction demonstrated a significant association with depressive symptoms. When attempting to prevent mental illnesses, such as depression, it is important to develop strategies aimed at reducing conflict between work and personal life and promoting a positive exchange between these two domains. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. Moral relativism and the premisibility of promoting moral judgments across divergent value systems

    OpenAIRE

    Nilsen, Kine

    2005-01-01

    "When in Rome do as the Romans do - but what if the Romans go in for some rather nasty doings" (Blackburn 2003:12)? This is Simon Blackburn's challenge towards relativism. The relativist position is often presented as the ultimate example of moral tolerance promptly stating that "anything goes". Because no universally acknowledged hierarchy of moral vaues can be discovered or referred to, all moral claims are judged only in reference to the social context from which they originate (Shafer-Lan...

  11. Jealousy and Moral Maturity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathes, Eugene W.; Deuger, Donna J.

    Jealousy may be perceived as either good or bad depending upon the moral maturity of the individual. To investigate this conclusion, a study was conducted testing two hypothesis: a positive relationship exists between conventional moral reasoning (reference to norms and laws) and the endorsement and level of jealousy; and a negative relationship…

  12. Factors associated with a positive attitude towards change among employees during the early phase of a downsizing process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svensen, Erling; Neset, Gunnar; Eriksen, Hege R

    2007-04-01

    Most research on organizational changes in working life, including downsizing, focuses on the negative attitudes and negative consequences of the change. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the employee's previous learning experience and characteristics of the working environment were associated with positive attitudes towards organizational change. The 467 employees (73.5% males) working in a global oil company in the early phases of a downsizing process were asked to answer a questionnaire with demographic variables, perception of the working environment, and attitude to change (93% response rate). Corporate social responsibility (CSR), involvement and participation, team leadership and team effectiveness were important factors related to positive attitudes towards organizational change. Non-leaders and older employees were positive to change. We conclude that employees' perceptions of their psychosocial working environment, in particular the CSR, were highly related to their attitude to organizational change.

  13. Motivation and morality: Insights into political ideology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie; Carnes, Nate C

    2014-06-01

    Our past work linking motivation and morality provides a basis for understanding differences in political ideology and positions across the political spectrum. Conservatism is rooted in avoidance-based proscriptive morality, whereas liberalism is rooted in approach-based prescriptive morality. Two distinct, binding, group moralities reflect these different regulatory systems and emphasize social coordination through Social Order versus social cooperation through Social Justice.

  14. The dual moral self: moral centrality and internal moral motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krettenauer, Tobias

    2011-01-01

    In this study, the relationship between two aspects of the moral self, moral centrality and internal moral motivation, was analyzed. It is argued that these 2 aspects are conceptually distinct but nonetheless empirically related. Based on a cross-sectional study of 205 adolescents (M age = 14.83 years, SD = 2.21 years) it was found that moral centrality and internal moral motivation, even though substantially correlated, interacted in predicting moral emotion expectancies. Even though moral centrality was unrelated to adolescents' age it predicted a longitudinal increase in internal moral motivation over a 1-year interval. Overall, the findings call for a differentiation of moral centrality and internal moral motivation as 2 distinct but interrelated aspects of moral self-development that follow different developmental trajectories and are differentially related to age. At the same time, the study points out that adolescence may be less important for the development of the moral self than commonly assumed.

  15. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas: Exploring the Role of Moral Principles

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-08-01

    by definition decisions that explicitly involve the welfare of others, invoked the greater use of care-based moral principles (concern for others...the Internet and you find out that the company makes many of its products in sweatshops in a foreign country, where the employees work for very low

  16. 道德推脱对员工道德决策的影响:德行领导的调节作用%Moral Disengagement and Employees' Ethical Decision Making: The Moderating Effects of Ethical Leadership

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    杨继平; 王兴超

    2012-01-01

    All over the world, growing concern over business and marketing has led to intensified research efforts in the relevant area. Albert Bandura' s theory of moral disengagement was developed to explain why certain people are able to engage in unethical decision making or inhumane conduct without apparent distress. It is also important to consider whether ethical leadership can influence the ethical quality of follower decisions. In the present study, we investigated the moderating role of ethical leadership played in the linkages between moral disengagement and ethical decision making in the context of Chinese organizations. A structured questionnaire was employed as the research instrument for this study. It consisted of five scales designed to measure the variables of moral disengagement, moral recognition, moral judgment, moral intent, and ethical leadership. Data were collected from 819 full-time employees who came from enterprises and institutions located in Beijing, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning and Jilin. Cronbach' s alpha coefficients for the above measures were from . 83 to . 91, showing a good measurement reliability. A confirmatory factor analysis of the questionnaire was done with the software LISREL 8.70. Hierarchical regression modeling was utilized to analyze the data for testing the hypotheses proposed. All the data were analyzed with the software SPSS 16.0 and LISREL 8.70, and the main statistics methods were correlation analysis and hierarchical regression modeling. The results showed that moral disengagement positively correlated with moral judgment and moral intent, but negatively correlated with moral recognition and moral ethic. Moral ethic also positively correlated with moral recognition, but negatively correlated with moral judgment and moral intent. In line with predictions, the results of hierarchical regression modeling analysis suggested ethical leadership significantly moderated the relationship between moral disengagement

  17. The argument from moral psychology

    OpenAIRE

    Milevski, Voin

    2015-01-01

    The argument from moral psychology is one of the strongest arguments that non-cognitivists use against cognitivism-the metaethical position according to which our moral judgements express beliefs. According to this argument, once we put together the Humean theory of motivation and motivational internalism, we yield the conclusion that cognitivism cannot represent the correct view about the semantic function of moral discourse. I will first attempt to show that a neurological syndrome, called ...

  18. Using career ladders to motivate and retain employees: an implementation success story.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garletts, Joseph A

    2002-01-01

    In October 2000, Phoenix-based Sonora Quest Laboratories, LLC (SQL), commissioned The Gelfond Group to survey SQL employees. Responding to negative survey scores, SQL developed and implemented an entry-level career ladder for line staff of the specimen management/referral testing department. The program was piloted in February 2001, and was implemented fully shortly thereafter. The ladder was designed to provide job enrichment opportunities through company-conducted training and advancement provisions. It contained requirements for productivity and quality of work performed in addition to increasingly rigorous training and competency documentation. Employees were accountable for their own advancement and for ensuring that all documentation was complete. Advancement was automatic once requirements were completed. Pay increases accompanied each advancement on a predetermined scale. At the end of 12 months, employee turnover dropped from 39% to less than 20% annually. Both productivity and morale improved, and results on a second employee survey indicated dramatic improvement in five key areas. The career ladder concept has been replicated successfully in several other departments, including phlebotomy, and a six-tiered ladder is under development for the clinical laboratory. It will encompass CLA, MLT, and MT positions from entry level to technical coordinator.

  19. Moral knowledge and moral factuality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ron Wilburn

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2008v7n1p69For naturalistic and non-intuitionistic moral realists, moral knowledge is more problematic than ordinary and scientific factual knowledge. For without special faculties of moral discernment, how could we ever detect moral facts and properties? Physical facts and properties may be accessible to perceptual recognition. But how could moral facts and properties ever be similarly accessible? To address this challenge, we need a meta-ethical account that does two things. First, it must explain how the discernment of moral facts and properties ultimately consists only of the detection of appropriate physical items. Second, it must explain why, despite this fact, moral perception seems so very puzzling. In this paper I endeavor to provide such an account. It is largely because of the relational nature of moral properties, and the corresponding externalistically determined normative content of moral property terms, I argue, that our epistemic access to moral knowledge appears mysterious. The metaphysics of moral factuality does a lot to explain the seeming elusiveness of moral knowledge, and in ways that are surprisingly mundane.

  20. Executive functions in morality, religion, and paranormal beliefs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wain, Omar; Spinella, Marcello

    2007-01-01

    Moral, religious, and paranormal beliefs share some degree of overlap and play important roles in guiding peoples' behavior. Although partly cultural phenomena, they also have neurobiological components based on functional neuroimaging studies and research in clinical populations. Because all three show relationships to prefrontal system functioning, the current study examined whether they related to executive functions as measured by the Executive Function Inventory in a community sample. As in previous research, religious beliefs related positively to both moral attitudes and paranormal beliefs. Moral attitudes, however, did not relate to paranormal beliefs. Paranormal beliefs related inversely to impulse control and organization, whereas small positive correlations occurred between traditional religious beliefs, impulse control, and empathy. Moral attitudes, on the other hand, showed consistent positive correlations with all executive functions measured, independent of demographic influences. These findings concordantly support that prefrontal systems play a role in morality, religion, and paranormal beliefs.

  1. The problem of moral choice personality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. A. Kadievskaya

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Article is dedicated to the comprehension of the problems of the moral selection of personality. It is substantiated, that the moral consciousness is the complex system, because of which in the society are established the specific rules of interrelations between the people.   The concepts are analyzed: morals, relativity, moral absolutism, general human values, globalization, manipulation by consciousness, spiritual­ moral training. The specific character of the moral relativity, which denies absolute nature, i.e., is established universality and compulsion of morals, emphasizing conditionality and situationality of moral n. Moral absolutism is contradicted to moral relativity. Moral absolutism corresponds to persuasion, that there are absolute standards, which can be used for the permission of questions of morals, and that the specific actions can be correct or incorrect by themselves independent of their context. The two­digit (positive and negative axiological understanding of the phenomenon of globalization, which dually influences our consciousness, spiritual peace and moral selection, is represented. Under the conditions for large­scale information manipulations the translation of moral values as information, modifies their essence. Is shown the role of spiritual­ moral training in the formation, which must be variative and voluntary, allow for the possibility of ideological selection. The moral freedom of each person is manifested in the transformation of moral requirements into the internal needs of personality, into its own persuasions.

  2. Sociology as Moral Philosophy (and Vice Versa).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vandenberghe, Frédéric

    2017-11-01

    In this article, I want to make an attempt to reconnect sociology to moral philosophy and moral philosophy to sociology. The thesis I want to defend is that sociology continues by other means the venerable tradition of practical and moral philosophy. Like its forebears, it stands and falls with a defense of "practical wisdom" (Aristotle) and "practical reason" (Kant). The development of a moral sociology presupposes, however, that one recognizes and rejects Max Weber's theory of axiological neutrality as an extremist position and that one carefully articulates prescriptive and descriptive, internal and external, as well as observer and actor positions. © 2017 Canadian Sociological Association/La Société canadienne de sociologie.

  3. From Folk Morality to Moral Philosophy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Peikani

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available According to our terminology, the mechanism people follow in moral judgments, which is far from the sayings and rules of moral philosophers, is folk morality. Above all, people in moral judgments regard human moral capacity and do not expect full morality of any one. People suppose that perfect moral life is an ideal which is beyond human abilities. This hidden presupposition forms the foundation of human moral behavior. On the other hand, it seems that the moral systems originating from moral philosophy have been constructed a priori and, assuming a perfect man, they expect people to become such a person. It seems that it is necessary for moral philosophers to change their way and begin speculation with respect to people’s moral capacities. In this paper, we argue that minimal ethical speculation increases the level of morality in society. The basis of this turn is new progresses and findings in the field of psychology and the connection between psychology and moral philosophy a connection which will be more and more important for moral philosophers parallel to scientific progresses. Of course, this is an immature idea and therefore confronts with some critiques.

  4. Development and psychometric testing of a new tool for detecting moral distress: the Moral Distress Thermometer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wocial, Lucia D; Weaver, Michael T

    2013-01-01

    To report the development and psychometric testing of the Moral Distress Thermometer. The Moral Distress Thermometer is a new screening tool to measure moral distress in nurses who practise in the hospital setting. Moral distress occurs when one knows the ethically correct thing to do, but is prevented from acting on that perceived obligation. It is a well documented phenomenon with negative consequences that may be experienced by nurses. Creating an instrument to effectively and efficiently measure moral distress in a timely way has been identified as a priority for nursing. This study used a cross-sectional survey design. Data collection for this research occurred in 2009. Participants simultaneously completed either the adult or pediatric version of the Moral Distress Scale version 2009 and the Moral Distress Thermometer. A total of 529 participants from various clinical areas completed both tools. Coefficients alpha were adequate for both Adult (0·90) and Pediatric (0·92) Moral Distress Scale 2009 scales. Statistically significant Pearson correlations were found for the Moral Distress Thermometer with Adult Moral Distress Scale 2009 and Pediatric Moral Distress Scale 2009 and higher Moral Distress Thermometer, Adult Moral Distress Scale 2009 and Pediatric Moral Distress Scale 2009 means for participants who had left or who considered leaving a position because of moral distress. These findings provide support for the validity of the Moral Distress Thermometer. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  5. You are fair, but I expect you to also behave unfairly: Positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations for moderate morality information.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrice Rusconi

    Full Text Available Trait inference in person perception is based on observers' implicit assumptions about the relations between trait adjectives (e.g., fair and the either consistent or inconsistent behaviors (e.g., having double standards that an actor can manifest. This article presents new empirical data and theoretical interpretations on people' behavioral expectations, that is, people's perceived trait-behavior relations along the morality (versus competence dimension. We specifically address the issue of the moderate levels of both traits and behaviors almost neglected by prior research by using a measure of the perceived general frequency of behaviors. A preliminary study identifies a set of competence- and morality-related traits and a subset of traits balanced for valence. Studies 1-2 show that moral target persons are associated with greater behavioral flexibility than immoral ones where abstract categories of behaviors are concerned. For example, participants judge it more likely that a fair person would behave unfairly than an unfair person would behave fairly. Study 3 replicates the results of the first 2 studies using concrete categories of behaviors (e.g., telling the truth/omitting some information. Study 4 shows that the positive asymmetry in morality-related trait-behavior relations holds for both North-American and European (i.e., Italian individuals. A small-scale meta-analysis confirms the existence of a positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations along both morality and competence dimensions for moderate levels of both traits and behaviors. We discuss these findings in relation to prior models and results on trait-behavior relations and we advance a motivational explanation based on self-protection.

  6. You are fair, but I expect you to also behave unfairly: Positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations for moderate morality information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusconi, Patrice; Sacchi, Simona; Capellini, Roberta; Brambilla, Marco; Cherubini, Paolo

    2017-01-01

    Trait inference in person perception is based on observers' implicit assumptions about the relations between trait adjectives (e.g., fair) and the either consistent or inconsistent behaviors (e.g., having double standards) that an actor can manifest. This article presents new empirical data and theoretical interpretations on people' behavioral expectations, that is, people's perceived trait-behavior relations along the morality (versus competence) dimension. We specifically address the issue of the moderate levels of both traits and behaviors almost neglected by prior research by using a measure of the perceived general frequency of behaviors. A preliminary study identifies a set of competence- and morality-related traits and a subset of traits balanced for valence. Studies 1-2 show that moral target persons are associated with greater behavioral flexibility than immoral ones where abstract categories of behaviors are concerned. For example, participants judge it more likely that a fair person would behave unfairly than an unfair person would behave fairly. Study 3 replicates the results of the first 2 studies using concrete categories of behaviors (e.g., telling the truth/omitting some information). Study 4 shows that the positive asymmetry in morality-related trait-behavior relations holds for both North-American and European (i.e., Italian) individuals. A small-scale meta-analysis confirms the existence of a positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations along both morality and competence dimensions for moderate levels of both traits and behaviors. We discuss these findings in relation to prior models and results on trait-behavior relations and we advance a motivational explanation based on self-protection.

  7. Common morality and moral reform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wallace, K A

    2009-01-01

    The idea of moral reform requires that morality be more than a description of what people do value, for there has to be some measure against which to assess progress. Otherwise, any change is not reform, but simply difference. Therefore, I discuss moral reform in relation to two prescriptive approaches to common morality, which I distinguish as the foundational and the pragmatic. A foundational approach to common morality (e.g., Bernard Gert's) suggests that there is no reform of morality, but of beliefs, values, customs, and practices so as to conform with an unchanging, foundational morality. If, however, there were revision in its foundation (e.g., in rationality), then reform in morality itself would be possible. On a pragmatic view, on the other hand, common morality is relative to human flourishing, and its justification consists in its effectiveness in promoting flourishing. Morality is dependent on what in fact does promote human flourishing and therefore, could be reformed. However, a pragmatic approach, which appears more open to the possibility of moral reform, would need a more robust account of norms by which reform is measured.

  8. Teaching Morally and Teaching Morality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenstermacher, Gary D.; Osguthorpe, Richard D.; Sanger, Matthew N.

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the authors introduce what they believe is an important distinction between teaching morality and teaching morally. In P-12 schools, the moral education debate often focuses on character education programs or other moral curricula. Such programs and curricula are championed as a means of teaching morality and transmitting moral…

  9. Universalismo versus relativismo no julgamento moral Universalism versus relativism in moral judgment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela M. B. Biaggio

    1999-01-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho analisa a posição de diversos autores que têm-se destacado no estudo do julgamento moral, quanto à questão do universalismo versus relativismo. Há valores universais? Há uma seqüência evolutiva de estágios de maturidade moral que se encontre em todas as culturas? Com base em análises e críticas de James Rest, Orlando Lourenço, Lutz Eckensberger e John Snarey, são analisadas posições universalistas, como as de Piaget e Kohlberg (com seus fundamentos em Kant e as posições relativistas, tendo como ponto extremo a de Shweder. Entre os dois campos extremos são comentadas as posições de Turiel, Gilligan, e outros autores.This article analyses positions of distinguished authors in the field of moral development, regarding the issue of universalism versus relativism. Based on analyses and critiques by James Rest, Orlando Lourenço, Lutz Eckensberger, and John Snarey, the author reviews unversalistic positions such as those of Piaget and Kohlberg (with their roots in Kant, and relativistic positions, having as their extreme the position of Shweder. Between the two extremes,the stands of Turiel, Gilligan and other authors are discussed.

  10. Influence of motivation on academic library employees' performance ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Influence of motivation on academic library employees' performance and productivity in ... Information Impact: Journal of Information and Knowledge Management ... motivated from time to time to boost their morale for efficiency and higher productivity. ... for Researchers · for Librarians · for Authors · FAQ's · More about AJOL ...

  11. Non-Homogenous Moral Space (from Bentham toSen

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piotr (Peter Boltuc

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The notion of moral space covers all thin (universal and thick (particular characteristics that may plausibly be seen as morally relevant. In this paper, I investigate certain properties of moral space so defined. These properties are not easily visible if we analyze moral characteristics individually, but become clear once we consider them collectively. In particular, following Amartya Sen, I claim that the value of moral properties is, in part, a function of positional characteristics. I call this notion the non-homogeneity of moral space.

  12. Influence of the cortical midline structures on moral emotion and motivation in moral decision-making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hyemin; Chen, Jingyuan; Jeong, Changwoo; Glover, Gary H

    2016-04-01

    The present study aims to examine the relationship between the cortical midline structures (CMS), which have been regarded to be associated with selfhood, and moral decision making processes at the neural level. Traditional moral psychological studies have suggested the role of moral self as the moderator of moral cognition, so activity of moral self would present at the neural level. The present study examined the interaction between the CMS and other moral-related regions by conducting psycho-physiological interaction analysis of functional images acquired while 16 subjects were solving moral dilemmas. Furthermore, we performed Granger causality analysis to demonstrate the direction of influences between activities in the regions in moral decision-making. We first demonstrate there are significant positive interactions between two central CMS seed regions-i.e., the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-and brain regions associated with moral functioning including the cerebellum, brainstem, midbrain, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula (AI); on the other hand, the posterior insula (PI) showed significant negative interaction with the seed regions. Second, several significant Granger causality was found from CMS to insula regions particularly under the moral-personal condition. Furthermore, significant dominant influence from the AI to PI was reported. Moral psychological implications of these findings are discussed. The present study demonstrated the significant interaction and influence between the CMS and morality-related regions while subject were solving moral dilemmas. Given that, activity in the CMS is significantly involved in human moral functioning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Moral Education in Japan

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roesgaard, Marie Højlund

    ‘religion’ is not a subject in schools. So, how do the Japanese go about the business of teaching values and morality? Using the Japanese example, this volume looks at moral education from the basic point of view of universal and common human values, with due attention given to culture-specific traits...... in the legal frame work (the Fundamental Law on Education was revised in 2006) and the ministerial guidelines and policies (new curriculum guidelines have been issued after the law change, and new proposals for strengthening the position of moral education come on a regular basis) have reflected the increased......What is a ‘good’ person and how do we educate ‘good’ persons? This question of morality is central to any society and its government and educational system including the Japanese. In many societies it has been customary to teach about morality from a religious standpoint, but not so in Japan, where...

  14. Health Behaviour of Higher Education Employees--Value-Transmitting Conduct of Professionals to Their Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mátó, Veronika; Tarkó, Klára; Tóth, Krisztina; Nagymajtényi, László; Paulik, Edit

    2016-01-01

    Workplaces and employees' health are closely connected. A healthy workforce would increase productivity, effectivity and efficiency which will benefit the employer in financial and moral terms as well. On the contrary, if employees experience stress, long working hours, bad managerial style, not safe working conditions that would lead to ill…

  15. BRAIN, EMOTION, AND MORAL JUDGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fransisca Ting

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The dual process theory posits that people relies on their emotion (especially negative emotions when they are faced with personal moral dilemmas, such as pushing a person off a footbridge in order to stop a trolley that would otherwise kill five people. In an fMRI investigation, the medial frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, and bilateral angular gyrus are more activated in considering a personal moral dilemma, leading them to make a characteristically deontological judgment. On the other hand, people are less emotionally engaged in non‐personal moral dilemmas, leading them to be more consequentialist in their judgment. Empathy is argued to be a salient moral emotion that could alter one’s moral judgment in moral dilemmas. Specifically, when judging about the permissibility of a person’s proposed action, the subjects will judge those they empathize with less harshly, and when they themselves have to make the decision, they will tend to save the party they empathize with across dilemmas.

  16. From gulf to bridge: when do moral arguments facilitate political influence?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feinberg, Matthew; Willer, Robb

    2015-12-01

    Much of contemporary American political rhetoric is characterized by liberals and conservatives advancing arguments for the morality of their respective political positions. However, research suggests such moral rhetoric is largely ineffective for persuading those who do not already hold one's position because advocates advancing these arguments fail to account for the divergent moral commitments that undergird America's political divisions. Building on this, we hypothesize that (a) political advocates spontaneously make arguments grounded in their own moral values, not the values of those targeted for persuasion, and (b) political arguments reframed to appeal to the moral values of those holding the opposing political position are typically more effective. We find support for these claims across six studies involving diverse political issues, including same-sex marriage, universal health care, military spending, and adopting English as the nation's official langauge. Mediation and moderation analyses further indicated that reframed moral appeals were persuasive because they increased the apparent agreement between the political position and the targeted individuals' moral values. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  17. Moral sensitivity, moral distress, and moral courage among baccalaureate Filipino nursing students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escolar-Chua, Rowena L

    2018-06-01

    Moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage among healthcare professionals have been explored considerably in recent years. However, there is a paucity of studies exploring these topics among baccalaureate nursing students. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between and among moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage of undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students. The research employed a descriptive-correlational design to explore the relationships between and among moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage of undergraduate nursing students. Participants and research context: A total of 293 baccalaureate Filipino nursing students who have been exposed to various clinical areas participated in the study. Ethical considerations: Institutional review board approval was sought prior to the conduct of the study. Self-determination was assured and anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed to all participants. Results indicate that a majority of the nursing students in the clinical areas encounter morally distressing situations that compromise quality patient care. However, despite the fact that they want to do what is in the best interest of their patients, their perception of being the inexperienced among the healthcare team drives the majority of them to ignore morally distressing situations to avoid conflict and confrontation. Another interesting finding is that 79.20% of the respondents hardly consider quitting the nursing profession even if they frequently encounter morally distressing situations. Analysis also shows associations between moral distress intensity and frequency ( r = 0.13, p < 0.05) and moral distress intensity and moral sensitivity ( r = 0.25, p < 0.05). The dimensions of moral courage are also related to both moral distress and moral sensitivity. Results of the study imply that moral distress is a reality among all healthcare professionals including nursing students and requires more

  18. Comparison of Positive Character Strengths in Employees with Healthy and Unhealthy Occupational Stress Coping Styles

    OpenAIRE

    simin dokht kalani; Zahra Zahra; hamidreza oreyzi

    2017-01-01

    The aim of the study was to compare the protective and interpersonal strengths as positive personality traits in employees with healthy (G: good health pattern, S: sparing pattern) and unhealthy (A: ambitious pattern, B: burnout pattern) job stress coping styles. Therefore, 146 employees of an industrial organization in Mashhad were selected by stratified random sampling and asked to respond to research tools. The instruments were the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths from Peterson & Se...

  19. You are fair, but I expect you to also behave unfairly: Positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations for moderate morality information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusconi, Patrice; Sacchi, Simona; Capellini, Roberta; Brambilla, Marco; Cherubini, Paolo

    2017-01-01

    Trait inference in person perception is based on observers’ implicit assumptions about the relations between trait adjectives (e.g., fair) and the either consistent or inconsistent behaviors (e.g., having double standards) that an actor can manifest. This article presents new empirical data and theoretical interpretations on people’ behavioral expectations, that is, people’s perceived trait-behavior relations along the morality (versus competence) dimension. We specifically address the issue of the moderate levels of both traits and behaviors almost neglected by prior research by using a measure of the perceived general frequency of behaviors. A preliminary study identifies a set of competence- and morality-related traits and a subset of traits balanced for valence. Studies 1–2 show that moral target persons are associated with greater behavioral flexibility than immoral ones where abstract categories of behaviors are concerned. For example, participants judge it more likely that a fair person would behave unfairly than an unfair person would behave fairly. Study 3 replicates the results of the first 2 studies using concrete categories of behaviors (e.g., telling the truth/omitting some information). Study 4 shows that the positive asymmetry in morality-related trait-behavior relations holds for both North-American and European (i.e., Italian) individuals. A small-scale meta-analysis confirms the existence of a positive asymmetry in trait-behavior relations along both morality and competence dimensions for moderate levels of both traits and behaviors. We discuss these findings in relation to prior models and results on trait-behavior relations and we advance a motivational explanation based on self-protection. PMID:28700702

  20. the effect of cultural diversity on employee productivity in work

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    profit usually find it difficult to survive in the competitive economy of the 21st century. Central ... knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits ... employee which in turn serves as fuel to organizational growth.

  1. Moral Emotions and Morals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rocío Orsi Portalo

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available My aim in this paper is to explore the ambivalent role played by the so called moral emotions in moral thinking, overall when the concept of responsibility is concerned. In the first part of this paper I show how moral emotions such as guilt and shame can appear in circumstances that are not under the agent’s control, and therefore the agent could be though of free or responsibility for them. By contrast, in the second part of this essay I put how the absence of moral emotions, or their twisted development, makes as well the flourishing of individual morality impossible.

  2. Fostering Nurses' Moral Agency and Moral Identity: The Importance of Moral Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liaschenko, Joan; Peter, Elizabeth

    2016-09-01

    It may be the case that the most challenging moral problem of the twenty-first century will be the relationship between the individual moral agent and the practices and institutions in which the moral agent is embedded. In this paper, we continue the efforts that one of us, Joan Liaschenko, first called for in 1993, that of using feminist ethics as a lens for viewing the relationship between individual nurses as moral agents and the highly complex institutions in which they do the work of nursing. Feminist ethics, with its emphasis on the inextricable relationship between ethics and politics, provides a useful lens to understand the work of nurses in context. Using Margaret Urban Walker's and Hilde Lindemann's concepts of identity, relationships, values, and moral agency, we argue that health care institutions can be moral communities and profoundly affect the work and identity and, therefore, the moral agency of all who work within those structures, including nurses. Nurses are not only shaped by these organizations but also have the power to shape them. Because moral agency is intimately connected to one's identity, moral identity work is essential for nurses to exercise their moral agency and to foster moral community in health care organizations. We first provide a brief history of nursing's morally problematic relationship with institutions and examine the impact institutional master narratives and corporatism exert today on nurses' moral identities and agency. We close by emphasizing the significance of ongoing dialogue in creating and sustaining moral communities, repairing moral identities, and strengthening moral agency. © 2016 The Hastings Center.

  3. Individual moral development and moral progress

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schinkel, Anders; de Ruyter, Doret J.

    At first glance, one of the most obvious places to look for moral progress is in individuals, in particular in moral development from childhood to adulthood. In fact, that moral progress is possible is a foundational assumption of moral education. Beyond the general agreement that moral progress is

  4. Individual Moral Development and Moral Progress

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schinkel, Anders; de Ruyter, Doret J.

    2017-01-01

    At first glance, one of the most obvious places to look for moral progress is in individuals, in particular in moral development from childhood to adulthood. In fact, that moral progress is possible is a foundational assumption of moral education. Beyond the general agreement that moral progress is

  5. DOUBLE ORAL AUCTIONS AND TENDENCIES TOWARD MORAL HAZARD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kubák Matúš

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Moral hazard can be found almost in all fields of human activities. Moral hazard is a change of economic agent´s behaviour when circumstances change. Theoretical background of moral hazard issue in economics dates back to 1970s. Recognition of moral hazard started by published studies of Pauly (Pauly 1968, Zeckhauser (Zeckhauser 1970, Arrow (Arrow 1971 and Mirrlees (Mirrlees 1999. Current situation of the global economy (fall 2011 was caused largely by moral hazard executed by authorities such as governments, institutions, ranking agencies, banks, chief executive officers, politicians etc. Efforts to stabilise Eurozone, governments bail-outs to banks, governments purchases of toxic assets, rescue packages given to the bank sector and big companies, which are “too big to fail”, rescue packages given to debtor nations, golden parachutes given to employees which are leaving companies are nothing but the manifestations of moral hazard in economic and politic reality. This paper uses an economic experiment with 96 subjects to examine the tendencies of economic agents towards moral hazard. Design of the experiment allowed simulating third party’s intervention on a market (e.g. state funding accelerating purchase, health care insurance function on the market with health care. Obtained data are statistically evaluated and it is shown, that economic agents incline to moral hazard in case, when it is possible. Study shows how rational agents became less rational in terms of average market price, after intervention of a third party on the market. Third party intervention raises the average market prices presenting a manifestation of moral hazard. It is shown, that under given assumptions, even rational economic agents diverge from rational and market efficient strategies and behave irresponsibly. Despite generally negative attitude towards moral hazard, it is shown that economic agents have tendencies to behave in such a manner

  6. A constructionist review of morality and emotions: no evidence for specific links between moral content and discrete emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, C Daryl; Lindquist, Kristen A; Gray, Kurt

    2015-11-01

    Morality and emotions are linked, but what is the nature of their correspondence? Many "whole number" accounts posit specific correspondences between moral content and discrete emotions, such that harm is linked to anger, and purity is linked to disgust. A review of the literature provides little support for these specific morality-emotion links. Moreover, any apparent specificity may arise from global features shared between morality and emotion, such as affect and conceptual content. These findings are consistent with a constructionist perspective of the mind, which argues against a whole number of discrete and domain-specific mental mechanisms underlying morality and emotion. Instead, constructionism emphasizes the flexible combination of basic and domain-general ingredients such as core affect and conceptualization in creating the experience of moral judgments and discrete emotions. The implications of constructionism in moral psychology are discussed, and we propose an experimental framework for rigorously testing morality-emotion links. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  7. On the role of attention and emotion in morality: attentional control modulates unrelated disgust in moral judgments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Dillen, Lotte F; van der Wal, Reine C; van den Bos, Kees

    2012-09-01

    The emotion of disgust can influence people's moral judgments, even if this emotion objectively is unrelated to the moral judgment in question. The present work demonstrates that attentional control regulates this effect. In three studies, disgust was induced. In an unrelated part of the studies, participants then judged a moral transgression. Disgust resulted in more severe moral judgments when attentional control (either measured by means of individual predisposition or manipulated with experimental control) was weak as opposed to strong (Studies 1-3). Findings further showed that attentional control mediated the positive relation between the intensity of participants' disgust responses and the severity of their moral judgments (Study 2). Moreover, attentional control has its effects through the regulation of affective processing (Study 3). Taken together, the findings suggest that unrelated influences of disgust on moral judgments are contingent on the attention system.

  8. Individual moral development and moral progress

    OpenAIRE

    Schinkel, Anders; de Ruyter, Doret J.

    2017-01-01

    At first glance, one of the most obvious places to look for moral progress is in individuals, in particular in moral development from childhood to adulthood. In fact, that moral progress is possible is a foundational assumption of moral education. Beyond the general agreement that moral progress is not only possible but even a common feature of human development things become blurry, however. For what do we mean by ‘progress’? And what constitutes moral progress? Does the idea of individual m...

  9. Employee Attitudes toward an Internal Employee Assistance Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harlow, Kirk C.

    1998-01-01

    Surveys employees (N=16,603) who had used a large multinational company's employee assistance program (EAP), adult dependents who had used the EAP, employees who had not used the EAP, and adult dependents who had not used the EAP. Findings indicate that EAP users viewed the EAP more positively than nonusers. (Author/MKA)

  10. The Role of Job Involvement as a Mediator in Employees’ Moral Values - Organizational Commitment Relationship: Bosnian Case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammet Sait Dinc

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint effects of employees' moral values and job involvement on their organizational commitment. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of private educational institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a total of 100 valid responses were received. It was found that although both moral values and job involvement could enhance organizational commitment, once the effects of job involvement are accounted for, the direct effects of moral values on organizational commitment diminish to almost non-existent. This result provides strong evidence that the influence of employees’ moral values on organizational commitment is mediated by job involvement.

  11. PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT OF FORMATION OF MORAL AWARENESS OF STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aksana F. Hodko

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to consider the features of pedagogical support of the formation of moral awareness of students, its main components and principles, to describe the components of the professional culture of the teacher, to determine the pedagogical conditions of development of moral awareness of students on the basis of the realization of the principle of the educative training of modern specialists.Methods. Methods involve comparative analysis of literary sources, analysis of documents, systematization and generalization of theoretical material, logicaland-historical analysis, causal analysis, functional analysis, system-andstructural analysis.Results. It is shown that the global goal of modern high school is the formation of a constructive, creative personality, embodying a highly qualified specialist, a good family man, a conscious citizen and patriot of his/her homeland, responsible for its present and future. The importance of ideological and educational functions of the teacher significantly increases and is aimed at updating the ideological position of student, his professional, civic, and spiritual-and-moral formation. Moral development of personality is a process of the formation and changing of the individual as the subject of morality, involving the development of individual systems of moral values on the basis of the adoption of moral experience of mankind, which is the evidence of moral self-affirmation and personal integrity. Modern social-and-cultural conditions require updating the content, forms and methods of education in an establishment of higher education with the reorientation from the traditional educational work to personal-oriented educational process based on the use of active (interactive pedagogical tools. An important requirement for effective organization of educational process of students is the realization of proved organizational and psycho-pedagogical conditions. Wellorganized process of education

  12. On the Adaptive Value of Moralized Revulsion from an Evolutionist Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Natalia Zavadivker

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The article addresses the role played by “moralized revulsion”, understood as the emotional disgust we feel against individuals and social practices that we deem to be the object of moral evaluation, from an evolutionist perspective. The first part provides a general analysis of the emotion of revulsion and its triggers. Then, the paper discusses two opposing positions regarding the reliability and instrumental value of revulsion in promoting “adequate” moral judgments and inciting to moral action. It then proposes a reinterpretation of the problem from an evolutionist perspective, attempting to correlate the diverse value judgments promoted by moralized revulsion with different adaptive strategies. Finally, it correlates those strategies with liberal and conservative moral positions.

  13. Moralization Through Moral Shock: Exploring Emotional Antecedents to Moral Conviction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisneski, Daniel C; Skitka, Linda J

    2017-02-01

    The current research tested whether exposure to disgusting images increases moral conviction and whether this happens in the presence of incidental disgust cues versus disgust cues relevant to the target of moralization. Across two studies, we exposed participants to one of the four sets of disgusting versus control images to test the moralization of abortion attitudes: pictures of aborted fetuses, animal abuse, non-harm related disgusting images, harm related disgusting images, or neutral pictures, at either sub- or supraliminal levels of awareness. Moral conviction about abortion increased (compared with control) only for participants exposed to abortion-related images at speeds slow enough to allow conscious awareness. Study 2 replicated this finding, and found that the relationship between attitudinally relevant disgust and moral conviction was mediated by disgust, and not anger or harm appraisals. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for intuitionist theories of morality and moral theories that emphasize harm.

  14. Moral distress and moral conflict in clinical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fourie, Carina

    2015-02-01

    Much research is currently being conducted on health care practitioners' experiences of moral distress, especially the experience of nurses. What moral distress is, however, is not always clearly delineated and there is some debate as to how it should be defined. This article aims to help to clarify moral distress. My methodology consists primarily of a conceptual analysis, with especial focus on Andrew Jameton's influential description of moral distress. I will identify and aim to resolve two sources of confusion about moral distress: (1) the compound nature of a narrow definition of distress which stipulates a particular cause, i.e. moral constraint, and (2) the distinction drawn between moral dilemma (or, more accurately, moral conflict) and moral distress, which implies that the two are mutually exclusive. In light of these concerns, I argue that the definition of moral distress should be revised so that moral constraint should not be a necessary condition of moral distress, and that moral conflict should be included as a potential cause of distress. Ultimately, I claim that moral distress should be understood as a specific psychological response to morally challenging situations such as those of moral constraint or moral conflict, or both. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Implicit moral evaluations: A multinomial modeling approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, C Daryl; Payne, B Keith; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter; Scheffer, Julian A; Inzlicht, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Implicit moral evaluations-i.e., immediate, unintentional assessments of the wrongness of actions or persons-play a central role in supporting moral behavior in everyday life. Yet little research has employed methods that rigorously measure individual differences in implicit moral evaluations. In five experiments, we develop a new sequential priming measure-the Moral Categorization Task-and a multinomial model that decomposes judgment on this task into multiple component processes. These include implicit moral evaluations of moral transgression primes (Unintentional Judgment), accurate moral judgments about target actions (Intentional Judgment), and a directional tendency to judge actions as morally wrong (Response Bias). Speeded response deadlines reduced Intentional Judgment but not Unintentional Judgment (Experiment 1). Unintentional Judgment was stronger toward moral transgression primes than non-moral negative primes (Experiments 2-4). Intentional Judgment was associated with increased error-related negativity, a neurophysiological indicator of behavioral control (Experiment 4). Finally, people who voted for an anti-gay marriage amendment had stronger Unintentional Judgment toward gay marriage primes (Experiment 5). Across Experiments 1-4, implicit moral evaluations converged with moral personality: Unintentional Judgment about wrong primes, but not negative primes, was negatively associated with psychopathic tendencies and positively associated with moral identity and guilt proneness. Theoretical and practical applications of formal modeling for moral psychology are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Refining moral agency: Insights from moral psychology and moral philosophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milliken, Aimee

    2018-01-01

    Research in moral psychology has recently raised questions about the impact of context and the environment on the way the human mind works. In a 2012 call to action, Paley wrote: "If some of the conclusions arrived at by moral psychologists are true, they are directly relevant to the way nurses think about moral problems, and present serious challenges to favoured concepts in nursing ethics, such as the ethics of care, virtue, and the unity of the person" (p. 80). He urges nurse ethicists and scholars to evaluate the impact these findings may have for moral theory. In this paper, I review some of Paley's (Nursing Philosophy, 13, 2012, 80) critique, focusing on the argument that theories of nursing ethics have failed to account for the role of context; both in terms of its impact on the way nurses make moral judgements and in terms of the environment's influence on the way the mind works. I then examine nursing literature on moral agency, and focus on the role of the environment and context play within existing theory. I argue that theories of moral agency have often accounted for the role of context on the way nurses make decisions; however, less attention has been paid to its impact on the mind. With this background, I use insights from the fields of moral philosophy and moral psychology to refine the conceptualization of nurse moral agency in a way that is reflective of current cognitive, philosophical and nursing practice-based science. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. The neuropathology of morality: Germany 1930-1960.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schirmann, Felix

    2014-01-01

    This article analyzes brain scientists' attempts to trace morality in the brain in Germany from 1930 to 1960. The debate around Karl Kleist's localization of the Gemeinschafts-Ich [community-I] in the 1930s is depicted in order to illustrate the central arguments for and against localizations of morality. The focus of this article is on the period 1936-1960 in which experts put forth specific ideas on morality's cerebral underpinnings that mirror the larger theoretical shift from strict localization doctrine to a more holistic understanding of the brain. As a result of this shift, experts avoided exact localizations of morality. Instead, they posited correlations between brain areas and morality. The analysis illustrates the dependence of neuropathological research on morality on general theories of brain functioning and marks a first contribution to the history of the neuroscience of morality for the time after 1930.

  18. End Sexual Harassment of Employees, or Your Board Could Be Held Liable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Underwood, Julie

    1987-01-01

    Defines sexual harassment and reminds school boards of their moral and legal obligation to protect employees and maintain an intimidation-free workplace. Offers several tips for preventing sexual harrassment and for launching investigations into complaints. (MLH)

  19. Felt Moral Obligation and the Moral Judgement-Moral Action Gap: Toward a Phenomenology of Moral Life

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Richard N.; Gantt, Edwin E.

    2012-01-01

    The step-off point for this article is the problem of the "moral judgement-moral action gap" as found in contemporary literature of moral education and moral development. We argue that this gap, and the conceptual problems encountered by attempts to bridge it, reflects the effect of a different, deeper and more problematic conceptual gap: the…

  20. The Evolution of Contractual Morality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Rosas

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Evolutionary explanations of altruism and human cooperation, first set forth by pioneers such as Darwin, Hamilton and Trivers, suggest that biology might be capable of offering a plausible scientific explanation of the core of human morality. According to this project, morality and human cooperation arise when resourcesare scarce; they cannot be exploited by isolated individuals; and individuals cannot maintain a long-term position of domination over others in order to advance their selfish ends. An important philosophical question that arises with respect to this project has to do with the concepts of de morality and moral motivation that itpresupposes. The evolutionary project has not been clear in this respect. The article argues in favor of two theses: 1 evolutionary explanations of cooperation suggest a contractual type of morality, but they are ambiguous regarding the motivations favored by natural selection, thus reflecting, without resolving it, a traditionaldisagreement between Hobbes’s moral contractualism (selfish motivations and that of Kant (altruistic motivations; 2 in their current form, these explanations cannot resolve that disagreement, but a reflection on the role of the capacity to interpret the motivations and character of others in the evolution of morality could provide arguments in favor of Kantian contractualism.

  1. Morality, Moral Luck and Responsibility. Fortune's Web

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Carsten Fogh

    2011-01-01

    Anmeldelse af Nafsika Athanassoulis bog: Morality, Moral Lock and Responsibility (Palgrave MacMillian 2010)......Anmeldelse af Nafsika Athanassoulis bog: Morality, Moral Lock and Responsibility (Palgrave MacMillian 2010)...

  2. Sabbaticals and Employee Motivation: Benefits, Concerns, and Implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carr, Andrew E.; Tang, Thomas Li-Ping

    2005-01-01

    The use of sabbaticals as a means to improve employee motivation and morale is growing rapidly as companies seek ways to retain their star performers and fight the effects of job burnout. In this article, the authors examine the various forms of sabbaticals in diverse industries, the reasons for their use, and the relevant benefits and concerns…

  3. Evolutionary Economics and Moral Relativism - Some Thoughts

    OpenAIRE

    Binder, Martin

    2006-01-01

    Doubts about the decidability of moral questions have often been used as an excuse for economists to eschew any normative propositions. Evolutionary economics, still lacking a well-developed normative branch, gives rise to a form of descriptive moral relativism. This paper wants to explore the consequences of adopting a form of meta-ethical and normative moral relativism as well. It develops a normative position called ‘naturalistic relativism’, which is a naturalistically reconstructed neo-p...

  4. Friendly Home and Inhabitants' Morality: Mutual Relationships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nartova-Bochaver, Sofya K.; Kuznetsova, Valeriya B.

    2018-01-01

    The study is aimed at investigating the connection between the friendliness of the home environment and the moral motives' level. The friendliness of the home environment includes two aspects: the number of functions provided by home (functionality) and the congruence of these functions with inhabitants' needs (relevance). The theoretical framework of the study was formed by research and ideas emphasizing the interplay between people and their environments. We hypothesized that the friendliness of the home environment and inhabitants' moral motives would have a reciprocal relationship: the friendlier the home the higher the inhabitants' moral motives' level, and, vice versa, the higher the person's moral motives' level the more positive home image. The respondents were 550 students (25% male). The Home Environment Functionality Questionnaire, the Home Environment Relevance Questionnaire, and the Moral Motivation Model Scale were used. As expected, it was found that the friendliness of the home environment and the inhabitants' moral motives are in reciprocal synergetic relationships. Relevance formed more nuanced correlation patterns with moral motives than functionality did. Functionality predicted moral motives poorly whereas moral motives predicted functionality strongly. Finally, relevance and moral motives were found to be in mutual relationships whereas the perceived functionality was predicted by moral motives only. PMID:29375450

  5. "The Brick People" by Alejandro Morales, novel and documentary: A story of intercultural (mis)communication

    OpenAIRE

    Lanslots, Inge; Van Hecke, An

    2015-01-01

    "The Brick People" by Alejandro Morales, novel and documentary: A story of intercultural (mis)communication The focus of this study is an analysis of the novel The Brick People published by the Chicano author Alejandro Morales in 1988 and its homonymous documentary film from 2012. Both narrations are based on a true story, namely the lives of Mexican immigrants at the beginning of the twentieth century, who worked as employees in Simons Brickyard in Los Angeles, California. Simons Brickya...

  6. Davčna morala podjetnikov v severovzhodni Sloveniji = Tax Morality of the Entrepreneurs in the Northeastern Slovenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maja Matajic

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Tax morale (ethics includes moral-ethical principles and values of individuals,which have an influence on their decision, whether to paytaxes or not. The first part of the paper indicates the social demographicand social economic factors that have, according to the available research,an influence on the individual’s attitude towards tax morale.The second part of the paper presents and analyses the empirical data,which were collected in the area of the northeastern Slovenia in 2011and deals with measuring the attitude of the entrepreneurs towardstax morale. The analysis reveals relatively low entrepreneurs’ opinionabout tax administration, its employees, and tax legislation. The analysis of the social values’ and norms’ influence on tax morale, however,indicates that social norms and values in northeastern Sloveniaare well developed.

  7. Moral status, justice, and the common morality: challenges for the principlist account of moral change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodges, Kevin E; Sulmasy, Daniel P

    2013-09-01

    The theory of principlism elaborated by Beauchamp and Childress in Principles of Biomedical Ethics has become extremely influential in bioethics. The theory employs the idea of the common morality as a foundation for the principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. According to this account, the content of the common morality is universal and constant, while variability in morals is due to the fact that the issue of who is included within the scope of moral status evolves over time. This suggests that issues of moral status are not part of the common morality at all, and this presents a conundrum: questions of moral status seem central to any substantive account of justice, and any conception of the common morality that excludes moral status therefore seems inadequate for supporting a robust principle of justice. We argue that proponents of common morality theory are left with four options: (1) making moral status a part of the objective common morality and ignoring evidence that views about moral status do seem to vary over time and place; (2) excluding justice from the substantive content of the common morality; (3) taking common morality to be an imperfect approximation of an independently justified and universal foundationalist ethic against which the common morality is judged; or (4) weakening claims about the universality of common morality, thereby allowing the common morality to support a variety of principles of justice applicable only within particular communities that have specified the scope of moral status. We suspect that proponents of common morality theory will not view any of these options favorably, which raises questions about the ultimate contribution of that account.

  8. A subjective utilitarian theory of moral judgment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Dale J; Ahn, Minwoo

    2016-10-01

    Current theories hypothesize that moral judgments are difficult because rational and emotional decision processes compete. We present a fundamentally different theory of moral judgment: the Subjective Utilitarian Theory of moral judgment. The Subjective Utilitarian Theory posits that people try to identify and save the competing item with the greatest "personal value." Moral judgments become difficult only when the competing items have similar personal values. In Experiment 1, we estimate the personal values of 104 items. In Experiments 2-5, we show that the distributional overlaps of the estimated personal values account for over 90% of the variance in reaction times (RTs) and response choices in a moral judgment task. Our model fundamentally restructures our understanding of moral judgments from a competition between decision processes to a competition between similarly valued items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. A cybernetic theory of morality and moral autonomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chambers, J

    2001-04-01

    Human morality may be thought of as a negative feedback control system in which moral rules are reference values, and moral disapproval, blame, and punishment are forms of negative feedback given for violations of the moral rules. In such a system, if moral agents held each other accountable, moral norms would be enforced effectively. However, even a properly functioning social negative feedback system could not explain acts in which individual agents uphold moral rules in the face of contrary social pressure. Dr. Frances Kelsey, who withheld FDA approval for thalidomide against intense social pressure, is an example of the degree of individual moral autonomy possible in a hostile environment. Such extreme moral autonomy is possible only if there is internal, psychological negative feedback, in addition to external, social feedback. Such a cybernetic model of morality and moral autonomy is consistent with certain aspects of classical ethical theories.

  10. Neural basis of moral verdict and moral deliberation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borg, Jana Schaich; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter; Calhoun, Vince D.; Kiehl, Kent A.

    2011-01-01

    How people judge something to be morally right or wrong is a fundamental question of both the sciences and the humanities. Here we aim to identify the neural processes that underlie the specific conclusion that something is morally wrong. To do this, we introduce a novel distinction between “moral deliberation,” or the weighing of moral considerations, and the formation of a “moral verdict,” or the commitment to one moral conclusion. We predict and identify hemodynamic activity in the bilateral anterior insula and basal ganglia that correlates with committing to the moral verdict “this is morally wrong” as opposed to “this is morally not wrong,” a finding that is consistent with research from economic decision-making. Using comparisons of deliberation-locked vs. verdict-locked analyses, we also demonstrate that hemodynamic activity in high-level cortical regions previously implicated in morality—including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and temporoparietal junction—correlates primarily with moral deliberation as opposed to moral verdicts. These findings provide new insights into what types of processes comprise the enterprise of moral judgment, and in doing so point to a framework for resolving why some clinical patients, including psychopaths, may have intact moral judgment but impaired moral behavior. PMID:21590588

  11. Moral foundations and political attitudes: The moderating role of political sophistication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milesi, Patrizia

    2016-08-01

    Political attitudes can be associated with moral concerns. This research investigated whether people's level of political sophistication moderates this association. Based on the Moral Foundations Theory, this article examined whether political sophistication moderates the extent to which reliance on moral foundations, as categories of moral concerns, predicts judgements about policy positions. With this aim, two studies examined four policy positions shown by previous research to be best predicted by the endorsement of Sanctity, that is, the category of moral concerns focused on the preservation of physical and spiritual purity. The results showed that reliance on Sanctity predicted political sophisticates' judgements, as opposed to those of unsophisticates, on policy positions dealing with equal rights for same-sex and unmarried couples and with euthanasia. Political sophistication also interacted with Fairness endorsement, which includes moral concerns for equal treatment of everybody and reciprocity, in predicting judgements about equal rights for unmarried couples, and interacted with reliance on Authority, which includes moral concerns for obedience and respect for traditional authorities, in predicting opposition to stem cell research. Those findings suggest that, at least for these particular issues, endorsement of moral foundations can be associated with political attitudes more strongly among sophisticates than unsophisticates. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

  12. The New Moral Darwinism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rury, John L.

    1986-01-01

    Reviews "Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980" by Charles Murray. Murray believes federal social welfare programs sap the moral fiber of poor Americans by eliminating a negative incentive for them to work at low paying jobs. Criticizes Murray's position, citing the importance of positive as well as negative incentives for…

  13. Could Moral Enhancement Interventions be Medically Indicated?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Sarah

    2017-12-01

    This paper explores the position that moral enhancement interventions could be medically indicated (and so considered therapeutic) in cases where they provide a remedy for a lack of empathy, when such a deficit is considered pathological. In order to argue this claim, the question as to whether a deficit of empathy could be considered to be pathological is examined, taking into account the difficulty of defining illness and disorder generally, and especially in the case of mental health. Following this, Psychopathy and a fictionalised mental disorder (Moral Deficiency Disorder) are explored with a view to consider moral enhancement techniques as possible treatments for both conditions. At this juncture, having asserted and defended the position that moral enhancement interventions could, under certain circumstances, be considered medically indicated, this paper then goes on to briefly explore some of the consequences of this assertion. First, it is acknowledged that this broadening of diagnostic criteria in light of new interventions could fall foul of claims of medicalisation. It is then briefly noted that considering moral enhancement technologies to be akin to therapies in certain circumstances could lead to ethical and legal consequences and questions, such as those regarding regulation, access, and even consent.

  14. Moral competency: meta-competence of nursing care

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zafarnia, Niloofar; Abbaszadeh, Abbas; Borhani, Fariba; Ebadi, Abbas; Nakhaee, Nouzar

    2017-01-01

    Introduction To follow the progress of technology and increasing domain of nurses’ duties, ethical challenges can be observed more than ever. Therefore, the growing and dynamic system of nursing requires nurses with professional and ethical competence who can provide optimal care. The aim of the present study was to define and explain dimensions of moral competency among the clinical nurses of Iran. Methods This qualitative content analysis study was carried out in the years 2014 and 2015 in Iran. Data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews and field notes. The resulting data were analyzed by Graneheim and Lundman’s method of conventional content analysis. The participants were 12 clinical nurses who were selected using purposive convenient sampling and continued interviews until data saturation. Results Themes obtained in the present study were posited in three main categories of “moral character,” with subcategories of altruism, search for meaning, be pioneering, perfectionism, self-control, honesty, and forgiveness; “moral care” with subcategories of dignified care, safe care, fair care, and holistic care; and “moral decision-making” with subcategories of moral sensitivity, moral thinking, moral reasoning, and moral courage. Conclusions Findings of the present study suggest that nurses’ moral competency is an adorable character with a wide range that includes moral virtues and character, moral decision-making, and ultimately providing moral care; therefore, moral competency is a meta-competence in the field of nursing. Because there are many competencies in different fields. PMID:28848630

  15. Urdu translation and validation of shorter version of Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) on Pakistani bank employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhter, Noreen

    2017-10-01

    To translate, adapt and validate shorter version of positive affect and negative affect scale on Pakistani corporate employees. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi from October 2014 to December 2015. The study was completed into two independent parts. In part one, the scale was translated by forward translation. Then it was pilot-tested and administered on customer services employees from commercial banks and the telecommunication sector. Data of the pilot study was analysed by using exploratory factor analysis to extract the initial factor of positive affect and negative affect scale. Part two comprised the main study. Commercial bank employees were included in the sample using convenient sampling technique. Data of the main study was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis in order to establish construct validity of positive affect and negative affect scale. There were145 participants in the first part of the study and 495 in the second. Results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure of positive affect and negative affect scale suggesting that the scale has two distinct domains, i.e. positive affect and negative affect. The shorter version of positive affect and negative affect scale was found to be a valid and reliable measure.

  16. Before Ethics and Morality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prescott, James W.

    1972-01-01

    The effects of sensory deprivation in humans is discussed as well as the need for developing a moral education curriculum designed to rear children in an affectional environment of positive reinforcements. (JB)

  17. Abusive supervision, leader-member exchange and moral disengagement: a moderated-mediation model of organizational deviance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valle, Matthew; Kacmar, K Michele; Zivnuska, Suzanne; Harting, Troy

    2018-04-20

    This paper draws from social exchange theory and social cognitive theory to explore moral disengagement as a potential mediator of the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. We also explore the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on this mediated relationship. Results indicate that employees with abusive supervisors engaged in moral disengagement strategies and subsequently in organizational deviance behaviors. Additionally, this relationship was stronger for those higher in LMX. Important implications for management research and practice are discussed.

  18. BRAIN, EMOTION, AND MORAL JUDGEMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Ting, Fransisca

    2016-01-01

    The dual process theory posits that people relies on their emotion (especially negative emotions) when they are faced with personal moral dilemmas, such as pushing a person off a footbridge in order to stop a trolley that would otherwise kill five people. In an fMRI investigation, the medial frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, and bilateral angular gyrus are more activated in considering a personal moral dilemma, leading them to make a characteristically deontologica...

  19. Performance Indicators: Sickness and Absence Rates as Indicators of Staff Morale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Sandra

    Employee absenteeism is a problem faced by all library and information service managers as it erodes both salary budgets and productivity. It can have an undermining effect on staff morale, and may be an indicator of low staff motivation levels. There are two types of absence, unavoidable and avoidable, which can be measured using lost time and…

  20. Educating Moral Emotions or Moral Selves: A False Dichotomy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kristjansson, Kristjan

    2010-01-01

    In the post-Kohlbergian era of moral education, a "moral gap" has been identified between moral cognition and moral action. Contemporary moral psychologists lock horns over how this gap might be bridged. The two main contenders for such bridge-building are moral emotions and moral selves. I explore these two options from an Aristotelian…

  1. [Assessment of moral competence of physicians].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agurto, Mariela; Tello, Daniel; Elgueta, Alfredo; Larrea, Ricardo; Minaeff, Tamara; Miranda, Alejandro; Parodi, Ezio; Salas, Juan M; Vukusich, Antonio; Llanos, Semiramis; Daza, Pamela; López, Sebastián

    2017-09-01

    Moral competence (MC) in physicians is fundamental, given the increasing complexity of medicine. The "Moral Competence Test" (MCT © Lind) evaluates this feature and its indicator is the C Index (CI). To explore moral competence and its associated factors among physicians working in Chile. The MCT was answered by 236 physicians from two medical centers who voluntarily participated in the study. Besides the test, participants completed an encrypted form giving information about gender, years in practice and post-graduate studies. The average CI value of the participants was 20,9. Post-graduate studies had a significant positive influence on CI. There was a significant decrease in CI, between 16 and 20 years of professional exercise. Gender and the area of post-graduate studies did not have a significant influence. The studied physicians showed a wide range of CI which was positively affected by the postgraduate studies performed. The years of professional practice had a negative influence. Expanding training opportunities during professional practice could have a positive effect on CM as measured by CI.

  2. Aliens Behaving Badly: Children's Acquisition of Novel Purity-Based Morals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rottman, Joshua; Kelemen, Deborah

    2012-01-01

    The traditional cognitive developmental perspective on moral acquisition posits that children actively construct moral beliefs by assessing the negative impacts of antisocial behaviors. This account is not easily applied to actions that are considered immoral despite lacking consequences for others' welfare. We studied the moralization of…

  3. A Kantian ethics approach to moral bioenhancement

    OpenAIRE

    Carter, Sarah

    2017-01-01

    Abstract It seems, at first glance, that a Kantian ethics approach to moral enhancement would tend towards the position that there could be no place for emotional modulation in any understanding of the endeavour, owing to the typically understood view that Kantian ethics does not allow any role for emotion in morality as a whole. It seems then that any account of moral bioenhancement which places emotion at its centre would therefore be rejected. This article argues, however, that this assump...

  4. Moral Communities and Moral Leadership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chambers, David W

    2015-01-01

    The American College of Dentists is embarking on a multiyear project to improve ethics in dentistry. Early indications are that the focus will be on actual moral behavior rather than theory, that we will include organizations as ethical units, and that we will focus on building moral leadership. There is little evidence that the "telling individuals how to behave" approach to ethics is having the hoped-for effect. As a profession, dentistry is based on shared trust. The public level of trust in practitioners is acceptable, but could be improved, and will need to be strengthened to reduce the risk of increasing regulation. While feedback from the way dentists and patients view ethics is generally reassuring, dentists are often at odds with patients and their colleagues over how the profesion manages itself. Individuals are an inconsistent mix of good and bad behavior, and it may be more helpful to make small improvements in the habits of all dentists than to try to take a few certifiably dishonest ones off the street. A computer simulation model of dentistry as a moral community suggests that the profession will always have the proportion of bad actors it will tolerate, that moral leadership is a difficult posture to maintain, that massive interventions to correct imbalances through education or other means will be wasted unless the system as a whole is modified, and that most dentists see no compelling benefit in changing the ethical climate of the profession because they are doing just fine. Considering organiza-tions as loci of moral behavior reveals questionable practices that otherwise remain undetected, including moral distress, fragmentation, fictitious dentists, moral fading, decoupling, responsibility shifting, and moral priming. What is most needed is not phillosophy or principles, but moral leadership.

  5. Learning a commonsense moral theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleiman-Weiner, Max; Saxe, Rebecca; Tenenbaum, Joshua B

    2017-10-01

    We introduce a computational framework for understanding the structure and dynamics of moral learning, with a focus on how people learn to trade off the interests and welfare of different individuals in their social groups and the larger society. We posit a minimal set of cognitive capacities that together can solve this learning problem: (1) an abstract and recursive utility calculus to quantitatively represent welfare trade-offs; (2) hierarchical Bayesian inference to understand the actions and judgments of others; and (3) meta-values for learning by value alignment both externally to the values of others and internally to make moral theories consistent with one's own attachments and feelings. Our model explains how children can build from sparse noisy observations of how a small set of individuals make moral decisions to a broad moral competence, able to support an infinite range of judgments and decisions that generalizes even to people they have never met and situations they have not been in or observed. It also provides insight into the causes and dynamics of moral change across time, including cases when moral change can be rapidly progressive, changing values significantly in just a few generations, and cases when it is likely to move more slowly. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Neural development of mentalizing in moral judgment from adolescence to adulthood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harenski, Carla L; Harenski, Keith A; Shane, Matthew S; Kiehl, Kent A

    2012-01-01

    The neural mechanisms underlying moral judgment have been extensively studied in healthy adults. How these mechanisms evolve from adolescence to adulthood has received less attention. Brain regions that have been consistently implicated in moral judgment in adults, including the superior temporal cortex and prefrontal cortex, undergo extensive developmental changes from adolescence to adulthood. Thus, their role in moral judgment may also change over time. In the present study, 51 healthy male participants age 13–53 were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they viewed pictures that did or did not depict situations considered by most individuals to represent moral violations, and rated their degree of moral violation severity. Consistent with predictions, a regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between age and hemodynamic activity in the temporo-parietal junction when participants made decisions regarding moral severity.This region is known to contribute to mentalizing processes during moral judgment in adults and suggests that adolescents use these types of inferences less during moral judgment than do adults. A positive correlation with age was also present in the posterior cingulate. Overall, the results suggest that the brain regions utilized in moral judgment change over development.

  7. When It's Bad to Be Friendly and Smart: The Desirability of Sociability and Competence Depends on Morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landy, Justin F; Piazza, Jared; Goodwin, Geoffrey P

    2016-09-01

    Morality, sociability, and competence are distinct dimensions in person perception. We argue that a person's morality informs us about their likely intentions, whereas their competence and sociability inform us about the likelihood that they will fulfill those intentions. Accordingly, we hypothesized that whereas morality would be considered unconditionally positive, sociability and competence would be highly positive only in moral others, and would be less positive in immoral others. Using exploratory factor analyses, Studies 1a and 1b distinguished evaluations of morality and sociability. Studies 2 to 5 then showed that sociability and competence are evaluated positively contingent on morality-Study 2 demonstrated this phenomenon, while the remaining studies explained it (Study 3), generalized it (Studies 3-5), and ruled out an alternative explanation for it (Study 5). Study 6 showed that the positivity of morality traits is independent of other morality traits. These results support a functionalist account of these dimensions of person perception. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  8. Relationship between ethical ideology and moral judgment: Academic nurse educators' perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abou Hashish, Ebtsam Aly; Ali Awad, Nadia Hassan

    2017-01-01

    Ascertaining the relationship between ethical ideology, moral judgment, and ethical decision among academic nurse educators at work appears to be a challenge particularly in situations when they are faced with a need to solve an ethical problem and make a moral decision. This study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical ideology, moral judgment, and ethical decision as perceived by academic nurse educators. A descriptive correlational research design was conducted at Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. All academic nurse educators were included in the study (N = 220). Ethical Position Questionnaire and Questionnaire of Moral Judgment and Ethical Decisions were proved reliable to measure study variables. Ethical considerations: Approval was obtained from Ethics Committee at Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. Privacy and confidentiality of data were maintained and assured by obtaining subjects' informed consent. This study reveals a significant positive moderate correlation between idealism construct of ethical ideology and moral judgment in terms of recognition of the behavior as an ethical issue and the magnitude of emotional consequences of the ethical situation (p relativism construct of ethical ideology and overall moral judgment (p = 0.010). Approximately 3.5% of the explained variance of overall moral judgment is predicted by idealism together with relativism. The findings suggest that variations in ethical position and ideology are associated with moral judgment and ethical decision. Organizations of academic nursing education should provide a supportive work environment to help their academic staff to develop their self-awareness and knowledge of their ethical position and promoting their ethical ideologies and, in turn, enhance their moral judgment as well as develop ethical reasoning and decision-making capability of nursing students. More emphasis in nursing curricula is needed on ethical concepts for developing nursing

  9. Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: a study of antecedents and outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detert, James R; Treviño, Linda Klebe; Sweitzer, Vicki L

    2008-03-01

    This article advances understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of moral disengagement by testing hypotheses with 3 waves of survey data from 307 business and education undergraduate students. The authors theorize that 6 individual differences will either increase or decrease moral disengagement, defined as a set of cognitive mechanisms that deactivate moral self-regulatory processes and thereby help to explain why individuals often make unethical decisions without apparent guilt or self-censure (Bandura, 1986). Results support 4 individual difference hypotheses, specifically, that empathy and moral identity are negatively related to moral disengagement, while trait cynicism and chance locus of control orientation are positively related to moral disengagement. Two additional locus of control orientations are not significantly related to moral disengagement. The authors also hypothesize and find that moral disengagement is positively related to unethical decision making. Finally, the authors hypothesize that moral disengagement plays a mediating role between the individual differences they studied and unethical decisions. Their results offer partial support for these mediating hypotheses. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for practice. Copyright 2008 APA

  10. Nietos Morales

    OpenAIRE

    Arriaga

    2015-01-01

    1 Toma en 2 revelados O.I. V. DE GARCIA- Carlota R. 80 años MORALES- Pedro J. 12 años MORALES- Francisco de S. 10 años 6mes. MORALES- Beatriz 09 años Morales- Antonio 07 años MORALES- Manuel 04 años 6mes. MORALES- José 01 año

  11. When ethical leader behavior breaks bad: How ethical leader behavior can turn abusive via ego depletion and moral licensing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Szu-Han Joanna; Ma, Jingjing; Johnson, Russell E

    2016-06-01

    The literature to date has predominantly focused on the benefits of ethical leader behaviors for recipients (e.g., employees and teams). Adopting an actor-centric perspective, in this study we examined whether exhibiting ethical leader behaviors may come at some cost to leaders. Drawing from ego depletion and moral licensing theories, we explored the potential challenges of ethical leader behavior for actors. Across 2 studies which employed multiwave designs that tracked behaviors over consecutive days, we found that leaders' displays of ethical behavior were positively associated with increases in abusive behavior the following day. This association was mediated by increases in depletion and moral credits owing to their earlier displays of ethical behavior. These results suggest that attention is needed to balance the benefits of ethical leader behaviors for recipients against the challenges that such behaviors pose for actors, which include feelings of mental fatigue and psychological license and ultimately abusive interpersonal behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. On Moral Luck and Nonideal Moral Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chinnery, Ann

    2015-01-01

    In contrast to the Kantian principle that we are morally accountable only for those actions over which we have control, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, and others have argued that luck plays a significant role in the moral life. Put briefly, moral luck is at play when we are appropriately praised or blamed for our moral actions despite the fact…

  13. Does Employee Safety Matter for Patients Too? Employee Safety Climate and Patient Safety Culture in Health Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohr, David C; Eaton, Jennifer Lipkowitz; McPhaul, Kathleen M; Hodgson, Michael J

    2015-04-22

    We examined relationships between employee safety climate and patient safety culture. Because employee safety may be a precondition for the development of patient safety, we hypothesized that employee safety culture would be strongly and positively related to patient safety culture. An employee safety climate survey was administered in 2010 and assessed employees' views and experiences of safety for employees. The patient safety survey administered in 2011 assessed the safety culture for patients. We performed Pearson correlations and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationships between a composite measure of employee safety with subdimensions of patient safety culture. The regression models controlled for size, geographic characteristics, and teaching affiliation. Analyses were conducted at the group level using data from 132 medical centers. Higher employee safety climate composite scores were positively associated with all 9 patient safety culture measures examined. Standardized multivariate regression coefficients ranged from 0.44 to 0.64. Medical facilities where staff have more positive perceptions of health care workplace safety climate tended to have more positive assessments of patient safety culture. This suggests that patient safety culture and employee safety climate could be mutually reinforcing, such that investments and improvements in one domain positively impacts the other. Further research is needed to better understand the nexus between health care employee and patient safety to generalize and act upon findings.

  14. Online processing of moral transgressions: ERP evidence for spontaneous evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leuthold, Hartmut; Kunkel, Angelika; Mackenzie, Ian G; Filik, Ruth

    2015-08-01

    Experimental studies using fictional moral dilemmas indicate that both automatic emotional processes and controlled cognitive processes contribute to moral judgments. However, not much is known about how people process socio-normative violations that are more common to their everyday life nor the time-course of these processes. Thus, we recorded participants' electrical brain activity while they were reading vignettes that either contained morally acceptable vs unacceptable information or text materials that contained information which was either consistent or inconsistent with their general world knowledge. A first event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity peaking at ∼200 ms after critical word onset (P200) was larger when this word involved a socio-normative or knowledge-based violation. Subsequently, knowledge-inconsistent words triggered a larger centroparietal ERP negativity at ∼320 ms (N400), indicating an influence on meaning construction. In contrast, a larger ERP positivity (larger late positivity), which also started at ∼320 ms after critical word onset, was elicited by morally unacceptable compared with acceptable words. We take this ERP positivity to reflect an implicit evaluative (good-bad) categorization process that is engaged during the online processing of moral transgressions. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Moral values are associated with individual differences in regional brain volume.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Gary J; Kanai, Ryota; Bates, Timothy C; Rees, Geraint

    2012-08-01

    Moral sentiment has been hypothesized to reflect evolved adaptations to social living. If so, individual differences in moral values may relate to regional variation in brain structure. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 70 young, healthy adults examining whether differences on two major dimensions of moral values were significantly associated with regional gray matter volume. The two clusters of moral values assessed were "individualizing" (values of harm/care and fairness) and "binding" (deference to authority, in-group loyalty, and purity/sanctity). Individualizing was positively associated with left dorsomedial pFC volume and negatively associated with bilateral precuneus volume. For binding, a significant positive association was found for bilateral subcallosal gyrus and a trend to significance for the left anterior insula volume. These findings demonstrate that variation in moral sentiment reflects individual differences in brain structure and suggest a biological basis for moral sentiment, distributed across multiple brain regions.

  16. DILEMAS MORALES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Realpe Quintero

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available Antes del siglo XX la tradición filosófica moral ha reconocido la existencia de los conflictos morales pero ha rechazado la posibilidad de los auténticos dilemas morales. Para poder entender por qué hoy el tema de los dilemas morales ha reclamado para sí tanta atención, es importante ponernos de acuerdo en la definición de algunos conceptos. Un conflicto moral es una situación en la que un(a agente se ve confrontado(a con dos obligaciones morales que le instan a actuar. Un dilema moral es una situación extrema de conflicto moral en la que nuestro(a agente no puede seguir un curso de acción que sea conforme con sus dos obligaciones en conflicto. Para que un conflicto moral tenga el carácter de ser un auténtico dilema moral (genuine moral dilemma y no simplemente un aparente dilema moral (apparent moral di- DILEMAS MORALES SANDRA REALPE Licenciada en Filosofía, Univalle, Maestría en Filosofía, Univalle, Diplomado en Psicología Aplicada, Universidad de Londres, Diplomado en Etica de los Negocios Universidad de Colorado, profesora Universidad Icesi, Facultad de Derecho y Humanidades. E-mail: sandrarealpe@hotmail.com lemma, ninguna de las obligaciones en conflicto es en efecto más fuerte o logra invalidar a la otra obligación. A raíz de un artículo escrito en 1962 por E. J. Lemmon, titulado precisamente “Dilemas morales” (Moral Dilemmas, se abrió un debate entre los filósofos anglosajones contemporáneos acerca de la existencia o no de los auténticos dilemas morales. Informar sobre este debate reciente, esclarecer los argumentos de sus principales protagonistas, y hacer presente en nuestro medio un novedoso debate que es importante para reflexionar sobre un buen número de problemas morales, son nuestros principales propósitos en el presente ensayo. ...

  17. Morality is real, objective, and supernatural.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Christian B

    2016-11-01

    The goal of this paper is to briefly introduce and defend the idea that God is the source of our moral obligations. In contrast to Michael Shermer's paper, which defends a naturalistic position about the foundations of morality, this approach is explicitly supernaturalistic. The paper begins by defining how "God" will be understood, and then spells out some of the details of how, on the proposed view, moral obligations are to depend upon God. The third section briefly reviews some of the leading arguments for this view, before the paper concludes with a discussion of the Euthyphro dilemma. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

  18. An analysis of the relation between employee-organization value congruence and employee attitudes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amos, Elizabeth A; Weathington, Bart L

    2008-11-01

    Researchers have examined the fit or match between a person and an organization extensively in the empirical literature. Overall findings have supported the existence of a positive relation between the congruence of employee and organizational values with employee attitudes toward the organization. However, this relation is not fully understood, and more research is needed to understand the relation between the congruence of different value dimensions and multiple employee attitudes. Therefore, the authors aimed to analyze value congruence across 7 dimensions and its relation to (a) job satisfaction, (b) organizational commitment, (c) satisfaction with the organization as a whole, and (d) turnover intentions. The results suggest that the perceived congruence of employee-organizational values by employees is positively associated with satisfaction with the job and organization as a whole and employee commitment to the organization. The results also support a negative relation between value congruence and employee turnover intentions.

  19. Personal Costs and Benefits of Employee Intrapreneurship: Disentangling the Employee Intrapreneurship, Well-Being, and Job Performance Relationship.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gawke, Jason C; Gorgievski, Marjan J; Bakker, Arnold B

    2017-12-28

    Ample studies have confirmed the benefits of intrapreneurship (i.e., employee behaviors that contribute to new venture creation and strategic renewal activities) for firm performance, but research on the personal costs and benefits of engaging in intrapreneurial activities for employees is lacking. Building on job demands-resources and reinforcement sensitivity theories, we examined how employees' reinforcement sensitivity qualified the relationship among their intrapreneurial behavior, subjective well-being, and other-rated job performance. Using a sample of 241 employee dyads, the results of moderated mediation analyses confirmed that employee intrapreneurship related positively to work engagement for employees high (vs. low) in sensitivity to rewards (behavioral approach system), which subsequently related positively to innovativeness and in-role performance and negatively to work avoidance. In contrast, employee intrapreneurship related positively to exhaustion for employees high (vs. low) in sensitivity to punishments (behavioral inhibition system), which subsequently related positively to work avoidance and negatively to in-role performance (but not to innovativeness). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. Personal factors of moral responsibility in adolescence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergey V. Molchanov

    2017-12-01

    and the nature of the consequences (damage or profit to the participant of the dilemma on the adolescents’ willingness to accept moral responsibility, as well as the role of moral value orientation in the principle of care and moral self-esteem. It was revealed that the self-esteem of such moral qualities as responsibility, honesty, responsiveness, caring is higher in adolescents, showing a high willingness to accept moral responsibility in a moral dilemma. Moral identity is proved to be a desire to maintain a high positive self-esteem of moral qualities according to the accepted system of values develops the basis of the normative moral self-regulation of the individual.

  1. Comparison of Positive Character Strengths in Employees with Healthy and Unhealthy Occupational Stress Coping Styles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    simin dokht kalani

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to compare the protective and interpersonal strengths as positive personality traits in employees with healthy (G: good health pattern, S: sparing pattern and unhealthy (A: ambitious pattern, B: burnout pattern job stress coping styles. Therefore, 146 employees of an industrial organization in Mashhad were selected by stratified random sampling and asked to respond to research tools. The instruments were the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths from Peterson & Seligman and Work-related Behavior and Experience Patterns Questionnaire from Schaarschmidt & Fischer. The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that employees with healthy coping styles had higher means of protective and interpersonal strengths than unhealthy subjects. These findings open a new field for research on the role of personality in coping with work-related stress. Character strengths are trainable personal characteristics. Therefore, they are valuable resources to improve coping with work-related stress and to decreasing its negative effects.

  2. THE EFFECT OF EMPOWERMENT, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT TOWARDS PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENTAL-EMPLOYEES OF FINANCIAL-MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liz Zeny Merry

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The objectives of this research are to study the influence of empowerment, employee engagement, and organizational commitment on a performance of the financial management staffs at Riau Islands Provincial Government. Quantitative approach used in this research with survey method. The samples of this research were 230 staffs selected randomly. The data were obtained by distributing questionnaire and analyzed by using path analysis. The results of research shows that: (1 empowerment, employee engagement and organizational commitment had a positive direct effect on employee performance; (2 empowerment and employee engagement had a positive direct effect on organizational commitment; (3 empowerment have a positive direct effect on employee engagement. The research findings recommend to improve employee performance by improving empowerment, employee engagement and organizational commitment of the financial management staff at Riau Island Provincial Government

  3. Reactions of older employees to organizational downsizing: the role of gender, job level, and time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong-Stassen, M

    2001-07-01

    This panel study examined the reactions of 187 federal government employees aged 45 and older during the initial phase of a large-scale downsizing and 20 months later. There were few significant differences in the reactions of older men and women. Respondents in management positions reported significantly more positive attitudes toward their job and the organization than did respondents in nonmanagement jobs. Compared with the initial phase of the downsizing, respondents reported a significant decrease in commitment to the organization 20 months later. For the two dimensions of job insecurity, perceived threat of job loss decreased, whereas sense of powerlessness over decisions affecting the future of one's job increased. A major area of concern for management is the low level of organizational trust and morale reported by the respondents at both time periods.

  4. Children's moral judgments and moral emotions following exclusion of children with disabilities: relations with inclusive education, age, and contact intensity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gasser, Luciano; Malti, Tina; Buholzer, Alois

    2013-03-01

    We investigated relations between children's moral judgments and moral emotions following disability-based exclusion and inclusive education, age, and contact intensity. Nine- and 12-year-old Swiss children (N=351) from inclusive and noninclusive classrooms provided moral judgments and moral emotion attributions following six vignettes about social exclusion of children with disabilities. Children also reported on their level of sympathy towards children with disabilities and their contact intensity with children with disabilities. Overall, children condemned disability-based exclusion, attributed few positive emotions to excluder targets, and expressed high sympathy for children with disabilities, independent of age and educational setting. However, younger children from inclusive classrooms exhibited more moral judgments and moral emotions than younger children from noninclusive classrooms. Moreover, children who expressed high sympathy towards children with disabilities were more likely to report frequent contact with children with disabilities. The findings extend existing research on social exclusion by examining disability-based exclusion and are discussed with respect to developmental research on social and moral judgments and emotions following children's inclusion and exclusion decisions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Real-time elicitation of moral emotions using a prejudice paradigm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melike Marethe Fourie

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Moral emotions are critically important in guiding appropriate social conduct. Empirical investigation of these emotions remains a challenge, however, because of the difficulty in eliciting them reliably in controlled settings. Here we describe a novel prejudice paradigm that aimed to elicit both negatively- and positively-valenced moral emotions in real-time. Low-prejudice females (N = 46 who met highly specific demographic and personality-based screening criteria completed a series of Implicit Association Tests (IATs. Feedback following these IATs was pre-programmed to either endorse participants’ nonprejudiced self-standards (positive condition, or to contradict their self-standards (negative condition, in response to sensitive social topics. Neutral condition IATs reflected participants’ attitudes toward non-sensitive social topics. Results demonstrated that the IATs were successful in eliciting moral-positive emotions (satisfaction and pride, and moral-negative emotions (primarily guilt. In addition, participants high in self-reported punishment sensitivity, as assessed by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS scale, reported greater guilt.

  6. Real-time elicitation of moral emotions using a prejudice paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fourie, Melike M; Kilchenmann, Nadine; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Thomas, Kevin G F

    2012-01-01

    Moral emotions are critically important in guiding appropriate social conduct. Empirical investigation of these emotions remains a challenge, however, because of the difficulty in eliciting them reliably in controlled settings. Here we describe a novel prejudice paradigm that aimed to elicit both negatively and positively valenced moral emotions in real-time. Low-prejudice females (N = 46) who met highly specific demographic and personality-based screening criteria completed a series of Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Feedback following these IATs was pre-programmed to either endorse participants' non-prejudiced self-standards (positive condition), or to contradict their self-standards (negative condition), in response to sensitive social topics. Neutral condition IATs reflected participants' attitudes toward non-sensitive social topics. Results demonstrated that the IATs were successful in eliciting moral-positive emotions (satisfaction and pride) and moral-negative emotions (primarily guilt). In addition, participants high in self-reported punishment sensitivity, as assessed by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) scale, reported greater guilt.

  7. Real-Time Elicitation of Moral Emotions Using a Prejudice Paradigm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fourie, Melike M.; Kilchenmann, Nadine; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Thomas, Kevin G. F. 

    2012-01-01

    Moral emotions are critically important in guiding appropriate social conduct. Empirical investigation of these emotions remains a challenge, however, because of the difficulty in eliciting them reliably in controlled settings. Here we describe a novel prejudice paradigm that aimed to elicit both negatively and positively valenced moral emotions in real-time. Low-prejudice females (N = 46) who met highly specific demographic and personality-based screening criteria completed a series of Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Feedback following these IATs was pre-programmed to either endorse participants’ non-prejudiced self-standards (positive condition), or to contradict their self-standards (negative condition), in response to sensitive social topics. Neutral condition IATs reflected participants’ attitudes toward non-sensitive social topics. Results demonstrated that the IATs were successful in eliciting moral-positive emotions (satisfaction and pride) and moral-negative emotions (primarily guilt). In addition, participants high in self-reported punishment sensitivity, as assessed by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) scale, reported greater guilt. PMID:22888322

  8. Sickness absence, moral hazard, and the business cycle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pichler, Stefan

    2015-06-01

    The procyclical nature of sickness absence has been documented by many scholars in literature. So far, explanations have been based on labor force composition and reduced moral hazard caused by fear of job loss during recessions. In this paper, we propose and test a third mechanism caused by reduced moral hazard during booms and infections. We suggest that the workload is higher during economic booms and thus employees have to go to work despite being sick. In a theoretical model focusing on infectious diseases, we show that this will provoke infections of coworkers leading to overall higher sickness absence during economic upturns. Using state-level aggregated data from 112 German public health insurance funds (out of 145 in total), we find that sickness absence due to infectious diseases shows the largest procyclical pattern, as predicted by our theoretical model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  9. Construal levels and moral judgment: Some complications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Han Gong

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Eyal, T., Liberman, N., and Trope, Y., (2008. Judging near and distant virtue and vice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1204-1209, explored how psychological distance influences moral judgment and found that more extreme moral appraisals were given to distal behaviors rather than proximal behaviors. Contrary to Eyal et al., the current paper presents converging evidence showing that moral judgments become more extreme at lower-level construals compared to higher-level construals. In four experiments using two different priming techniques, we manipulated construal levels and assessed their effects on moral judgment. High-level consturals elicited less moral outrage toward transgressions and less positive ratings of virtuous behaviors than low-level construals. A replication study was also conducted to reconcile the inconsistencies between the current results and those of Eyal et al. Possible explanations for the different results between two studies are discussed.

  10. Kohlberg and Piaget on Stages and Moral Reasoning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpendale, Jeremy I. M.

    2000-01-01

    Maintains that although Kohlberg emphasized the importance of perspective taking in moral reasoning, his view of developmental stages is inconsistent with this position. Argues that a modification of Kohlberg's conception of stages drawing on Piagetian theory would result in a view of moral reasoning as a process of coordinating all perspectives…

  11. Promoting Prosociality: Testing the Potential of Moral Elevation and Moral Outrage

    OpenAIRE

    Van de Vyver, Julie

    2016-01-01

    This thesis examines the effects of two specific moral emotions - moral elevation (experienced when witnessing a moral virtue) and moral outrage (experienced when witnessing a moral transgression) - on prosociality. While ample research has examined emotions such as sympathy and guilt, much less is known about moral elevation and moral outrage. Yet, their separate strands of research suggest that both moral elevation and moral outrage are promising emotions for promoting prosocial responses. ...

  12. Navigating moral distress using the moral distress map.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudzinski, Denise Marie

    2016-05-01

    The plethora of literature on moral distress has substantiated and refined the concept, provided data about clinicians' (especially nurses') experiences, and offered advice for coping. Fewer scholars have explored what makes moral distress moral If we acknowledge that patient care can be distressing in the best of ethical circumstances, then differentiating distress and moral distress may refine the array of actions that are likely to ameliorate it. This article builds upon scholarship exploring the normative and conceptual dimensions of moral distress and introduces a new tool to map moral distress from emotional source to corrective actions. The Moral Distress Map has proven useful in clinical teaching and ethics-related debriefings. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  13. Moral Philosophy, Moral Expertise, and the Argument from Disagreement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, Ben

    2016-03-01

    Several recent articles have weighed in on the question of whether moral philosophers can be counted as moral experts. One argument denying this has been rejected by both sides of the debate. According to this argument, the extent of disagreement in modern moral philosophy prevents moral philosophers from being classified as moral experts. Call this the Argument From Disagreement (AD). In this article, I defend a version of AD. Insofar as practical issues in moral philosophy are characterized by disagreement between moral philosophers who are more or less equally well credentialed on the issue, non-philosophers have no good reasons to defer to their views. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Moral Psychology and the Problem of Moral Criteria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Welch, Patrick

    2011-01-01

    This article is intended as an initial investigation into the foundations of moral psychology. I primarily examine a recent work in moral education, Daniel Lapsley's and Darcia Narvaez"s "Character education", whose authors seem to assume at points that criteria for discerning moral actions and moral traits can be derived apart from ethics or…

  15. The moral problem of worse actors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scott Wisor

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Individuals and institutions sometimes have morally stringent reasons to not do a given action. For example, an oil company might have morally stringent reasons to refrain from providing revenue to a genocidal regime, or an engineer might have morally stringent reasons to refrain from providing her expertise in the development of weapons of mass destruction. But in some cases, if the agent does not do the action, another actor will do it with much worse consequences. For example, the oil company might know their assets will be bought by a company with worse environmental and labor practices. Or the engineer might know her position will be filled by a more ambitious and amoral engineer. I call this the moral problem of worse actors (MPWA. MPWA gives reason, at least some of the time, to consider otherwise morally impermissible actions permissible or even obligatory. On my account, doing the action in the circumstances of MPWA remains morally objectionable even if permissible or obligatory, and this brings additional moral responsibilities and obligations to the actor. Similarly, not doing the action in the circumstances of MPWA may also bring additional (but different moral responsibilities and obligations. Acknowledging MPWA creates considerable challenges, as many bad actors may appeal to it to justify morally objectionable action. In this paper, I develop a set of strategies for individuals and institutions to handle MPWA. This includes appeals to integrity and the proper attribution of expressive responsibility, regulatory responsibility, and compensatory responsibility. I also address a set of related concerns, including worries about incentivizing would-be bad actors, concerns about epistemic uncertainty, and the problem of mala in se exceptions.

  16. Perceived organizational support and moral distress among nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robaee, Navideh; Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, Foroozan; Ashktorab, Tahereh; Baghestani, Ahmadreza; Barkhordari-Sharifabad, Maasoumeh

    2018-01-01

    Moral distress is prevalent in the health care environment at different levels. Nurses in all roles and positions are exposed to ethically challenging conditions. Development of supportive climates in organizations may drive nurses towards coping moral distress and other related factors. This study aimed at determining the level of perceived organizational support and moral distress among nurses and investigating the relationship between the two variables. This was a correlational-descriptive study. A total of 120 nurses were selected using random quota sampling method. A demographic questionnaire, Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, and Moral Distress Scale were used to collect the data which were analyzed using descriptive and analytical tests in SPSS20. The mean perceived organizational support was low (2.63 ± 0.79). The mean moral distress was 2.19 ± 0.58, which shows a high level of moral distress. Moreover, Statistical analysis showed no significant relationship between perceived organizational support and moral distress ( r  = 0.01, p  = 0.86). Given the low level of perceived organizational support and high moral distress among nurses in this study, it is necessary to provide a supportive environment in hospitals and to consider strategies for diminishing moral distress.

  17. Health programmes for school employees: improving quality of life, health and productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolbe, Lloyd J; Tirozzi, Gerald N; Marx, Eva; Bobbitt-Cooke, Mary; Riedel, Sara; Jones, Jack; Schmoyer, Michael

    2005-01-01

    School health programmes in the 21st century could include eight components: 1) health services; 2) health education; 3) healthy physical and psychosocial environments; 4) psychological, counselling, and social services; 5) physical education and other physical activities; 6) healthy food services; and 7) integrated efforts of schools, families, and communities to improve the health of school students and employees. The eighth component of modern school health programmes, health programmes for school employees, is the focus of this article. Health programmes for school employees could be designed to increase the recruitment, retention, and productivity of school employees by partially focusing each of the preceding seven components of the school health programme on improving the health and quality of life of school employees as well as students. Thus, efforts to improve the quality of life, health, and productivity of school employees may be distinct from, but integrated with, efforts to improve the quality of life, health, and education of students. School employee health programmes can improve employee: 1) recruitment; 2) morale; 3) retention; and 4) productivity. They can reduce employee: 5) risk behaviours (e.g., physical inactivity); 6) risk factors (e.g., stress, obesity, high blood pressure); (7) illnesses; 8) work-related injuries; 9) absentee days; 10) worker compensation and disability claims; and 11) health care and health insurance costs. Further, if we hope to improve our schools' performance and raise student achievement levels, developing effective school employee health programmes can increase the likelihood that employees will: 12) serve as healthy role models for students; 13) implement effective school health programmes for students; and 14) present a positive image of the school to the community. If we are to improve the quality of life, health, and productivity of school employees in the 21st century: school administrators, employees, and

  18. Moral Judgment Reloaded: A Moral Dilemma validation study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia F. Christensen

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available We propose a revised set of moral dilemmas for studies on moral judgment. We selected a total of 46 moral dilemmas available in the literature and fine-tuned them in terms of four conceptual factors (Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, Evitability and Intention and methodological aspects of the dilemma formulation (word count, expression style, question formats that have been shown to influence moral judgment. Second, we obtained normative codings of arousal and valence for each dilemma showing that emotional arousal in response to moral dilemmas depends crucially on the factors Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, and Intentionality. Third, we validated the dilemma set confirming that people's moral judgment is sensitive to all four conceptual factors, and to their interactions. Results are discussed in the context of this field of research, outlining also the relevance of our RT effects for the Dual Process account of moral judgment. Finally, we suggest tentative theoretical avenues for future testing, particularly stressing the importance of the factor Intentionality in moral judgment. Additionally, due to the importance of cross-cultural studies in the quest for universals in human moral cognition, we provide the new set dilemmas in six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan and Danish. The norming values provided here refer to the Spanish dilemma set.

  19. Moral judgment reloaded: a moral dilemma validation study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christensen, Julia F.; Flexas, Albert; Calabrese, Margareta; Gut, Nadine K.; Gomila, Antoni

    2014-01-01

    We propose a revised set of moral dilemmas for studies on moral judgment. We selected a total of 46 moral dilemmas available in the literature and fine-tuned them in terms of four conceptual factors (Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, Evitability, and Intention) and methodological aspects of the dilemma formulation (word count, expression style, question formats) that have been shown to influence moral judgment. Second, we obtained normative codings of arousal and valence for each dilemma showing that emotional arousal in response to moral dilemmas depends crucially on the factors Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, and Intentionality. Third, we validated the dilemma set confirming that people's moral judgment is sensitive to all four conceptual factors, and to their interactions. Results are discussed in the context of this field of research, outlining also the relevance of our RT effects for the Dual Process account of moral judgment. Finally, we suggest tentative theoretical avenues for future testing, particularly stressing the importance of the factor Intentionality in moral judgment. Additionally, due to the importance of cross-cultural studies in the quest for universals in human moral cognition, we provide the new set dilemmas in six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, and Danish). The norming values provided here refer to the Spanish dilemma set. PMID:25071621

  20. The normativity of clinical health care: perspectives on moral realism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nortvedt, Per

    2012-06-01

    The paper argues that a particular version of moral realism constitutes an important basis for ethics in medicine and health care. Moral realism is the position that moral value is a part of the fabric of relational and interpersonal reality. But even though moral values are subject to human interpretations, they are not themselves the sole product of these interpretations. Moral values are not invented but discovered by the subject. Moral realism argues that values are open to perception and experience and that moral subjectivity must be portrayed in how moral values are discovered and perceived by the human subject. Moral values may exist independent of the particular subject's interpretative evaluations as a part of reality. This epistemological point about normativity is particularly significant in medical care and in health care. The clinician perceives moral value in the clinical encounter in a way that is important for competent clinical understanding. Clinical understanding in medical care and health care bears on the encounter with moral values in the direct and embodied relations to patients, with their experiences of illness and their vulnerabilities. Good clinical care is then partly conditioned upon adequate understanding of such moral realities.

  1. Psychopathic Traits and Moral Disengagement Interact to Predict Bullying and Cyberbullying Among Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orue, Izaskun; Calvete, Esther

    2016-07-01

    The aim of this study was to test a model in which psychopathic traits (callous-unemotional, grandiose-manipulative, and impulsive-irresponsible) and moral disengagement individually and interactively predict two types of bullying (traditional and cyberbullying) in a community sample of adolescents. A total of 765 adolescents (464 girls and 301 boys) completed measures of moral disengagement and psychopathic traits at Time 1, and measures of bullying and cyberbullying at Time 1 and 1 year later, at Time 2. The results showed that callous-unemotional traits predicted both traditional bullying and cyberbullying, grandiose-manipulative and impulsive-irresponsible traits only predicted traditional bullying, and moral disengagement only predicted cyberbullying. Callous-Unemotional Traits × Moral Disengagement and Grandiose-Manipulative × Moral Disengagement were significantly correlated with the residual change in cyberbullying. Callous-unemotional traits were positively related to cyberbullying at high levels of moral disengagement but not when moral disengagement was low. In contrast, grandiose-manipulative traits were positively related to cyberbullying at low levels of moral disengagement but not when moral disengagement was high. These findings have implications for both prevention and intervention. Integrative approaches that promote moral growth are needed, including a deeper understanding of why bullying is morally wrong and ways to stimulate personality traits that counteract psychopathic traits.

  2. Why moral philosophers are not and should not be moral experts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Archard, David

    2011-03-01

    Professional philosophers are members of bioethical committees and regulatory bodies in areas of interest to bioethicists. This suggests they possess moral expertise even if they do not exercise it directly and without constraint. Moral expertise is defined, and four arguments given in support of scepticism about their possession of such expertise are considered and rejected: the existence of extreme disagreement between moral philosophers about moral matters; the lack of a means clearly to identify moral experts; that expertise cannot be claimed in that which lacks objectivity; and that ordinary people do not follow the advice of moral experts. I offer a better reason for scepticism grounded in the relation between moral philosophy and common-sense morality: namely that modern moral philosophy views even a developed moral theory as ultimately anchored in common-sense morality, that set of basic moral precepts which ordinary individuals have command of and use to regulate their own lives. Even if moral philosophers do nevertheless have a limited moral expertise, in that they alone can fully develop a set of moral judgments, I sketch reasons - grounded in the values of autonomy and of democracy - why moral philosophers should not wish non-philosophers to defer to their putative expertise. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  3. Positive organisation :|bthe role of leader behaviour in employee engagement and retention / Fallen Mendes.

    OpenAIRE

    Mendes, Fallen

    2010-01-01

    Organisations are constantly undergoing major changes. These changes can have negative consequences on organisational functioning and employee well-being. It is therefore vital for organisations to focus on the elements of a healthy organisation so that a positive organisation can be built and the negative consequences avoided. A healthy organisation pays attention to six intenelated dimensions namely; organisational attributes, organizational climate, job design, job future, psychological w...

  4. Le relativisme moral et le projet de coopération épistémique

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    François Schroeter

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Cet article examine de façon critique certaines des récentes tentatives de défendre une position relativiste en métaéthique. Les adeptes du relativisme ont tenté avec beaucoup d’ingéniosité de montrer comment leur position peut soit accepter soit invalider l’intuition selon laquelle nous parlons tous de la même chose quand nous utilisons le vocabulaire moral. Mon argument cherche à établir qu’ils ont ce faisant négligé l’une des fonctions centrales de notre discours moral : créer un forum favorisant la coopération épistémique dans le but de résoudre nos questions morales.This paper critically examines some of the most important recent attempts to defend a relativist position in metaethics. Proponents of moral relativism have made sophisticated attempts to show that their position can either accommodate or invalidate our commonsense intuition that we are all talking about the same thing when we use moral language. I argue that they have thereby neglected one of the most central functions of our moral discourse : creating a forum for epistemic cooperation in resolving moral questions.

  5. What Has Morality to Do with Religious Education?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnes, L. Philip

    2011-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to provide a positive case for increasing the role and importance of religious morality within the subject of religious education in British schools. The argument is structured in the following way. First, attention is given to the diminished role accorded to moral education within religious education that followed the…

  6. Designing workload analysis questionnaire to evaluate needs of employees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astuti, Rahmaniyah Dwi; Navi, Muhammad Abdu Haq

    2018-02-01

    Incompatibility between workload with work capacity is one of main problem to make optimal result. In case at the office, there are constraints to determine workload because of non-repetitive works. Employees do work based on the targets set in a working period. At the end of the period is usually performed an evaluation of employees performance to evaluate needs of employees. The aims of this study to design a workload questionnaire tools to evaluate the efficiency level of position as indicator to determine needs of employees based on the Indonesian State Employment Agency Regulation on workload analysis. This research is applied to State-Owned Enterprise PT. X by determining 3 positions as a pilot project. Position A is held by 2 employees, position B is held by 7 employees, and position C is held by 6 employees. From the calculation result, position A has an efficiency level of 1,33 or "very good", position B has an efficiency level of 1.71 or "enough", and position C has an efficiency level of 1.03 or "very good". The application of this tools giving suggestion the needs of employees of position A is 3 people, position B is 5 people, and position C is 6 people. The difference between the number of employees and the calculation result is then analyzed by interviewing the employees to get more data about personal perception. It can be concluded that this workload evaluation tools can be used as an alternative solution to evaluate needs of employees in office.

  7. Moral Geography and Exploration of the Moral Possibility Space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bongrae Seok

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This article reviews Owen Flanagan’s latest book “The Geography of Morals, Varieties of Moral Possibilities” (2017. By exploring the space of moral possibility (i.e., diverse options and viewpoints of morality from different philosophical and religious traditions throughout the world, Flanagan argues that ethics is not simply a study of a priori conditions of normative rules and ideal values but a process of developing a careful understanding of varying conditions of human ecology and building practical views on living good life. The goal of this geographical exploration of the moral possibility space is surveying different traditions of morality and finding tractable ways of human flourishing. This article, by following the chapters of his book, explains his views on moral diversity and his interdisciplinary and naturalistic approach to ethics. It also discusses interactive and dynamic ways to expand the moral possibility space.

  8. MacIntyre's Moral Theory and Moral Relativism

    OpenAIRE

    Ali Abedi Renani

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, I seek to explain the similarity and disparity between MacIntyre’s moral theory and moral relativism. I will argue that MacIntyre’s moral theory can escape the charge of moral relativism because both his earlier social and his later metaphysical approaches appeal to some criteria, the human telos or universal human qualities respectively. The notion of telos is wider than the notion of function which is defined in social contexts. If there is a context-transcending notion of te...

  9. Individual Differences in Moral Development: Does Intelligence Really Affect Children's Moral Reasoning and Moral Emotions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beißert, Hanna M; Hasselhorn, Marcus

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between intelligence and individual differences in children's moral development across a range of different moral transgressions. Taking up prior research that showed morality and intelligence to be related in adolescents and adults, the current study wants to test if these findings can be extended to younger children. The study was designed to address some of the shortcomings in prior research by examining young children aged between 6 years; 4 months and 8 years; 10 months, using a broad concept of moral development including emotional aspects and applying an approach that is closely connected to children's daily lives. Participants ( N = 129) completed a standardized intelligence test and were presented four moral transgression stories to assess moral development. Results demonstrated that findings from prior research with adolescents or adults cannot simply be extended to younger participants. No significant correlations of moral development and intelligence were found for any of the presented stories. This provides first evidence that - at least in middle childhood - moral developmental status seems to be independent from children's general intelligence assessed by figural inductive reasoning tests.

  10. Moral sensitivity and moral distress in Iranian critical care nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borhani, Fariba; Abbaszadeh, Abbas; Mohamadi, Elham; Ghasemi, Erfan; Hoseinabad-Farahani, Mohammad Javad

    2017-06-01

    Moral sensitivity is the foremost prerequisite to ethical performance; a review of literature shows that nurses are sometimes not sensitive enough for a variety of reasons. Moral distress is a frequent phenomenon in nursing, which may result in paradoxes in care, dealing with patients and rendering high-quality care. This may, in turn, hinder the meeting of care objectives, thus affecting social healthcare standards. The present research was conducted to determine the relationship between moral sensitivity and moral distress of nurses in intensive care units. This study is a descriptive-correlation research. Lutzen's moral sensitivity questionnaire and Corley Moral Distress Questionnaire were used to gather data. Participants and research context: A total of 153 qualified nurses working in the hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were selected for this study. Subjects were selected by census method. Ethical considerations: After explaining the objectives of the study, all the participants completed and signed the written consent form. To conduct the study, permission was obtained from the selected hospitals. Nurses' average moral sensitivity grade was 68.6 ± 7.8, which shows a moderate level of moral sensitivity. On the other hand, nurses also experienced a moderate level of moral distress (44.8 ± 16.6). Moreover, there was no meaningful statistical relationship between moral sensitivity and moral distress (p = 0.26). Although the nurses' moral sensitivity and moral distress were expected to be high in the intensive care units, it was moderate. This finding is consistent with the results of some studies and contradicts with others. As moral sensitivity is a crucial factor in care, it is suggested that necessary training be provided to develop moral sensitivity in nurses in education and practical environments. Furthermore, removing factors that contribute to moral distress may help decrease it in nurses.

  11. Moral distress: a comparative analysis of theoretical understandings and inter-related concepts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lützén, Kim; Kvist, Beatrice Ewalds

    2012-03-01

    Research on ethical dilemmas in health care has become increasingly salient during the last two decades resulting in confusion about the concept of moral distress. The aim of the present paper is to provide an overview and a comparative analysis of the theoretical understandings of moral distress and related concepts. The focus is on five concepts: moral distress, moral stress, stress of conscience, moral sensitivity and ethical climate. It is suggested that moral distress connects mainly to a psychological perspective; stress of conscience more to a theological-philosophical standpoint; and moral stress mostly to a physiological perspective. Further analysis indicates that these thoughts can be linked to the concepts of moral sensitivity and ethical climate through a relationship to moral agency. Moral agency comprises a moral awareness of moral problems and moral responsibility for others. It is suggested that moral distress may serve as a positive catalyst in exercising moral agency. An interdisciplinary approach in research and practice broadens our understanding of moral distress and its impact on health care personnel and patient care.

  12. Relaxing moral reasoning to win: How organizational identification relates to unethical pro-organizational behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Mo; Chen, Chao C; Sheldon, Oliver J

    2016-08-01

    Drawing on social identity theory and social-cognitive theory, we hypothesize that organizational identification predicts unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) through the mediation of moral disengagement. We further propose that competitive interorganizational relations enhance the hypothesized relationships. Three studies conducted in China and the United States using both survey and vignette methodologies provided convergent support for our model. Study 1 revealed that higher organizational identifiers engaged in more UPB, and that this effect was mediated by moral disengagement. Study 2 found that organizational identification once again predicted UPB through the mediation of moral disengagement, and that the mediation relationship was stronger when employees perceived a higher level of industry competition. Finally, Study 3 replicated the above findings using a vignette experiment to provide stronger evidence of causality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Moral fiction or moral fact? The distinction between doing and allowing in medical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huddle, Thomas S

    2013-06-01

    Opponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) maintain that physician withdrawal-of-life-sustaining-treatment cannot be morally equated to voluntary active euthanasia. PAS opponents generally distinguish these two kinds of act by positing a possible moral distinction between killing and allowing-to-die, ceteris paribus. While that distinction continues to be widely accepted in the public discourse, it has been more controversial among philosophers. Some ethicist PAS advocates are so certain that the distinction is invalid that they describe PAS opponents who hold to the distinction as in the grip of 'moral fictions'. The author contends that such a diagnosis is too hasty. The possibility of a moral distinction between active euthanasia and allowing-to-die has not been closed off by the argumentative strategies employed by these PAS advocates, including the contrasting cases strategy and the assimilation of doing and allowing to a common sense notion of causation. The philosophical debate over the doing/allowing distinction remains inconclusive, but physicians and others who rely upon that distinction in thinking about the ethics of end-of-life care need not give up on it in response to these arguments. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Moral Motivation, Moral Judgment, and Antisocial Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, Jeff; Bock, Tonia; Narvaez, Darcia

    2013-01-01

    The link between judgment and action is weak throughout psychology, including moral psychology. That is, people often do not act in accordance with their reasoning. Might moral judgment development be better viewed as a capacity that inhibits "immoral" behavior? One model that helps account for the moral judgment-action gap is Rest's…

  15. Emotions and clinical ethics support. A moral inquiry into emotions in moral case deliberation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molewijk, Bert; Kleinlugtenbelt, Dick; Pugh, Scott M; Widdershoven, Guy

    2011-12-01

    Emotions play an important part in moral life. Within clinical ethics support (CES), one should take into account the crucial role of emotions in moral cases in clinical practice. In this paper, we present an Aristotelian approach to emotions. We argue that CES can help participants deal with emotions by fostering a joint process of investigation of the role of emotions in a case. This investigation goes beyond empathy with and moral judgment of the emotions of the case presenter. In a moral case deliberation, the participants are invited to place themselves in the position of the case presenter and to investigate their own emotions in the situation. It is about critically assessing the facts in the case that cause the emotion and the related (moral) thoughts that accompany the emotion. It is also about finding the right emotion in a given situation and finding the right balance in dealing with that emotion. These steps in the moral inquiry give rise to group learning. It is a process of becoming open towards the perspectives of others, leading to new insights into what is an appropriate emotion in the specific situation. We show how this approach works in moral case deliberation. A physician presents a situation in which he is faced with a pregnant woman who is about to deliver multiple extremely premature infants at the threshold of viability. The moral deliberation of the case and the emotions therein leads to the participants' conclusion that "compassion" is a more adequate emotion than "sadness". The emotion "sadness" is pointed towards the tragedy that is happening to the woman. The emotion "compassion" is pointed towards the woman; it combines consideration and professional responsibility. Through the shift towards compassion, participants experienced more creativity and freedom to deal with the sad situation and to support the woman. The paper ends with an analysis and reflection on the deliberation process. In the conclusion we argue for more attention to

  16. Moral Teaching in Geography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, David M.

    1995-01-01

    Argues that geography is in a unique position to highlight and emphasize moral issues that otherwise might be neglected. Contemporary issues that naturally intersect with geographic concepts include citizenship and immigration, and the allocation of resources. Recommends examining relative concepts of justice, equality, and community. (MJP)

  17. What does morality require when we disagree?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Martin Marchman

    2017-01-01

    In “Principled Compromise and the Abortion Controversy” Simon C. May argues that we do not have a principled moral reason to compromise. While I seek to understand how more precisely we are to understand this suggestion, I also object to it: I argue that we have a principled moral reason to accept...... democratic decisions that we disagree with, and that this can only be so if disagreement can change what the all things considered right political position is. But if this is so, then also a principled moral reason to compromise is possible. I suggest that there is a class of procedures, including compromise...

  18. Moral Action as Social Capital, Moral Thought as Cultural Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Min Ju; Glassman, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This paper explores the idea that moral thought/reasoning and moral actions are actually two separate phenomena that have little relationship to each other. The idea that moral thinking does or can control moral action creates a difficult dualism between our knowledge about morality and our everyday actions. These differences run parallel to the…

  19. A moral framework for multicultural education in healthcare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaught, Wayne

    2003-01-01

    The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, I begin by reviewing several of the major points of emphasis among health educators as they begin to incorporate multicultural issues into healthcare education. I then consider the role of moral relativism, which is currently being endorsed by some health educators, as the foundation for resolving cross-cultural conflicts in healthcare. I argue that moral relativism is ultimately inconsistent with the stated goals in multicultural curricular proposals and fails to provide an effective framework for considering moral conflicts in cross-cultural settings. Instead, I propose that those methods seeking to establish a common morality, built upon mutually shared values, offer the most promising means of resolving cross-cultural conflicts. This leads to my second goal, to compare recent work in moral pragmatism with what is now widely known in bioethics as moral "principlism." I argue that while proponents of principlism and pragmatism each seek to establish a common foundation for moral deliberation, they fail to appreciate significant similarities between their respective approaches. Instead of offering two completely unique and independent methods of moral deliberation, I suggest that principlism and pragmatism embrace common themes that point us in a positive direction, providing an effective framework useful for considering cross-cultural conflicts in healthcare.

  20. Moral satisficing: rethinking moral behavior as bounded rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gigerenzer, Gerd

    2010-07-01

    What is the nature of moral behavior? According to the study of bounded rationality, it results not from character traits or rational deliberation alone, but from the interplay between mind and environment. In this view, moral behavior is based on pragmatic social heuristics rather than moral rules or maximization principles. These social heuristics are not good or bad per se, but solely in relation to the environments in which they are used. This has methodological implications for the study of morality: Behavior needs to be studied in social groups as well as in isolation, in natural environments as well as in labs. It also has implications for moral policy: Only by accepting the fact that behavior is a function of both mind and environmental structures can realistic prescriptive means of achieving moral goals be developed. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  1. Theological ethics, moral philosophy, and public moral discourse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jonsen, Albert R

    1994-03-01

    The advent and growth of bioethics in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s precipitated an era of public moral discourse, that is, the deliberate attempt to analyze and formulate moral argument for use in public policy. The language for rational discussion of moral matters evolved from the parent disciplines of moral philosophy and theological ethics, as well as from the idioms of a secular, pluralistic world that was searching for policy answers to difficult bioethical questions. This article explores the basis and content of the unique contributions of both theological and philosophical ethics to the development of public moral discourse.

  2. Learning from moral inconsistency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Richmond

    2017-10-01

    Moral inconsistency is an understudied phenomenon in cognitive moral psychology and deserves in depth empirical study. Moral inconsistency, as understood here, is not formal inconsistency but inconsistency in moral emotion and belief in response to particular cases. It occurs when persons treat cases as morally different that are really morally the same, even from their moral perspective. Learning to recognize and avoid such moral inconsistency in non-trivial but is a form of moral learning that complements and enhances other psychological and social mechanisms through which persons learn how to apply shared moral norms when their applications are uncertain and threaten to lapse into moral inconsistency. The same psychological process also can function to revise current moral norms when their straightforward applications are morally inconsistent with more basic moral commitments. Through this moral learning and related kinds, people can learn how to identify issues of moral priority when moral norms conflict and, when necessary, how to revise their moral norms. The recent revolution in dominant moral norms around gay sex and gay marriage in Europe and North America provides a possible illustration. When coupled with other modes of moral learning in the context of ambiguous but deeply rooted moral norms, such as those of sanctity and authority, reflection on moral inconsistency can help to justify this large-scale moral change, even among those who find gay sex, by its nature, morally repugnant. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Beyond Dominance and Competence: A Moral Virtue Theory of Status Attainment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Feng

    2017-08-01

    Recognition has grown that moral behavior (e.g., generosity) plays a role in status attainment, yet it remains unclear how, why, and when demonstrating moral characteristics enhances status. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and organizational behavior, I critically review a third route to attaining status: virtue, and propose a moral virtue theory of status attainment to provide a generalized account of the role of morality in status attainment. The moral virtue theory posits that acts of virtue elicit feelings of warmth and admiration (for virtue), and willing deference, toward the virtuous actor. I further consider how the scope and priority of moralities and virtues endorsed by a moral community are bound by culture and social class to affect which moral characteristics enhance status. I end by outlining an agenda for future research into the role of virtue in status attainment.

  4. The music of morality and logic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mesz, Bruno; Rodriguez Zivic, Pablo H; Cecchi, Guillermo A; Sigman, Mariano; Trevisan, Marcos A

    2015-01-01

    Musical theory has built on the premise that musical structures can refer to something different from themselves (Nattiez and Abbate, 1990). The aim of this work is to statistically corroborate the intuitions of musical thinkers and practitioners starting at least with Plato, that music can express complex human concepts beyond merely "happy" and "sad" (Mattheson and Lenneberg, 1958). To do so, we ask whether musical improvisations can be used to classify the semantic category of the word that triggers them. We investigated two specific domains of semantics: morality and logic. While morality has been historically associated with music, logic concepts, which involve more abstract forms of thought, are more rarely associated with music. We examined musical improvisations inspired by positive and negative morality (e.g., good and evil) and logic concepts (true and false), analyzing the associations between these words and their musical representations in terms of acoustic and perceptual features. We found that music conveys information about valence (good and true vs. evil and false) with remarkable consistency across individuals. This information is carried by several musical dimensions which act in synergy to achieve very high classification accuracy. Positive concepts are represented by music with more ordered pitch structure and lower harmonic and sensorial dissonance than negative concepts. Music also conveys information indicating whether the word which triggered it belongs to the domains of logic or morality (true vs. good), principally through musical articulation. In summary, improvisations consistently map logic and morality information to specific musical dimensions, testifying the capacity of music to accurately convey semantic information in domains related to abstract forms of thought.

  5. The music of morality and logic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mesz, Bruno; Rodriguez Zivic, Pablo H.; Cecchi, Guillermo A.; Sigman, Mariano; Trevisan, Marcos A.

    2015-01-01

    Musical theory has built on the premise that musical structures can refer to something different from themselves (Nattiez and Abbate, 1990). The aim of this work is to statistically corroborate the intuitions of musical thinkers and practitioners starting at least with Plato, that music can express complex human concepts beyond merely “happy” and “sad” (Mattheson and Lenneberg, 1958). To do so, we ask whether musical improvisations can be used to classify the semantic category of the word that triggers them. We investigated two specific domains of semantics: morality and logic. While morality has been historically associated with music, logic concepts, which involve more abstract forms of thought, are more rarely associated with music. We examined musical improvisations inspired by positive and negative morality (e.g., good and evil) and logic concepts (true and false), analyzing the associations between these words and their musical representations in terms of acoustic and perceptual features. We found that music conveys information about valence (good and true vs. evil and false) with remarkable consistency across individuals. This information is carried by several musical dimensions which act in synergy to achieve very high classification accuracy. Positive concepts are represented by music with more ordered pitch structure and lower harmonic and sensorial dissonance than negative concepts. Music also conveys information indicating whether the word which triggered it belongs to the domains of logic or morality (true vs. good), principally through musical articulation. In summary, improvisations consistently map logic and morality information to specific musical dimensions, testifying the capacity of music to accurately convey semantic information in domains related to abstract forms of thought. PMID:26191020

  6. The music of morality and logic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruno eMesz

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Musical theory has built on the premise that musical structures can refer to something different from themselves (1. The aim of this work is to statistically corroborate the intuitions of musical thinkers and practitioners from Plato to Boethius to the purveyors of the Baroque Doctrine of Affections that music can express complex human concepts beyond merely happy and sad (2. To do so, we ask whether musical improvisations can be used to classify the semantic category of the word that triggers them. We investigated two specific domains of semantics: morality and logic. While morality has been historically associated with music, logic concepts, which involve more abstract forms of thought, are more rarely associated with music. We examined musical improvisations inspired by positive and negative morality (e.g. good and evil and logic concepts (true and false, analyzing the associations between these words and their musical representations in terms of acoustic and perceptual features. We found that music conveys information about valence (good and true vs. evil and false with remarkable consistency across individuals. This information is carried by several musical dimensions which act in synergy to achieve very high classification accuracy. Positive concepts are represented by music with more ordered pitch structure and lower harmonic and sensorial dissonance than negative concepts. Music also conveys information indicating whether the word which triggered it belongs to the domains of logic or morality (true vs. good, principally through musical articulation. In summary, improvisations consistently map logic and morality information to specific musical dimensions, testifying the capacity of music to accurately convey semantic information in domains related to abstract forms of thought.

  7. Savouring morality. Moral satisfaction renders food of ethical origin subjectively tastier.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bratanova, Boyka; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Kervyn, Nicolas; Schumann, Sandy; Wood, Robert; Klein, Olivier

    2015-08-01

    Past research has shown that the experience of taste can be influenced by a range of external cues, especially when they concern food's quality. The present research examined whether food's ethicality - a cue typically unrelated to quality - can also influence taste. We hypothesised that moral satisfaction with the consumption of ethical food would positively influence taste expectations, which in turn will enhance the actual taste experience. This enhanced taste experience was further hypothesised to act as a possible reward mechanism reinforcing the purchase of ethical food. The resulting ethical food → moral satisfaction  → enhanced taste expectations and experience → stronger intentions to buy/willingness to pay model was validated across four studies: one large scale international survey (Study 1) and three experimental studies involving actual food consumption of different type of ethical origin - organic (Study 2), fair trade (Study 3a) and locally produced (Study 3b). Furthermore, endorsement of values relevant to the food's ethical origin moderated the effect of food's origin on moral satisfaction, suggesting that the model is primarily supported for people who endorse these values. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. ¿PERMITE SER FELIZ LA MORAL CRISTIANA?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waldo Romo P

    2006-01-01

    centered upon the law, a morality of discipleship that puts love first and then the normative fulfillment. In this regard, the author concentrates on the "logion" of Jesus Christ: "He who loves me, fulfills my commandments." This teaching postulates the sequential order of all Christian morality: because Jesus is loved, the fulfillment of the norms is understood. These are transformed, then, into the "test" that verifies love. Otherwise, one remains in a normative ritualism that, definitively, is wearying and does not bring one to happiness. Therefore the article deepens its reflection upon a fundamental-option morality, expressed in attitudes and actions that are morally coherent with that option. If the proposed conditions of possibility come about, the question behind this article will have a positive answer

  9. The Immoral Assumption Effect: Moralization Drives Negative Trait Attributions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meindl, Peter; Johnson, Kate M; Graham, Jesse

    2016-04-01

    Jumping to negative conclusions about other people's traits is judged as morally bad by many people. Despite this, across six experiments (total N = 2,151), we find that multiple types of moral evaluations--even evaluations related to open-mindedness, tolerance, and compassion--play a causal role in these potentially pernicious trait assumptions. Our results also indicate that moralization affects negative-but not positive-trait assumptions, and that the effect of morality on negative assumptions cannot be explained merely by people's general (nonmoral) preferences or other factors that distinguish moral and nonmoral traits, such as controllability or desirability. Together, these results suggest that one of the more destructive human tendencies--making negative assumptions about others--can be caused by the better angels of our nature. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  10. The study of vagrants’ moral values in Astana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Issakhanova A. A.

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available vagrancy in the modern world has become greater than ever. More and more people become vagrants. They move away from the social reality, can’t cope with the onslaught of globalization and economic instability. Vagrancy problem is considered by many authors, but it does not become less relevant. This article discusses the psychological sense of self well-being of vagrants through moral self-esteem indicators. It also describes the relationship of psychological well-being and personal morality. Personal morality and psychological well-being reflect moral orientation of both separate group or the whole country. Positive values and psychological well-being as a subjective attitude for multinational Kazakhstan are the base in prosperity and stability. Vagrants’ morality manifestations reflect the social development of society at the level of vulnerable social situation, and its development can cause degradation of public consciousness. For this reason, it is important to monitor the level of morality of a multinational society not only in society's views, but also in certain categories of citizens.

  11. Religiosity And Moral Competence: A Study Of Malaysia's Accounting Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umaru Mustapha ZUBAIRU

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In the earliest part of the twenty-first century, the world was rocked by several financial scandals; from Enron to WorldCom; Tyco to Parmalat; Arthur Andersen to Shell, and more recently, the global financial crisis; these scandals directed the world’s attention towards the seemingly ever-growing moral malaise amongst accountants and business people. In order to address this alarming increase in unethical and immoral behaviours among accountants and business people in Malaysia, the government mandated the teaching of Islamic and Moral studies at all levels of education. The underlying assumption was that an increased level of religiosity would translate into higher levels of moral competency. This paper sought to assess the effectiveness of Malaysia's educational policy of mandatory Islamic studies in developing the moral competencies of the country's future Muslim accountants. This was achieved by determining whether a positive relationship existed between the religiosity and moral competencies of Muslim accounting students enrolled at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM. The results revealed that although a small and positive correlation existed between the students' religiosity and moral competencies, a knowledge gap existed preventing them from being able to fully apply Islamic principles in an accounting context

  12. The Morality of Aspiration: A Neglected Dimension of Law and Morality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    W. van der Burg (Wibren)

    1999-01-01

    markdownabstractIntroduction In The Morality of Law, Fuller introduces the distinction between the morality of duty and the morality of aspiration, and applies it to problems of jurisprudence. 1 In moral theory, both types of morality may be easily associated (though never completely

  13. Liberating Moral Reflection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horell, Harold D.

    2013-01-01

    The author argues that if we are to foster life-giving and liberating moral reflection, we must first liberate moral reflection from distortions; specifically, from the distorting effects of moral insensitivity, destructive moral relativism, and confusions resulting from a failure to understand the dynamics of moral reflection. The author proposes…

  14. Critics raise moral objections to Federal AIDS education classes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-07-28

    Lawmakers and a handful of government employees have objected to the Federal government's programs to educate its employees about AIDS. At the June 22, 1995 hearing of the civil service subcommittee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, protests were raised on religious or moral grounds. Thomas Herron, a supervisory logistics manager at the Naval Air Technical Services Facility in Philadelphia found the training to be against the principles of his faith. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif) said his office was flooded with calls and letters from employees who raised concern that the training is being used to advance a redefinition of the family and is a blatant pro-homosexual agenda. Robert L. Maginnis, policy analyst for the conservative Family Research Council, faulted the training, saying it does little to change behavior that puts people at risk for HIV infection. Clinton administration officials testified at the meeting that the program is necessary to ensure both the safety of the workforce and employees' freedom from discrimination and harassment. Individual departments and agencies are responsible for developing their own AIDS training programs. According to Alan Heuerman, associate director for human resource systems service with the Office of Personnel Management, relatively few objections have been raised about the training.

  15. Moral Identity Predicts Doping Likelihood via Moral Disengagement and Anticipated Guilt.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kavussanu, Maria; Ring, Christopher

    2017-08-01

    In this study, we integrated elements of social cognitive theory of moral thought and action and the social cognitive model of moral identity to better understand doping likelihood in athletes. Participants (N = 398) recruited from a variety of team sports completed measures of moral identity, moral disengagement, anticipated guilt, and doping likelihood. Moral identity predicted doping likelihood indirectly via moral disengagement and anticipated guilt. Anticipated guilt about potential doping mediated the relationship between moral disengagement and doping likelihood. Our findings provide novel evidence to suggest that athletes, who feel that being a moral person is central to their self-concept, are less likely to use banned substances due to their lower tendency to morally disengage and the more intense feelings of guilt they expect to experience for using banned substances.

  16. The Effect of Moral Intelligence and Mental Health on Happiness of Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Pourjamshidi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The research was examined the effect of moral intelligence and mental health on happiness of students using descriptive and correlational method. Two hundred and twenty-six students were selected through stratified random sampling method from postgraduate students at Bu Ali Sina University. Lennick and Kiel’s Ethical characteristics questionnaire, Goldberg’s Mental Health Inventory and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire were used to gather the data. The data was analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient test and path analysis through. The findings showed that the direct effect of both moral intelligence and mental health on happiness were positive and statistically significant. Also, direct effect Moral intelligence on mental health was positive and significant. Furthermore, the indirect effect of moral intelligence on happiness through mediating role of mental health was significant. According to the results, it can be suggested that happiness in university students can be enhanced by planning on moral intelligence

  17. ANTESEDEN EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heryadi Fardilah

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This research is concerning the effect of workplace environment, job satisfaction, and  job performance on employee turnover, and the background is to get the convenience of employees condition, the satisfaction of job results, maximum performance, and keep and reduce in and out employees. The purpose of this research is to see how far the influence of workplace environment, job satisfaction, and job performance on employee turnover. Planning of this research uses primary data that is got by handing over questioners to 200 employees in Telecommunication company in East Jakarta. The analysis method which is used is double regresi.  Results of  this  research give conclusion that there's a positive and significant influence of workplace environment, job satisfaction, and job performance on employee turnover.

  18. Individual Differences in Moral Development: Does Intelligence Really Affect Children’s Moral Reasoning and Moral Emotions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beißert, Hanna M.; Hasselhorn, Marcus

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between intelligence and individual differences in children’s moral development across a range of different moral transgressions. Taking up prior research that showed morality and intelligence to be related in adolescents and adults, the current study wants to test if these findings can be extended to younger children. The study was designed to address some of the shortcomings in prior research by examining young children aged between 6 years; 4 months and 8 years; 10 months, using a broad concept of moral development including emotional aspects and applying an approach that is closely connected to children’s daily lives. Participants (N = 129) completed a standardized intelligence test and were presented four moral transgression stories to assess moral development. Results demonstrated that findings from prior research with adolescents or adults cannot simply be extended to younger participants. No significant correlations of moral development and intelligence were found for any of the presented stories. This provides first evidence that – at least in middle childhood – moral developmental status seems to be independent from children’s general intelligence assessed by figural inductive reasoning tests. PMID:28066287

  19. Individual differences in moral development: Does intelligence really affect children’s moral reasoning and moral emotions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanna Maria Beißert

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the relationship between intelligence and individual differences in children’s moral development across a range of different moral transgressions. Taking up prior research that showed morality and intelligence to be related in adolescents and adults, the current study wants to test if these findings can be extended to younger children. The study was designed to address some of the shortcomings in prior research by examining young children aged between 6 years; 4 months and 8 years; 10 months, using a broad concept of moral development including emotional aspects and applying an approach that is closely connected to children’s daily lives. Participants (N = 129 completed a standardized intelligence test and were presented four moral transgression stories to assess moral development. Results demonstrated that findings from prior research with adolescents or adults cannot simply be extended to younger participants. No significant correlations of moral development and intelligence were found for any of the presented stories. This provides first evidence that – at least in middle childhood – moral developmental status seems to be independent from children’s general intelligence assessed by figural inductive reasoning tests.

  20. Cultural Conceptions of Morality: Examining Laypeople's Associations of Moral Character

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Wilson, Marc; Fischer, Ronald

    2014-01-01

    Whether moral conceptions are universal or culture-specific is controversial in moral psychology. One option is to refrain from imposing theoretical constraints and to ask laypeople from different cultures how "they" conceptualize morality. Our article adopts this approach by examining laypeople's associations of moral character in…

  1. Children's Moral Emotions and Moral Cognition: Towards an Integrative Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malti, Tina; Latzko, Brigitte

    2010-01-01

    This chapter presents a brief introduction to the developmental and educational literature linking children's moral emotions to cognitive moral development. A central premise of the chapter is that an integrative developmental perspective on moral emotions and moral cognition provides an important conceptual framework for understanding children's…

  2. The role of emotion expectancies in adolescents' moral decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krettenauer, Tobias; Jia, Fanli; Mosleh, Maureen

    2011-02-01

    This study investigated the impact of emotion expectancies on adolescents' moral decision making in hypothetical situations. The sample consisted of 160 participants from three different grade levels (mean age=15.79 years, SD=2.96). Participants were confronted with a set of scenarios that described various emotional outcomes of (im)moral actions and needed to decide what they would do if they were in the protagonist's shoes. Findings demonstrate that emotion expectancies differentially influenced adolescents' hypothetical decision making in antisocial versus prosocial behavioral contexts. Whereas negatively charged self-evaluative emotions over failing to act morally (e.g., guilt) were the strongest predictor for moral choice in antisocial behavioral contexts, positively charged self-evaluative emotions over acting morally (e.g., pride) most strongly predicted moral choice in prosocial contexts. Older adolescents paid greater attention to outcome-oriented emotions that make the decision to act morally less attractive (e.g., regret). Overall, the study suggests that emotion expectancies influence moral decision making in unique and meaningful ways. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Moral Bioenhancement for Social Welfare: Are Civic Institutions Ready?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John R. Shook

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Positive assessments of moral enhancement too often isolate intuitive notions about its benefits apart from the relevance of surrounding society or civic institutions. If moral bioenhancement should benefit both oneself and others, it cannot be conducted apart from the enhancement of local social conditions, or the preparedness of civic institutions. Neither of those considerations has been adequately incorporated into typical neuroethical assessments of ambitious plans for moral bioenhancement. Enhancing a person to be far less aggressive and violent than an average person, what we label as “civil enhancement,” seems to be quite moral, yet its real-world social consequences are hardly predictable. A hypothetical case about how the criminal justice system would treat an offender who already received civil enhancement serves to illustrate how civic institutions are unprepared for moral enhancement.

  4. The time course of indirect moral judgment in gossip processing modulated by different agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Xiaozhe; Jiao, Can; Cui, Fang; Chen, Qingfei; Li, Peng; Li, Hong

    2017-10-01

    Previous studies have investigated personal moral violations with different references (i.e., the protagonists in moral scenarios are the participants themselves or unknown other individuals). However, the roles of various agents in moral judgments have remained unclear. In the present study, ERPs were used to investigate moral judgments when the participants viewed gossip that described (im)moral behaviors committed by different agents (self, friend, celebrity). The results demonstrate that the P2 and late positive component (LPC) correspond to two successive processes of indirect moral judgment when individuals process gossip. Specifically, the P2 amplitude in the celebrity condition was more sensitive in distinguishing immoral behaviors from moral behaviors than that in the other two conditions, whereas the moral valence effect on the LPC was predominately driven by the self-reference. These findings expand our current understanding of moral judgments in a gossip evaluation task and demonstrate that the early processing of gossip depends on both the entertainment value of the agent and the salience of moral behaviors. Processing in the later stage reflects reactions to intensified affective stimuli, or reflects cognitive effort that was required to resolve the conflict between negative gossip about self and the self-positivity bias. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  5. Moral Hazard and Stability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tumennasan, Norovsambuu

    2014-01-01

    not form. Formally, we study the team formation problem in which the agents’ efforts are not verifiable and the size of teams does not exceed quota r . We show that if the team members cannot make transfers, then moral hazard affects stability positively in a large class of games. For example, a stable...

  6. Context, Moral Orientation and Self- Esteem: Impacting the Moral ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Context, Moral Orientation and Self- Esteem: Impacting the Moral Development of ... The purpose of this study was to compare moral orientation and a measure of self-esteem with the degree of consideration ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  7. The Fundamentals Of Kants Moral Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Saraiva Lamounier Rodrigues

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The article intends to study the moral thought in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, considered the first of the philosophers who composes the movement known as German Idealism, especially in the book "Critique of Practical Reason". To achieve the objective the article begins with the traces of the moral studies at Kants time and its fundamental questions as well as traces of his formation that influenced his writings. Soon after, it analyzes the Kantian thought itself, through the work "The Idea of Justice in Kant", from Joaquim Carlos Salgado, theoretical framework of this research. It will be analyzed the postulate of freedom and its relationship with the sollen and the moral law, the species of imperatives, the categorical imperative and equality, connections that the moral theory makes for the existence of positive law and that the author considers the greater pillar of the Idea of justice from the Prussian philosophers point of of view. The methodology used in the research is theoretical, based on the analysis of the theoretical framework and its relationship to other publications concerning the same subject.

  8. Brogaard's Moral Contextualism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Binderup, Lars Grassme

    2008-01-01

    Brogaard's non-indexical version of moral contextualism has two related problems. It is unable to account for the function of truth-governed assertoric moral discourse, since it leaves two (semantically clearheaded) disputants without any incentive to resolve seemingly contradictory moral claims....... The moral contextualist could explain why people do feel such an incentive by ascribing false beliefs about the semantic workings of their own language. But, secondly, this leaves Brogaard's moral contextualism looking weaker than a Mackie-style invariantist error theory about morals. The latter is equally...

  9. Marriage and Morale in Later Life

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Gary R.

    1978-01-01

    Investigates net effect of marital satisfaction on morale for a sample of married residents aged 60 and over. Results indicate existence of a positive effect and this effect appears notably stronger for females. (Author)

  10. Defining Features of Moral Sensitivity and Moral Motivation: Pathways to Moral Reasoning in Medical Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morton, Kelly R.; Worthley, Joanna S.; Testerman, John K.; Mahoney, Marita L.

    2006-01-01

    Kohlberg's theory of moral development explores the roles of cognition and emotion but focuses primarily on cognition. Contemporary post-formal theories lead to the conclusion that skills resulting from cognitive-affective integration facilitate consistency between moral judgement and moral behaviour. Rest's four-component model of moral…

  11. Sociological concept of morale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marjanović Miloš

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The author first discusses the overall unity of the total normative regulation, from which it is separated in the late Roman empire the right, but only in the new century and the morale. There are analyzed the relationship between the moral and ethical reflection and Weber's distinction between pure ethics will (Gesinnungsethik and ethics of responsibility (Verantwortungsethik. The morale is determined by the good as the highest value, as a specific form of social norms but also as a kind of human behavior. These three definitions can be combined in an integrative approach. There are examined the dimensions of moral statements, subjective and objective side of morality, as well as the difference between morale and morality. A general notion of morale can not be defined in substantive but only in formal way . The formal definition is a constituent of general as well as of sociological concept of morale and it is related to morality as a social phenomenon. Its essence is to define the morale by specific norms, the characteristics of the internal and external mandatory (with the pricks of conscience as the most distinctive moral sanction and control exercised by the formal not institutionalized or diffuse society , and in consideration of morality as a social process (actions of people associated moral norms . The basic types of social moral process - being, education, functioning and changing of morale are described. There are briefly analyzed the influence of society to the morale and social function of morale, with special emphasis on the relationship between law and morale.

  12. Morality in everyday life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofmann, Wilhelm; Wisneski, Daniel C; Brandt, Mark J; Skitka, Linda J

    2014-09-12

    The science of morality has drawn heavily on well-controlled but artificial laboratory settings. To study everyday morality, we repeatedly assessed moral or immoral acts and experiences in a large (N = 1252) sample using ecological momentary assessment. Moral experiences were surprisingly frequent and manifold. Liberals and conservatives emphasized somewhat different moral dimensions. Religious and nonreligious participants did not differ in the likelihood or quality of committed moral and immoral acts. Being the target of moral or immoral deeds had the strongest impact on happiness, whereas committing moral or immoral deeds had the strongest impact on sense of purpose. Analyses of daily dynamics revealed evidence for both moral contagion and moral licensing. In sum, morality science may benefit from a closer look at the antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of everyday moral experience. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  13. The Everyday Moral Judge - Autobiographical Recollections of Moral Emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Körner, André; Tscharaktschiew, Nadine; Schindler, Rose; Schulz, Katrin; Rudolph, Udo

    2016-01-01

    Moral emotions are typically elicited in everyday social interactions and regulate social behavior. Previous research in the field of attribution theory identified ought (the moral standard of a given situation or intended goal), goal-attainment (a goal can be attained vs. not attained) and effort (high vs. low effort expenditure) as cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. In contrast to earlier studies, mainly relying on thought experiments, we investigated autobiographical recollections of N = 312 participants by means of an online study. We analyzed a diverse range of moral emotions, i.e., admiration, anger, contempt, indignation, pride, respect, schadenfreude, and sympathy, by using a mixed-method approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods clearly corroborate the important role of ought, goal-attainment, and effort as eliciting conditions of moral emotions. Furthermore, we built categorical systems based on our participants' descriptions of real-life situations, allowing for more fine-grained distinctions between seemingly similar moral emotions. We thus identify additional prerequisites explaining more subtle differences between moral emotion clusters as they emerge from our analyses (i.e., cluster 1: admiration, pride, and respect; cluster 2: anger, contempt, and indignation; cluster 3: schadenfreude and sympathy). Results are discussed in the light of attributional theories of moral emotions, and implications for future research are derived.

  14. The Everyday Moral Judge - Autobiographical Recollections of Moral Emotions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    André Körner

    Full Text Available Moral emotions are typically elicited in everyday social interactions and regulate social behavior. Previous research in the field of attribution theory identified ought (the moral standard of a given situation or intended goal, goal-attainment (a goal can be attained vs. not attained and effort (high vs. low effort expenditure as cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. In contrast to earlier studies, mainly relying on thought experiments, we investigated autobiographical recollections of N = 312 participants by means of an online study. We analyzed a diverse range of moral emotions, i.e., admiration, anger, contempt, indignation, pride, respect, schadenfreude, and sympathy, by using a mixed-method approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods clearly corroborate the important role of ought, goal-attainment, and effort as eliciting conditions of moral emotions. Furthermore, we built categorical systems based on our participants' descriptions of real-life situations, allowing for more fine-grained distinctions between seemingly similar moral emotions. We thus identify additional prerequisites explaining more subtle differences between moral emotion clusters as they emerge from our analyses (i.e., cluster 1: admiration, pride, and respect; cluster 2: anger, contempt, and indignation; cluster 3: schadenfreude and sympathy. Results are discussed in the light of attributional theories of moral emotions, and implications for future research are derived.

  15. “Correcting an Erring Wife Is Normal”: Moral Discourses of Spousal Violence in Ghana

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Adjei, Stephen Baffour

    2015-01-01

    , blame their victims, and manage their moral accountability; victims position husband-to-wife abuse as normal, legitimate, disciplinary, and corrective. These moral discourses of spousal violence apparently serve to relieve perpetrators of moral agency; prime battered women to accept abuse; and devastate...

  16. EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE AND MORAL REASONING IN A CONTEXT OF VENGEANCE/ EXPERIENCIAS DE VIOLENCIA Y RAZONAMIENTO MORAL EN UN CONTEXTO DE VENGANZA/ EXPERIÊNCIAS DE VIOLÊNCIA E RACIONAMENTO MORAL EM UM CONTEXTO DE VINGANÇA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto Posada Gilède

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Relations between exposure to violence and moral reasoning were explored. Ninety-six participants aged 6-16 years evaluated the acceptability of stealing and causing physical harm in a situation of vengeance. Self-reports of exposure to violence were collected from each participant. Findings indicated that previous exposure to violence is related to moral reasoning in contexts of vengeance. Participants who reported having witnessed more violence, especially against family members, evaluated causing physical harm more positively, provided justifications entailing retaliation more frequently, and offered fewer reasons related to the conventional and personal realms, in a context of vengeance. Moreover, witnessing particular violent events was found to be positively correlated with judgments justified with reasons involving retaliation. These results suggest that participants think of vengeance as a way to restore justice (a moral issue through expiatory sanction.

  17. Moral vindications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Victor

    2017-10-01

    Psychologists and neuroscientists have recently been unearthing the unconscious processes that give rise to moral intuitions and emotions. According to skeptics like Joshua Greene, what has been found casts doubt on many of our moral beliefs. However, a new approach in moral psychology develops a learning-theoretic framework that has been successfully applied in a number of other domains. This framework suggests that model-based learning shapes intuitions and emotions. Model-based learning explains how moral thought and feeling are attuned to local material and social conditions. Philosophers can draw on these explanations, in some cases, in order to vindicate episodes of moral change. Explanations can support justifications by showing that they are not mere rationalizations. In addition, philosophical justifications are a fertile source for empirical hypotheses about the rational learning mechanisms that shape moral intuitions and emotions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Moral Hindsight.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleischhut, Nadine; Meder, Björn; Gigerenzer, Gerd

    2017-03-01

    How are judgments in moral dilemmas affected by uncertainty, as opposed to certainty? We tested the predictions of a consequentialist and deontological account using a hindsight paradigm. The key result is a hindsight effect in moral judgment. Participants in foresight, for whom the occurrence of negative side effects was uncertain, judged actions to be morally more permissible than participants in hindsight, who knew that negative side effects occurred. Conversely, when hindsight participants knew that no negative side effects occurred, they judged actions to be more permissible than participants in foresight. The second finding was a classical hindsight effect in probability estimates and a systematic relation between moral judgments and probability estimates. Importantly, while the hindsight effect in probability estimates was always present, a corresponding hindsight effect in moral judgments was only observed among "consequentialist" participants who indicated a cost-benefit trade-off as most important for their moral evaluation.

  19. Affording and Constraining Local Moral Orders in Teacher-Led Ability-Based Mathematics Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tait-McCutcheon, Sandi; Shuker, Mary Jane; Higgins, Joanna; Loveridge, Judith

    2015-01-01

    How teachers position themselves and their students can influence the development of afforded or constrained local moral orders in ability-based teacher-led mathematics lessons. Local moral orders are the negotiated discursive practices and interactions of participants in the group. In this article, the developing local moral orders of 12 teachers…

  20. Stereotypes of older employees compared to younger employees in Slovenian companies

    OpenAIRE

    Rožman, Maja; Treven, Sonja; Čančer, Vesna

    2016-01-01

    Human resource management has an important impact on age diversity in companies. Age diversity in the workplace is growing and older employees are staying longer in the workforce, therefore it is important that employers can create a positive environment for age diverse employees. This paper introduces the difference in stereotypes in the workplace between older and younger employees in Slovenian companies. The main goal of this paper is to present the importance of age diversity and their ag...

  1. The Theory of Dyadic Morality: Reinventing Moral Judgment by Redefining Harm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schein, Chelsea; Gray, Kurt

    2018-02-01

    The nature of harm-and therefore moral judgment-may be misunderstood. Rather than an objective matter of reason, we argue that harm should be redefined as an intuitively perceived continuum. This redefinition provides a new understanding of moral content and mechanism-the constructionist Theory of Dyadic Morality (TDM). TDM suggests that acts are condemned proportional to three elements: norm violations, negative affect, and-importantly-perceived harm. This harm is dyadic, involving an intentional agent causing damage to a vulnerable patient (A→P). TDM predicts causal links both from harm to immorality (dyadic comparison) and from immorality to harm (dyadic completion). Together, these two processes make the "dyadic loop," explaining moral acquisition and polarization. TDM argues against intuitive harmless wrongs and modular "foundations," but embraces moral pluralism through varieties of values and the flexibility of perceived harm. Dyadic morality impacts understandings of moral character, moral emotion, and political/cultural differences, and provides research guidelines for moral psychology.

  2. Contextual and perceptual brain processes underlying moral cognition: a quantitative meta-analysis of moral reasoning and moral emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sevinc, Gunes; Spreng, R Nathan

    2014-01-01

    Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22); studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that processing of moral input is affected by task demands. The results provide novel

  3. Contextual and perceptual brain processes underlying moral cognition: a quantitative meta-analysis of moral reasoning and moral emotions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunes Sevinc

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. DATA SOURCE: A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22; studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18. We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that

  4. The ABC of moral development: an attachment approach to moral judgment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Govrin, Aner

    2014-01-01

    As with other cognitive faculties, the etiology of moral judgment and its connection to early development is complex. Because research is limited, the causative and contributory factors to the development of moral judgment in preverbal infants are unclear. However, evidence is emerging from studies within both infant research and moral psychology that may contribute to our understanding of the early development of moral judgments. Though its finding are preliminary, this proposed paradigm synthesizes these findings to generate an overarching, model of the process that appears to contribute to the development of moral judgment in the first year of life. I will propose that through early interactions with the caregiver, the child acquires an internal representation of a system of rules that determine how right/wrong judgments are to be construed, used, and understood. By breaking moral situations down into their defining features, the attachment model of moral judgment outlines a framework for a universal moral faculty based on a universal, innate, deep structure that appears uniformly in the structure of almost all moral judgments regardless of their content. The implications of the model for our understanding of innateness, universal morality, and the representations of moral situations are discussed. PMID:24478739

  5. Morals or markets? Regulating assisted reproductive technologies as morality or economic policies in the states.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heidt-Forsythe, Erin

    2017-01-01

    The availability of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in the medical marketplace complicates our understanding of reproductive public policy in the United States. Political debates over ARTs often are based on fundamental moral principles of life, reproduction, and kinship, similar to other reproductive policies in the United States. However, ARTs are an important moneymaking private enterprise for the U.S. biotechnology industry. This project investigates how the U.S. states regulate these unique and challenging technologies as either moral policies or economic policies. This study employs ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to estimate the significance of morality and economic policy variables on ART policies at the state level, noting associations between state-level political, economic, and gender variables on restrictive and permissive state-level ART policies. Economic variables (reflecting the biotechnology industry) and advocacy for access to ART on behalf of infertility patients increase the chances of states passing policies that enable consumer use of ARTs. Additionally, individual ART policies are distinct from one another in the ways that morality variables increase the chances of ART regulations. Surprisingly, the role of religious adherence among state residents varied in positive and negative relationships with individual policy passage. In general, these results support the hypothesis that ART laws are associated with economic as well as moral concerns of the states-ARTs lie at the intersection of issues of life and reproduction and of scientific innovation and health. What is most striking about these results is that they do not follow patterns seen in the legislation of abortion, contraception, and sexuality in general-those reproductive policies that are considered "morality policy." Similarly, economic variables are not consistently significant in the expected direction.

  6. Do Work Beliefs Moderate the Relationship Between Work Interruptions, Wellbeing and Psychosomatic Symptoms?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zoupanou, Zoi(e); Rydstedt, Leif W.

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the moderating effects of work beliefs in the relationship between work interruptions and general health, wellbeing and reports of psychosomatic symptoms. Self-report data were gathered from 310 employees from different occupational sectors. Results revealed that beliefs in hard work and morality ethic moderated the positive appraisal of work interruptions and acted as protective factors on impaired general health and wellbeing. The relationship was stronger among employees who endorsed strong beliefs in hard work and did not have regard for morality/ethics as a value. Likewise, beliefs in delay of gratification and morality/ethics moderated positive appraisal of work interruptions and reduced psychosomatic complaints. More specifically, the relationship was stronger among employees who had strong belief in the values of delayed gratification and weaker morality/ethics. These findings indicate that organisations should adopt work ideology or practices focused on work values particularly of hard work, delay of gratification and conformity to morality as protective factors that reduce the impact of work interruptions on employees’ general health and wellbeing. PMID:28580023

  7. To Push or Not to Push? Affective Influences on Moral Judgment Depend on Decision Frame

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pastotter, Bernhard; Gleixner, Sabine; Neuhauser, Theresa; Bauml, Karl-Heinz T.

    2013-01-01

    People's moods can influence moral judgment. Such influences may arise because moods affect moral emotion, or because moods affect moral thought. The present study provides evidence that, at least in the footbridge dilemma, moods affect moral thought. The results of two experiments are reported in which, after induction of positive, negative, or…

  8. Executive Summary: Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rushton, Cynda Hylton; Schoonover-Shoffner, Kathy; Kennedy, Maureen Shawn

    To examine practices for addressing moral distress, a collaborative project was developed by the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the American Journal of Nursing, and the Journal of Christian Nursing, along with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and the American Nurses Association. Its purpose was to identify strategies that individuals and systems can use to mitigate the detrimental effects of moral distress and foster moral resilience. On August 11 and 12, 2016, an invitational symposium, State of the Science: Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing, was held at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. Forty-five nurse clinicians, researchers, ethicists, organization representatives, and other stakeholders took part. The result of the symposium was group consensus on recommendations for addressing moral distress and building moral resilience in four areas: practice, education, research, and policy. Participants and the organizations represented were energized and committed to moving this agenda forward. The full report is available online at http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/Pages/Moral-Distress-Supplement.aspx.

  9. Relationship between ICU nurses' moral distress with burnout and anticipated turnover.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shoorideh, Foroozan Atashzadeh; Ashktorab, Tahereh; Yaghmaei, Farideh; Alavi Majd, Hamid

    2015-02-01

    Moral distress is one of intensive care unit nurses' major problems, which may happen due to various reasons, and has several consequences. Due to various moral distress outcomes in intensive care unit nurses, and their impact on nurses' personal and professional practice, recognizing moral distress is very important. The aim of this study was to determine correlation between moral distress with burnout and anticipated turnover in intensive care unit nurses. This study is a descriptive-correlation research. A total of 159 intensive care unit nurses were selected from medical sciences universities in Iran. Data collection instruments included "demographic questionnaire," "ICU Nurses' Moral Distress Scale," "Copenhagen Burnout Inventory" and "Hinshaw and Atwood Turnover Scale." Data analysis was done by using SPSS19. Informed consent from samples and research approval was obtained from Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences University Research Ethics Board in Tehran. The findings showed intensive care unit nurses' moral distress and anticipated turnover was high, but burnout was moderate. The results revealed that there was a positive statistical correlation between intensive care unit nurses' age, their work experience and the fraction of nurses' number to number of intensive care unit beds with their moral distress and burnout. However, there were no correlation between gender, marriage status, educational degree and work shift and moral distress. Some of the findings of this research are consistent with other studies and some of them are inconsistent. Similarly, moral distress with burnout and anticipated turnover did not have statistical correlation. However, a positive correlation was found between burnout and anticipated turnover. The results showed that increase in the recruitment of young nurses, and nursing personnel, and diminishing intensive care unit nurses' moral distress, burnout and their turnover intention are essential. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. A Kantian ethics approach to moral bioenhancement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Sarah

    2017-11-01

    It seems, at first glance, that a Kantian ethics approach to moral enhancement would tend towards the position that there could be no place for emotional modulation in any understanding of the endeavour, owing to the typically understood view that Kantian ethics does not allow any role for emotion in morality as a whole. It seems then that any account of moral bioenhancement which places emotion at its centre would therefore be rejected. This article argues, however, that this assumption is incorrect. Given later writings by Kant on the role of sympathy, and taking into account other concerns in Kantian ethics (such as bodily integrity), it may in fact be the case that Kantian ethics would allow for an account of moral bioenhancement through emotional modulation, and that in some (rare) cases such an intervention might even be considered to be a duty. © 2017 The Authors Bioethics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. When the customer is unethical: the explanatory role of employee emotional exhaustion onto work-family conflict, relationship conflict with coworkers, and job neglect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenbaum, Rebecca L; Quade, Matthew J; Mawritz, Mary B; Kim, Joongseo; Crosby, Durand

    2014-11-01

    We integrate deontological ethics (Folger, 1998, 2001; Kant, 1785/1948, 1797/1991) with conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to propose that an employee's repeated exposure to violations of moral principle can diminish the availability of resources to appropriately attend to other personal and work domains. In particular, we identify customer unethical behavior as a morally charged work demand that leads to a depletion of resources as captured by employee emotional exhaustion. In turn, emotionally exhausted employees experience higher levels of work-family conflict, relationship conflict with coworkers, and job neglect. Employee emotional exhaustion serves as the mediator between customer unethical behavior and such outcomes. To provide further evidence of a deontological effect, we demonstrate the unique effect of customer unethical behavior onto emotional exhaustion beyond perceptions of personal mistreatment and trait negative affectivity. In Study 1, we found support for our theoretical model using multisource field data from customer-service professionals across a variety of industries. In Study 2, we also found support for our theoretical model using multisource, longitudinal field data from service employees in a large government organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Out of control!? How loss of self-control influences prosocial behavior: the role of power and moral values.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne Joosten

    Full Text Available Lack of self-control has been suggested to facilitate norm-transgressing behaviors because of the operation of automatic selfish impulses. Previous research, however, has shown that people having a high moral identity may not show such selfish impulses when their self-control resources are depleted. In the present research, we extended this effect to prosocial behavior. Moreover, we investigated the role of power in the interaction between moral identity and self-control depletion. More specifically, we expected that power facilitates the externalization of internal states, which implies that for people who feel powerful, rather than powerless, depletion decreases prosocial behavior especially for those low in moral identity. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study supported our predictions. The present finding that the interaction between self-control depletion and moral identity is contingent upon people's level of power suggests that power may enable people to refrain from helping behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that if organizations want to improve prosocial behaviors, it may be effective to situationally induce moral values in their employees.

  13. Out of Control!? How Loss of Self-Control Influences Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Power and Moral Values

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joosten, Anne; van Dijke, Marius; Van Hiel, Alain; De Cremer, David

    2015-01-01

    Lack of self-control has been suggested to facilitate norm-transgressing behaviors because of the operation of automatic selfish impulses. Previous research, however, has shown that people having a high moral identity may not show such selfish impulses when their self-control resources are depleted. In the present research, we extended this effect to prosocial behavior. Moreover, we investigated the role of power in the interaction between moral identity and self-control depletion. More specifically, we expected that power facilitates the externalization of internal states, which implies that for people who feel powerful, rather than powerless, depletion decreases prosocial behavior especially for those low in moral identity. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study supported our predictions. The present finding that the interaction between self-control depletion and moral identity is contingent upon people’s level of power suggests that power may enable people to refrain from helping behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that if organizations want to improve prosocial behaviors, it may be effective to situationally induce moral values in their employees. PMID:26024380

  14. Moral Decision-Making among Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Case Managers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lerbæk, Birgitte; Aagaard, Jørgen; Andersen, Mette Braendstrup

    2015-01-01

    The context of care in assertive community treatment (ACT) can be precarious and generate ethical issues involving the principles of autonomy and paternalism. This focus group study examined case managers' situated accounts of moral reasoning. Our findings show how they expressed strong moral...... obligation towards helping the clients. Their moral reasoning reflected a paternalistic position where, on different occasions, the potential benefits of their interventions would be prioritised at the expense of protecting the clients' personal autonomy. The case managers' reasoning emphasised situational...

  15. Moral Geography and Exploration of the Moral Possibility Space

    OpenAIRE

    Bongrae Seok

    2017-01-01

    This article reviews Owen Flanagan’s latest book “The Geography of Morals, Varieties of Moral Possibilities” (2017). By exploring the space of moral possibility (i.e., diverse options and viewpoints of morality from different philosophical and religious traditions throughout the world), Flanagan argues that ethics is not simply a study of a priori conditions of normative rules and ideal values but a process of developing a careful understanding of varying conditions of human ecology and build...

  16. Moral virtues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Georg Spielthenner

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Although much has been published on virtues in recent years, there is still considerable uncertainty in philosophy (and even more among philosophical laymen about the concept of a virtue and especially about moral virtues. In this article, I will try to clarify these notions. In particular, I want to answer the question: When are virtues moral virtues? Clearly, not every practical virtue is a moral virtue. Why was the courage of the Nazi soldiers in the second world war not a moral virtue, but yet is presumably one if included among the cardinal virtues? To clarify this question, this article will deal with the concept of a virtue but I will also investigate the notion of virtues being of a moral nature. To this end, I propose and explain (I a definition of moral virtues and clarify this definition further in section (II, by explaining why I did not include qualities, which others have considered as essential.

  17. Is moral bioenhancement dangerous?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drake, Nicholas

    2016-01-01

    In a recent response to Persson and Savulescu's Unfit for the Future, Nicholas Agar argues that moral bioenhancement is dangerous. His grounds for this are that normal moral judgement should be privileged because it involves a balance of moral subcapacities; moral bioenhancement, Agar argues, involves the enhancement of only particular moral subcapacities, and thus upsets the balance inherent in normal moral judgement. Mistaken moral judgements, he says, are likely to result. I argue that Agar's argument fails for two reasons. First, having strength in a particular moral subcapacity does not necessarily entail a worsening of moral judgement; it can involve strength in a particular aspect of morality. Second, normal moral judgement is not sufficiently likely to be correct to be the standard by which moral judgements are measured. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  18. Experiencing Physical Pain Leads to More Sympathetic Moral Judgments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Qianguo; Zhu, Yi; Luo, Wen-bo

    2015-01-01

    Previous studies have shown that observing another’s pain can evoke other-oriented emotions, which instigate empathic concern for another’s needs. It is not clear whether experiencing first-hand physical pain may also evoke other-oriented emotion and thus influence people’s moral judgment. Based on the embodied simulation literature and neuroimaging evidence, the present research tested the idea that participants who experienced physical pain would be more sympathetic in their moral judgments. Study 1 showed that ice-induced physical pain facilitated higher self-assessments of empathy, which motivated participants to be more sympathetic in their moral judgments. Study 2 confirmed findings in study 1 and also showed that State Perspective Taking subscale of the State Empathy Scale mediated the effects of physical pain on moral judgment. These results provide support for embodied view of morality and for the view that pain can serve a positive psychosocial function. PMID:26465603

  19. Caring across Boundaries versus Keeping Boundaries Intact: Links between Moral Values and Interpersonal Orientations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niemi, Laura; Young, Liane

    2013-01-01

    Prior work has established robust diversity in the extent to which different moral values are endorsed. Some people focus on values related to caring and fairness, whereas others assign additional moral weight to ingroup loyalty, respect for authority and established hierarchies, and purity concerns. Five studies explore associations between endorsement of distinct moral values and a suite of interpersonal orientations: Machiavellianism, prosocial resource distribution, Social Dominance Orientation, and reported likelihood of helping and not helping kin and close friends versus acquaintances and neighbors. We found that Machiavellianism (Studies 1, 3, 4, 5) (e.g., amorality, controlling and status-seeking behaviors) and Social Dominance Orientation (Study 4) were negatively associated with caring values, and positively associated with valuation of authority. Those higher in caring values were more likely to choose prosocial resource distributions (Studies 2, 3, 4) and to report reduced likelihood of failing to help kin/close friends or acquaintances (Study 4). Finally, greater likelihood of helping acquaintances was positively associated with all moral values tested except authority values (Study 4). The current work offers a novel approach to characterizing moral values and reveals a striking divergence between two kinds of moral values in particular: caring values and authority values. Caring values were positively linked with prosociality and negatively associated with Machiavellianism, whereas authority values were positively associated with Machiavellianism and Social Dominance Orientation. PMID:24349095

  20. Medical Error and Moral Luck.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hubbeling, Dieneke

    2016-09-01

    This paper addresses the concept of moral luck. Moral luck is discussed in the context of medical error, especially an error of omission that occurs frequently, but only rarely has adverse consequences. As an example, a failure to compare the label on a syringe with the drug chart results in the wrong medication being administered and the patient dies. However, this error may have previously occurred many times with no tragic consequences. Discussions on moral luck can highlight conflicting intuitions. Should perpetrators receive a harsher punishment because of an adverse outcome, or should they be dealt with in the same way as colleagues who have acted similarly, but with no adverse effects? An additional element to the discussion, specifically with medical errors, is that according to the evidence currently available, punishing individual practitioners does not seem to be effective in preventing future errors. The following discussion, using relevant philosophical and empirical evidence, posits a possible solution for the moral luck conundrum in the context of medical error: namely, making a distinction between the duty to make amends and assigning blame. Blame should be assigned on the basis of actual behavior, while the duty to make amends is dependent on the outcome.

  1. An assessment of the overlap between morale and work engagement in a nonoperational military sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivey, Gary W; Blanc, J-R Sébastien; Mantler, Janet

    2015-07-01

    The degree of overlap between two positive motivational constructs-morale and work engagement-was assessed in a random sample of Canadian Armed Forces personnel stationed across Canada (N = 1,224). Based on self-determination theory and past research, job-specific self-efficacy, trust in teammates, and job significance were expected to be associated with morale and work engagement. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that morale and work engagement were highly positively correlated, but had different patterns of association with predictor and outcome variables. Although trust in teammates and job significance predicted both morale and work engagement, job-specific self-efficacy predicted morale but not work engagement. Willingness to deploy on operations, turnover intentions, and psychological distress were predicted by both morale and work engagement, but morale was a better predictor of psychological distress and work engagement was a stronger predictor of turnover intentions. Together, the results suggest that, despite their overlap, morale and work engagement, as defined and measured herein, are not interchangeable. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. The measurement of principled morality by the Kohlberg Moral Dilemma Questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heilbrun, A B; Georges, M

    1990-01-01

    The four stages preceding the postconventional level in the Kohlberg (1958, 1971, 1976) system of moral development are described as involving moral judgments that conform to external conditions of punishment, reward, social expectation, and conformity to the law. No special level of self-control seems necessary to behave in keeping with these conditions of external reinforcement. In contrast, the two stages of postconventional (principled) mortality involve defiance of majority opinion and defiance of the law--actions that would seem to require greater self-control. This study was concerned with whether postconventional moral reasoning, as measured by the Kohlberg Moral Dilemma Questionnaire (MDQ), can be associated with higher self-control. If so, prediction of principled moral behavior from the MDQ would be based not only on postconventional moral reasoning but bolstered by the necessary level of self-control as well. College students who came the closest to postconventional moral reasoning showed better self-control than college students who were more conventional or preconventional in their moral judgments. These results support the validity of the MDQ for predicting principled moral behavior.

  3. On Shermer on morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Christian B

    2016-11-01

    This is my critical commentary on Michael Shermer's paper "Morality is real, objective, and natural." Shermer and I agree that morality is both real and objective. Here I raise serious reservations about both Shermer's account of where morality comes from and his account of what morality tells us to do. His approach to the foundations of morality would allow some very disturbing behaviors to count as moral, and his approach to what morality says does not provide the action guidance we need from a moral theory. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

  4. Moral Education as Intercultural Moral Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frisancho, Susana; Delgado, Guillermo Enrique

    2018-01-01

    In a diverse country such as Peru, moral education should reflect social, cultural, political and spiritual dilemmas of both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and their communities. To promote understanding and respect amongst people from different sociocultural backgrounds, moral education should encourage a dialogue between indigenous values…

  5. In defence of moral imperialism: four equal and universal prima facie principles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawson, A; Garrard, E

    2006-04-01

    Raanan Gillon is a noted defender of the four principles approach to healthcare ethics. His general position has always been that these principles are to be considered to be both universal and prima facie in nature. In recent work, however, he has made two claims that seem to present difficulties for this view. His first claim is that one of these four principles, respect for autonomy, has a special position in relation to the others: he holds that it is first among equals. We argue that this claim makes little sense if the principles are to retain their prima facie nature. His second claim is that cultural variation can play an independent normative role in the construction of our moral judgments. This, he argues, enables us to occupy a middle ground between what he sees as the twin pitfalls of moral relativism and (what he calls) moral imperialism. We argue that there is no such middle ground, and while Gillon ultimately seems committed to relativism, it is some form of moral imperialism (in the form of moral objectivism) that will provide the only satisfactory construal of the four principles as prima facie universal moral principles.

  6. Neural correlates of moral judgment in pedophilia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Massau, Claudia; Kärgel, Christian; Weiß, Simone; Walter, Martin; Ponseti, Jorge; Hc Krueger, Tillmann; Walter, Henrik; Schiffer, Boris

    2017-09-01

    Pedophilia is a sexual preference that is often associated with child sex offending (CSO). Sexual urges towards prepubescent children and specifically acting upon those urges are universally regarded as immoral. However, up until now, it is completely unknown whether moral processing of sexual offenses is altered in pedophiles. A total of 31 pedophilic men and 19 healthy controls were assessed by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination with a moral judgment paradigm consisting of 36 scenarios describing different types of offenses.Scenarios depicting sexual offenses against children compared to those depicting adults were associated with higher pattern of activation in the left temporo-parietal-junction (TPJ) and left posterior insular cortex, the posterior cingulate gyrus as well as the precuneus in controls relative to pedophiles, and vice versa. Moreover, brain activation in these areas were positively associated with ratings of moral reprehensibility and negatively associated with decision durations, but only in controls. Brain activation, found in key areas related to the broad network of moral judgment, theory of mind and (socio-)moral disgust - point to different moral processing of sexual offenses in pedophilia in general. The lack of associations between brain activation and behavioral responses in pedophiles further suggest a biased response pattern or dissected implicit valuation processes. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

  7. Dissociation between morality and disgust: an event-related potential study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qun; Li, An; Xiao, Xiao; Zhang, Ye; Tian, Xuehong

    2014-10-01

    This study explored the neural correlates of morality and disgust, particularly, how the mechanisms that mediate our avoidance of physically disgusting and morally abhorrent behaviors are neurologically dissociated during the time-course of processing. Twelve participants were asked to judge the acceptability of different types of behaviors, which varied in their level of moral wrongness and physical disgust, while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The main results showed that the two morally wrong conditions elicited greater amplitudes of P300-400 at frontal sites than the neutral condition and the physically disgusting, but not morally wrong, condition. The physically disgusting conditions (with and without moral content) elicited significantly more positive deflections in the 500-600 ms timeframe than the neutral condition at central-posterior sites. These findings indicate that our aversion to harmful substances in the physical environment and offensive behaviors in the social environment may be neurologically dissociable in the temporal dimension. Furthermore, the detection of moral violations may be processed earlier in time than that of physical disgust. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Workplace moral harassment and its consequences: A case study in a federal higher education institution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmelita Angélica Guimarães

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT This paper aims to characterize a case of moral harassment in a federal institution of higher education and to identify its consequences for the different actors. We carried out a descriptive and qualitative case study and collected data by means of documentary research with an analysis of the related administrative process, which includes statements of those involved in the case, and an in-depth interview with the harassed employee. The results revealed the occurrence of vertical descendant moral harassment characterized by abuse of power, authoritarianism and perverse manipulation, with severe consequences for the harassed employee´s physical, mental and emotional health. We found that the institution's human resources management department's non-action in terms of intermediating the conflict and the institutional culture and structure may all have favored the occurrence of the case and the harasser´s impunity. For the organization, the occurrences generated degradation in the workplace and in motivation and the team split, as well as income decline and other financial losses. Beyond the financial issues, there was also even more serious damage to the society, as a public institution should look after citizens´ properties and civil rights, whether concerning finances, productivity or social areas. We can conclude that moral harassment is a multidimensional process that violates the individual´s fundamental rights with severe impact on his/her physical and psychological health, on organizations and on the society in general.

  9. To push or not to push? Affective influences on moral judgment depend on decision frame.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pastötter, Bernhard; Gleixner, Sabine; Neuhauser, Theresa; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

    2013-03-01

    People's moods can influence moral judgment. Such influences may arise because moods affect moral emotion, or because moods affect moral thought. The present study provides evidence that, at least in the footbridge dilemma, moods affect moral thought. The results of two experiments are reported in which, after induction of positive, negative, or neutral moods and presentation of the footbridge scenario, participants were asked one of two differentially framed closing questions. In the active frame, participants were asked whether they would be active and push the man, making thoughts about pushing accessible; in the passive frame, they were asked whether they would be passive and not push the man, making thoughts about not pushing accessible. The results show that affective influences on moral judgment depended on participants' decision frame. Compared to neutral moods, positive moods induced utilitarian responding - i.e., deciding to push - in the active decision frame, but induced nonutilitarian responding - i.e., deciding to not push - in the passive decision frame; in negative moods, exactly the opposite picture arose. The results suggest that people's moods affect moral judgment by conferring value on moral thought. Positive moods promote and negative moods inhibit accessible thoughts. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Socialization and individual antecedents of adolescents' and young adults' moral motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malti, Tina; Buchmann, Marlis

    2010-02-01

    Socialization and individual differences were examined as antecedents of moral motivation in representative samples of 15-year-old adolescents (N = 1,258; 54% female) and 21-year-old young adults (N = 584; 53% female). The adolescents' primary caregivers (N = 1,056) also participated. The strength of moral motivation was rated by participants' responses to two hypothetical moral dilemmas in terms of action decisions, emotion attributions, and justifications. Socialization was measured by the perceived quality of friendship, parent-child relationships, and educational background. The importance attached to social justice and various personality traits were also assessed. Adolescents' moral motivation was positively associated with the quality of their parent-child relationship and the importance of social justice. Young adults' moral motivation was predicted by the perceived quality of friendships, the importance of social justice, and agreeableness. For both groups, moral motivation was greater in females. The theoretical implications of the findings for the development of moral motivation are discussed.

  11. Perspectives on workplace health promotion among employees in low-wage industries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammerback, Kristen; Hannon, Peggy A.; Harris, Jeffrey R.; Clegg-Thorp, Catherine; Kohn, Marlana; Parrish, Amanda

    2016-01-01

    Purpose Study goals were to (a) understand the attitudes of employees in low-wage industries toward workplace health promotion, including views on appropriateness of employer involvement in employee health, and level of interest in workplace health promotion overall and in specific programs; and (b) determine the potential for extending workplace health promotion to spouses and partners of these employees. Approach Forty-two 60-90-minute interviews Setting Interviews were conducted with couples (married or living together) in the Seattle/King County metropolitan area of Washington State. Participants Forty-two couples with one or more members working in one of five low-wage industries: accommodation/food services, education, health care/social assistance, manufacturing, and retail trade. Method Qualitative analysis of interview transcripts using grounded theory to identify themes. Results Employees consider workplace health promotion both appropriate and desirable, and believe it benefits employers through increased productivity and morale. Most have little personal experience with it and doubt their employers would prioritize employee health. Employees are most interested in efforts focused on nutrition and physical activity. Both employees and their partners support extending workplace health promotion to include partners. Conclusion Employees and their partners are interested in workplace health promotion if it addresses behaviors they care about. Concern over employer involvement in their personal health decisions is minimal; instead, employees view employer interest in their health as a sign that they are valued. PMID:25162321

  12. Perspectives on Workplace Health Promotion Among Employees in Low-Wage Industries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammerback, Kristen; Hannon, Peggy A; Harris, Jeffrey R; Clegg-Thorp, Catherine; Kohn, Marlana; Parrish, Amanda

    2015-01-01

    Study goals were to (1) understand the attitudes of employees in low-wage industries toward workplace health promotion, including views on appropriateness of employer involvement in employee health and level of interest in workplace health promotion overall and in specific programs, and (2) determine the potential for extending workplace health promotion to spouses and partners of these employees. The study used 42 interviews of 60 to 90 minutes. Interviews were conducted with couples (married or living together) in the Seattle/King County metropolitan area of Washington State. Study participants were forty-two couples with one or more members working in one of five low-wage industries: accommodation/food services, education, health care/social assistance, manufacturing, and retail trade. The study employed qualitative analysis of interview transcripts using grounded theory to identify themes. Employees consider workplace health promotion both appropriate and desirable and believe it benefits employers through increased productivity and morale. Most have little personal experience with it and doubt their employers would prioritize employee health. Employees are most interested in efforts focused on nutrition and physical activity. Both employees and their partners support extending workplace health promotion to include partners. Employees and their partners are interested in workplace health promotion if it addresses behaviors they care about. Concern over employer involvement in their personal health decisions is minimal; instead, employees view employer interest in their health as a sign that they are valued.

  13. Kaip galima su sveiko proto morale suderinama moralės teorija

    OpenAIRE

    Vasilionytė, Ieva

    2014-01-01

    The dissertation explores the question of the possibility of a moral theory compatible with common sense morality. Common sense morality is limited to its two fundamental features, or suppositions: moral judgements are truth apt and practical, i.e. they are at the same time in some sense objectively right or wrong and necessarily action guiding. In contemporary philosophy, the two fundamental features of common sense morality seem to be incompatible: only descriptions can have truth values, b...

  14. Two Distinct Moral Mechanisms for Ascribing and Denying Intentionality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngo, Lawrence; Kelly, Meagan; Coutlee, Christopher G; Carter, R McKell; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter; Huettel, Scott A

    2015-12-04

    Philosophers and legal scholars have long theorized about how intentionality serves as a critical input for morality and culpability, but the emerging field of experimental philosophy has revealed a puzzling asymmetry. People judge actions leading to negative consequences as being more intentional than those leading to positive ones. The implications of this asymmetry remain unclear because there is no consensus regarding the underlying mechanism. Based on converging behavioral and neural evidence, we demonstrate that there is no single underlying mechanism. Instead, two distinct mechanisms together generate the asymmetry. Emotion drives ascriptions of intentionality for negative consequences, while the consideration of statistical norms leads to the denial of intentionality for positive consequences. We employ this novel two-mechanism model to illustrate that morality can paradoxically shape judgments of intentionality. This is consequential for mens rea in legal practice and arguments in moral philosophy pertaining to terror bombing, abortion, and euthanasia among others.

  15. Crítica moral de Francis Bacon a la filosofía Francis Bacon's moral critique to philosophy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maximiliano Prada Dussán

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Este escrito muestra la crítica moral de Bacon a la filosofía, presente en sus obras de juventud, la cual es desarrollada en tres niveles: primero, los cargos a la filosofía por su inutilidad, segundo, las acusaciones a la falta de verdad y de método y, finalmente, la denuncia de falta de caridad y humildad. En conclusión, este estudio intentará sustentar que 1. La reforma baconiana no se restringe a un nuevo método ni a una nueva teoría de la materia; más allá de esto, encuentra un sustento en una nueva posición moral del hombre frente a la naturaleza, y 2. Que su proyecto epistemológico encuentra sentido en el trasfondo moral.This paper is about Bacon's moral critique to philosophy. This critique is present in his youth work and it is developed in three levels: first, charges against philosophy because of its uselessness; second, accusations against philosophy's lack of truth and method; and, finally, charges against philosophy's lack of charity and humility. Briefly, this study will state and support two hypotheses. 1. Bacon´s reform is not restricted to a new method neither a new theory of matter; beyond this; it is a new moral position about man in relation to nature. 2. His epistemological project makes sense in the moral background.

  16. Mapping the Moral Domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graham, Jesse; Nosek, Brian A.; Haidt, Jonathan; Iyer, Ravi; Koleva, Spassena; Ditto, Peter H.

    2010-01-01

    The moral domain is broader than the empathy and justice concerns assessed by existing measures of moral competence, and it is not just a subset of the values assessed by value inventories. To fill the need for reliable and theoretically-grounded measurement of the full range of moral concerns, we developed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) based on a theoretical model of five universally available (but variably developed) sets of moral intuitions: Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity. We present evidence for the internal and external validity of the scale and the model, and in doing so present new findings about morality: 1. Comparative model fitting of confirmatory factor analyses provides empirical justification for a five-factor structure of moral concerns. 2. Convergent/discriminant validity evidence suggests that moral concerns predict personality features and social group attitudes not previously considered morally relevant. 3. We establish pragmatic validity of the measure in providing new knowledge and research opportunities concerning demographic and cultural differences in moral intuitions. These analyses provide evidence for the usefulness of Moral Foundations Theory in simultaneously increasing the scope and sharpening the resolution of psychological views of morality. PMID:21244182

  17. Moral politics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rapp, Carolin; Traunmüller, Richard; Freitag, Markus

    2014-01-01

    This article combines the research strands of moral politics and political behavior by focusing on the effect of individual and contextual religiosity on individual vote decisions in popular initiatives and public referenda concerning morally charged issues. We rely on a total of 13 surveys with 1...... American research on moral politics, direct democracies, and the public role of religion....

  18. Selective Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral Agency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bandura, Albert

    2002-01-01

    Addresses the issue of selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Argues that moral functioning is governed by self-reactive selfhood rather than by dispassionate abstract reasoning. Concludes that the massive threats to human welfare stem mainly from deliberate acts of principle rather than from unrestrained acts of impulse.…

  19. A Mind-Reader Does Not Always Have Deontological Moral Judgments and Prosocial Behavior: A Developmental Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun

    2016-01-01

    The rationalistic theories of morality emphasize that reasoning plays an important role in moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Theory of mind as a reasoning ability in the mental domain has been considered a facilitator of moral development. The present study examined whether theory of mind was consistently positively associated with morality from middle childhood to late adulthood. Two hundred and four participants, including 48 elementary school children, 45 adolescents, 62 younger adults, and 49 older adults, completed theory of mind, moral judgment and prosocial behavior tasks. Theory of mind was measured with strange stories that tapped into an understanding of lies, white lies, double bluffs, irony, and persuasion. Moral judgments were measured with variants of the trolley dilemma. Prosocial behavior was measured through participants' performance in an interactive situation in which a helping request was made. The results indicated specific rather than similar developmental trajectories of theory of mind, moral judgments, and prosocial behavior. There was a quadratic trend in theory of mind, a combination of quadratic and cubic trends in deontological moral judgments and a linear decline in helping behavior. It is thus suggested that theory of mind may not be associated with morality in an unchanging way during development. Further results indicated that theory of mind and deontological moral judgments were negatively correlated for children, adolescents, and older adults but positively correlated for younger adults. Theory of mind and helping behavior were positively correlated for children but negatively correlated for adolescents. However, the relationships disappeared in adulthood. In sum, the present study reveals that theory of mind may be a nice tool for its facilitation of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior, but it may also be a nasty tool for its blocking of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Moreover, theory

  20. JOB STRESS AS A PREDICTOR OF EMPLOYEE HEALTH

    OpenAIRE

    AZMAN Ismail; NORHAFIZAH Abu Hasan; YU-FEI (Melissa) Chin; YUSOF Ismail; AINON JAUHARIAH Abu Samah

    2013-01-01

    This study was conducted to measure the relationship between job stress and employee health. A survey method was employed to collect self-administered questionnaires from employees in established universities in Sarawak, Malaysia. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model revealed three important findings: first, role ambiguity was positively and significantly related to employee health. Second, role conflict was positively and significantly related to employee health. Third, role overload was posi...

  1. Nurse middle manager ethical dilemmas and moral distress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganz, Freda D; Wagner, Nurit; Toren, Orly

    2015-02-01

    Nurse managers are placed in a unique position within the healthcare system where they greatly impact upon the nursing work environment. Ethical dilemmas and moral distress have been reported for staff nurses but not for nurse middle managers. To describe ethical dilemmas and moral distress among nurse middle managers arising from situations of ethical conflict. The Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing-Middle Manager Questionnaire and a personal characteristics questionnaire were administered to a convenience sample of middle managers from four hospitals in Israel. Middle managers report low to moderate levels of frequency and intensity of ethical dilemmas and moral distress. Highest scores were for administrative dilemmas. Middle managers experience lower levels of ethical dilemmas and moral distress than staff nurses, which are irrespective of their personal characteristics. Interventions should be developed, studied, and then incorporated into institutional frameworks in order to improve this situation. © The Author(s) 2014.

  2. Moral Beliefs and Cognitive Homogeneity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nevia Dolcini

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The Emotional Perception Model of moral judgment intends to account for experientialism about morality and moral reasoning. In explaining how moral beliefs are formed and applied in practical reasoning, the model attempts to overcome the mismatch between reason and action/desire: morality isn’t about reason for actions, yet moral beliefs, if caused by desires, may play a motivational role in (moral agency. The account allows for two kinds of moral beliefs: genuine moral beliefs, which enjoy a relation to desire, and motivationally inert moral beliefs acquired in ways other than experience. Such etiology-based dichotomy of concepts, I will argue, leads to the undesirable view of cognition as a non-homogeneous phenomenon. Moreover, the distinction between moral beliefs and moral beliefs would entail a further dichotomy encompassing the domain of moral agency: one and the same action might possibly be either genuine moral, or not moral, if acted by individuals lacking the capacity for moral feelings, such as psychopaths.

  3. Promoting postconventional morality: the adequacy of Kohlberg's aim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wonderly, D M; Kupfersmid, J H

    1980-01-01

    Lawrence Kohlberg has advocated the implementation of programs in the public schools designed to raise the general level of moral reasoning. His contention is that the attainment of Postconventional moral reasoning is associated with optimal personal and social adjustment. Growing concern about the violence and disintegration of American society has led to public and private support for such programs. Because intervention into the moral education of children in a democratic society raises serious social/political questions, it seems appropriate to consider the relevance of the Kohlberg hypothesis. In this paper, the twin issues of philosophic adequacy and empirical evidence are examined. In neither respect does the cognitive-developmentalist position find the support essential to a recommendation for its use.

  4. The Everyday Moral Judge – Autobiographical Recollections of Moral Emotions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tscharaktschiew, Nadine; Schindler, Rose; Schulz, Katrin; Rudolph, Udo

    2016-01-01

    Moral emotions are typically elicited in everyday social interactions and regulate social behavior. Previous research in the field of attribution theory identified ought (the moral standard of a given situation or intended goal), goal-attainment (a goal can be attained vs. not attained) and effort (high vs. low effort expenditure) as cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. In contrast to earlier studies, mainly relying on thought experiments, we investigated autobiographical recollections of N = 312 participants by means of an online study. We analyzed a diverse range of moral emotions, i.e., admiration, anger, contempt, indignation, pride, respect, schadenfreude, and sympathy, by using a mixed-method approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods clearly corroborate the important role of ought, goal-attainment, and effort as eliciting conditions of moral emotions. Furthermore, we built categorical systems based on our participants’ descriptions of real-life situations, allowing for more fine-grained distinctions between seemingly similar moral emotions. We thus identify additional prerequisites explaining more subtle differences between moral emotion clusters as they emerge from our analyses (i.e., cluster 1: admiration, pride, and respect; cluster 2: anger, contempt, and indignation; cluster 3: schadenfreude and sympathy). Results are discussed in the light of attributional theories of moral emotions, and implications for future research are derived. PMID:27977699

  5. Ethical perceptions of employees in small retailing firms: A case of indigenous-owned fast-food outlets in Zimbabwe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patient Rambe

    2017-07-01

    Aim: The overall aim of this study is to contribute to ethical theory and literature by demonstrating how employees’ ethical perceptions and behaviour shape the strategic orientations of the business. To achieve this aim, the study sought to: (1 establish the typical ethical dilemmas that employees of these retail firms faced in their daily tasks, (2 assess how they responded to these ethical challenges, (3 ascertain whether demographic factors such as age, level of education, gender and their position in the organisational hierarchy influence their reaction to ethical dilemmas; and (4 determine these employees’ overall perceptions of ethical issues within their organisations. Setting: The study was conducted on employees of an indigenous-owned fast-food firm operating in two cities in Zimbabwe. Methods: A survey was conducted on 108 employees working in two cities. A structured questionnaire was developed and administered to the employees. Results: The results suggested that a majority of the respondents were ethically conscious and could make ethical choices. In addition, most respondents deemed the ethical scenarios presented to them as morally wrong, suggesting that the surveyed employees wished to engage in ethical behaviour. However, while the respondents were deemed to be ethically astute in their individual capacities, they seemed to lack an in-depth knowledge of the ethical policies of their organisation. Conclusion: The study concludes that owners and managers of small firms should provide interventions to cascade ethical policy to the lower ranks of the organisation to enhance the ethical perception amongst employees of these firms. The study implication is that an institutional top-down approach is critical to embedding ethical sensitivity into employees without which employees may continue to speculate about the business ethics of their organisation.

  6. Employee well-being and positive work environment : integrated theoretical model

    OpenAIRE

    Gustainienė, Loreta; Pranckevičienė, Aistė; Bukšnytė-Marmienė, Loreta; Genevičiūtė-Janonienė, Giedrė

    2014-01-01

    Straipsnyje pristatomas integruotas teorinis darbuotojo gerovės ir palankios darbo aplinkos modelis, pagrįstas pozityviosios psichologijos idėjomis ir tyrimais, kuriuo siekiama prisidėti prie pozityvių veiksnių darbo aplinkoje plėtotės. Business sector in developed countries faces financial losses related to health problems of their employees. These expenses are related to economic as well as to human losses. Therefore it is important to enhance employee well-being in order to prevent thes...

  7. Moral education through literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pantić Nataša

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines a variety of perspectives on the role of literature in moral education. These proceed from general considerations to more specific issues that remain contested to the present day, such as distinction between individual and social morality. Others bring any literature under suspicion in the post-structuralist era, such as the cultural relativity of morality, distinctions between aesthetic and moral dimensions of literary works, and between moral awareness and behavior. The discussion is illustrated through considerations of the place of literature in English moral education from the Victorians to the present day. The discussion of dilemmas that policy makers and educators face today focuses on three dilemmas that often serve to question a possibility of justifying the morally educative power of literature: cultural relativism in literature and ideology (and its implications for the canon, the distinction between an aesthetic and moral power of literature, and finally, the doubts about the transferability of moral awareness acquired through literature to actual moral conduct. .

  8. Stereotypes of older employees compared to younger employees in Slovenian companies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maja Rožman

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Human resource management has an important impact on age diversity in companies. Age diversity in the workplace is growing and older employees are staying longer in the workforce, therefore it is important that employers can create a positive environment for age diverse employees. This paper introduces the difference in stereotypes in the workplace between older and younger employees in Slovenian companies. The main goal of this paper is to present the importance of age diversity and their age difference in stereotypes in the workplace. The paper is based on a research including a survey between two age groups of employees. We classified younger employees in the group of under 50 years of age and older employees in the group of above 50 years of age. For data analysis we used the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test to verify the differences in stereotypes in the workplace between two groups. Results show that there are significant differences in all of the variables describing stereotypes in the workplace between younger and older employees in Slovenian companies.

  9. Retention of key employees in the oil field service sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, S.

    1999-01-01

    Before 1994, Core Laboratories Canada Ltd. adopted local country benefit plans as stipulated by the government of the day. This approach meant that the company had many different benefit plans in place or in some situations no benefit plans at all, if the law of the land allowed such an approach. The company at this time viewed the lack of or minimal benefit plans as a cost saving venture. The parent company did not take onto account the effect on morale, employee retention and loyalty that these limited plans provided. A change in ownership in 1994 presented the opportunity for Core to re-assess its benefits package and introduce an incentive plan for its worldwide employees. The introduction of a pension with profits plan proved to be satisfying to employees, and the manager's incentive plan enabled the company to retain, with the exception of people who retired from the business, its entire management staff over a four year period. The stock option plan led to the retention of essential employees and reduced the turnover in this area. Discretionary bonuses succeeded in promoting recognition amongst employees as well as providing monetary reward, and the combination of benefits, incentive and stock option plans enabled the company to retain the vast majority of key employees and to entice selected individuals to the company from other organizations. 3 refs

  10. Moral Development in Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, Daniel; Carlo, Gustavo

    2005-01-01

    Themes in the papers in this special issue of the "JRA" on moral development are identified. We discuss the intersection of moral development research with policy concerns, the distinctive qualities of moral life in adolescence that warrant investigation, the multiple connotations of "moral", the methods typical of moral development research, and…

  11. What messages can foster safer sex among young women? Experimental evidence concerning the role of emotions and moral norms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matera, Camilla; Nerini, Amanda; Baroni, Duccio; Stefanile, Cristina

    2018-07-01

    Through a 2 × 2 × 2 quasi experimental design (N = 254), this research investigated if a social campaign eliciting positive emotions and activating moral norms might enhance condom negotiation skills, intended and estimated condom among young women with or without past sexual experience with casual partners. Emotions had a main effect on one of the six condom negotiation strategies we considered; for most of the other variables an interaction effect with moral norms and/or past behaviour emerged. Concerning estimated condom use, positive emotions worked better than negative ones when moral norms were salient. With respect to negotiations skills, positive rather than negative emotions seemed more effective for women with past causal sexual experience. In women without this kind of experience, positive emotions seemed to work better when moral norms were salient. Moral norms had a main effect on negotiation self-efficacy, but not in the predicted direction: when moral norms were more salient women were found to be less confident about their negotiation ability. These results suggest that a message which makes moral norms salient should at the same time elicit positive emotions in order to be effective; moreover, messages should be carefully tailored according to women's past behaviour.

  12. The development of moral emotions and decision-making from adolescence to early adulthood: a 6-year longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krettenauer, Tobias; Colasante, Tyler; Buchmann, Marlis; Malti, Tina

    2014-04-01

    Adolescents' emotions in the context of moral decision-making repeatedly have been shown to predict actual behaviour. However, little systematic information on developmental change regarding these emotion expectancies has been available thus far. This longitudinal study investigated anticipated moral emotions and decision-making between the ages of 15 and 21 in a representative sample of Swiss adolescents (N = 1,258; 54 % female; M = 15.30 years). Anticipated moral emotions and decision-making were assessed through a semi-structured interview procedure. Using Bernoulli hierarchical linear modeling, it was found that positive feelings after a moral transgression (i.e., "happy victimizer" responses) decreased over time, whereas positive feelings after a moral decision (i.e., "happy moralist" responses) increased. However, this pattern was contingent upon the moral scenario presented. Systematic relationships between anticipated moral emotions and moral personality characteristics of sympathy, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were found, even when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and cognitive ability. Overall, this study demonstrates that the development of anticipated moral emotions is not limited to childhood. Furthermore, our findings suggest that moral emotions serve as an important link between moral personality development and decision-making processes that are more proximal to everyday moral behavior.

  13. The Unifying Moral Dyad: Liberals and Conservatives Share the Same Harm-Based Moral Template.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schein, Chelsea; Gray, Kurt

    2015-08-01

    Do moral disagreements regarding specific issues (e.g., patriotism, chastity) reflect deep cognitive differences (i.e., distinct cognitive mechanisms) between liberals and conservatives? Dyadic morality suggests that the answer is "no." Despite moral diversity, we reveal that moral cognition--in both liberals and conservatives--is rooted in a harm-based template. A dyadic template suggests that harm should be central within moral cognition, an idea tested--and confirmed--through six specific hypotheses. Studies suggest that moral judgment occurs via dyadic comparison, in which counter-normative acts are compared with a prototype of harm. Dyadic comparison explains why harm is the most accessible and important of moral content, why harm organizes--and overlaps with--diverse moral content, and why harm best translates across moral content. Dyadic morality suggests that various moral content (e.g., loyalty, purity) are varieties of perceived harm and that past research has substantially exaggerated moral differences between liberals and conservatives. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  14. Moral competence among nurses in Malawi: A concept analysis approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maluwa, Veronica Mary; Gwaza, Elizabeth; Sakala, Betty; Kapito, Esnath; Mwale, Ruth; Haruzivishe, Clara; Chirwa, Ellen

    2018-01-01

    Nurses are expected to provide comprehensive, holistic and ethically accepted care according to their code of ethics and practice. However, in Malawi, this is not always the case. This article analyses moral competence concept using the Walker and Avant's strategy of concept analysis. The aim of this article is to analyse moral competence concept in relation to nursing practice and determine defining attributes, antecedents and consequences of moral competence in nursing practice. Analysis of moral competence concept was done using Walker and Avant's strategy of concept analysis. Deductive analysis was used to find the defining attributes of moral competence, which were kindness, compassion, caring, critical thinking, ethical decision making ability, problem solving, responsibility, discipline, accountability, communication, solidarity, honesty, and respect for human values, dignity and rights. The identified antecedents were personal, cultural and religious values; nursing ethics training, environment and guidance. The consequences of moral competence are team work spirit, effective communication, improved performance and positive attitudes in providing nursing care. Moral competence can therefore be used as a tool to improve care in nursing practice to meet patients' problems and needs and consequently increase public's satisfaction in Malawi.

  15. Explaining Moral Behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osman, Magda; Wiegmann, Alex

    2017-03-01

    In this review we make a simple theoretical argument which is that for theory development, computational modeling, and general frameworks for understanding moral psychology researchers should build on domain-general principles from reasoning, judgment, and decision-making research. Our approach is radical with respect to typical models that exist in moral psychology that tend to propose complex innate moral grammars and even evolutionarily guided moral principles. In support of our argument we show that by using a simple value-based decision model we can capture a range of core moral behaviors. Crucially, the argument we propose is that moral situations per se do not require anything specialized or different from other situations in which we have to make decisions, inferences, and judgments in order to figure out how to act.

  16. Two Distinct Moral Mechanisms for Ascribing and Denying Intentionality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngo, Lawrence; Kelly, Meagan; Coutlee, Christopher G.; Carter, R. McKell; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter; Huettel, Scott A.

    2015-01-01

    Philosophers and legal scholars have long theorized about how intentionality serves as a critical input for morality and culpability, but the emerging field of experimental philosophy has revealed a puzzling asymmetry. People judge actions leading to negative consequences as being more intentional than those leading to positive ones. The implications of this asymmetry remain unclear because there is no consensus regarding the underlying mechanism. Based on converging behavioral and neural evidence, we demonstrate that there is no single underlying mechanism. Instead, two distinct mechanisms together generate the asymmetry. Emotion drives ascriptions of intentionality for negative consequences, while the consideration of statistical norms leads to the denial of intentionality for positive consequences. We employ this novel two-mechanism model to illustrate that morality can paradoxically shape judgments of intentionality. This is consequential for mens rea in legal practice and arguments in moral philosophy pertaining to terror bombing, abortion, and euthanasia among others. PMID:26634909

  17. MORAL HARASSMENT AT WORK: A STUDY OF PRACTICES FOR THE PREVENTION AND FIGHTING OF THE PHENOMENON IN COMPANIES IN THE NORTH OF PARANÁ

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rubens de França Teixeira

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Moral Harassment, besides being a great challenge for the field of people management, is considered a serious problem within organizations, because it indicates, in most cases, the structural failures resulting from deliberate action or omission from the responsible managers. The discussion of the matter is of great importance, since it allows for stimulating debate about the causes of the incidence of moral harassment in the workplace as well as possible strategies to prevent the problem. Accordingly, this study aimed to conduct a survey of companies operating in the north of Paraná, in order to have a parameter of how they are experiencing moral harassment and how they are trying to fight it. To examine the raised issues, we opted for a non-probabilistic intentional sample, composed of five major companies that received awards in recent years directed to their people management policies. This criterion was relevant as companies sought to possess Human Resources policies that have proven effective along with explicit concern for the quality of life of employees and their working environment. The results showed that these organizations have a range of policies that address the relationships among employees in the workplace and these are considered strong instruments for the prevention of moral harassment. However, they do not have specific policies to fight the discussed phenomenon.

  18. Influence of corporate culture on innovative activity of employees of the enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir Nikiforovich Belkin

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available In the article, the ways of influence of corporate culture on innovative activity of staff of enterprises are considered. The authors understand the corporate culture of the enterprise as the system of cultural, moral, esthetic and other wealth, which is used and introduced in labor life of employees by employers and CEO. On the basis of this system, the enterprise norms and rules of the relations of workers, customs, traditions etc. are developed. The corporate culture of the enterprise is connected with the general culture of the people of the country, it reflects on this or that form, to some extent, but it can contradict it. In this case, the conflict of cultural values of the enterprise and workers is possible. In the article, much attention is paid to influence of corporate culture of Japanese corporations on innovative activity of their workers. It is shown that high innovative activity of the personnel is provided not with separate systems of material and moral incentive, but with all system of the labor relations built on the basis of corporate culture. In the center of corporate culture, there is a person, instead of goods and services. It can be found in such systems of work with staff as “lifelong hiring”, account system in a salary of “vital peaks” of employees, staff turnover, training at the workplace etc. The corporate culture of Toyota corporation is based on the business philosophy, according to which, the main socio-economic purpose is the ensuring the welfare of its employees and improvement of life of the population of the whole world. In the article is shown that in the conditions of transition of the Russian Federation to the market economy, there were basic changes in corporate culture of the enterprises. Market business-culture according to which the main thing for the enterprise is profit, and workers are only one of means of production, was included in a contradiction with a mentality of the Russian

  19. The Morality of Socioscientific Issues: Construal and Resolution of Genetic Engineering Dilemmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadler, Troy D.; Zeidler, Dana L.

    2004-01-01

    The ability to negotiate and resolve socioscientific issues has been posited as integral components of scientific literacy. Although philosophers and science educators have argued that socioscientific issues inherently involve moral and ethical considerations, the ultimate arbiters of morality are individual decision-makers. This study explored…

  20. Analysis of the moral habitability of the nursing work environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Elizabeth H; Macfarlane, Amy V; O'Brien-Pallas, Linda L

    2004-08-01

    Following health reform, nurses have experienced the tremendous stress of heavy workloads, long hours and difficult professional responsibilities. In recognition of these problems, a study was conducted that examined the impact of the working environment on the health of nurses. After conducting focus groups across Canada with nurses and others well acquainted with nursing issues, it became clear that the difficult work environments described had significant ethical implications. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of research that examined the moral habitability of the nursing working environment. A secondary analysis was conducted using the theoretical work of Margaret Urban Walker. Moral practices and responsibilities from Walker's perspective cannot be extricated from other social roles, practices and divisions of labour. Moral-social orders, such as work environments in this research, must be made transparent to examine their moral habitability. Morally habitable environments are those in which differently situated people experience their responsibilities as intelligible and coherent. They also foster recognition, cooperation and shared benefits. Four overarching categories were developed through the analysis of the data: (1) oppressive work environments; (2) incoherent moral understandings; (3) moral suffering and (4) moral influence and resistance. The findings clearly indicate that participants perceived the work environment to be morally uninhabitable. The social and spatial positioning of nurses left them vulnerable to being overburdened by and unsure of their responsibilities. Nevertheless, nurses found meaningful ways to resist and to influence the moral environment. We recommend that nurses develop strong moral identities, make visible the inseparability of their proximity to patients and moral accountability, and further identify what forms of collective action are most effective in improving the moral habitability of their work

  1. Moral foundations vignettes: a standardized stimulus database of scenarios based on moral foundations theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clifford, Scott; Iyengar, Vijeth; Cabeza, Roberto; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter

    2015-12-01

    Research on the emotional, cognitive, and social determinants of moral judgment has surged in recent years. The development of moral foundations theory (MFT) has played an important role, demonstrating the breadth of morality. Moral psychology has responded by investigating how different domains of moral judgment are shaped by a variety of psychological factors. Yet, the discipline lacks a validated set of moral violations that span the moral domain, creating a barrier to investigating influences on judgment and how their neural bases might vary across the moral domain. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by developing and validating a large set of moral foundations vignettes (MFVs). Each vignette depicts a behavior violating a particular moral foundation and not others. The vignettes are controlled on many dimensions including syntactic structure and complexity making them suitable for neuroimaging research. We demonstrate the validity of our vignettes by examining respondents' classifications of moral violations, conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and demonstrating the correspondence between the extracted factors and existing measures of the moral foundations. We expect that the MFVs will be beneficial for a wide variety of behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of moral cognition.

  2. Moral foundations vignettes: a standardized stimulus database of scenarios based on moral foundations theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iyengar, Vijeth; Cabeza, Roberto; Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter

    2016-01-01

    Research on the emotional, cognitive, and social determinants of moral judgment has surged in recent years. The development of moral foundations theory (MFT) has played an important role, demonstrating the breadth of morality. Moral psychology has responded by investigating how different domains of moral judgment are shaped by a variety of psychological factors. Yet, the discipline lacks a validated set of moral violations that span the moral domain, creating a barrier to investigating influences on judgment and how their neural bases might vary across the moral domain. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by developing and validating a large set of moral foundations vignettes (MFVs). Each vignette depicts a behavior violating a particular moral foundation and not others. The vignettes are controlled on many dimensions including syntactic structure and complexity making them suitable for neuroimaging research. We demonstrate the validity of our vignettes by examining respondents’ classifications of moral violations, conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and demonstrating the correspondence between the extracted factors and existing measures of the moral foundations. We expect that the MFVs will be beneficial for a wide variety of behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of moral cognition. PMID:25582811

  3. Moral Appearances: Emotions, Robots, and Human Morality.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Coeckelbergh, Mark

    2010-01-01

    Can we build ‘moral robots’? If morality depends on emotions, the answer seems negative. Current robots do not meet standard necessary conditions for having emotions: they lack consciousness, mental states, and feelings. Moreover, it is not even clear how we might ever establish whether robots

  4. When Do Morally Motivated Innovators Elicit Inspiration Instead of Irritation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolderdijk, Jan Willem; Brouwer, Claire; Cornelissen, Gert

    2017-01-01

    Innovators (i.e., consumers who are the first to adopt an innovation) are pivotal for the societal diffusion of sustainable innovations. But when are innovators most influential? Recent work suggests that morally motivated innovators (i.e., consumers who adopt an innovation out of concern for the welfare of others) can make fellow consumers who have not yet adopted that innovation feel morally inadequate. As a self-defense mechanism, those fellow consumers might dismiss these innovators and their choices. As a result, ironically, morally motivated innovators might discourage others to adopt sustainable innovations. In an experimental study, we replicate this pattern, but also show that moral innovators can elicit a more positive response as well. Specifically, our results offer initial evidence that morally motivated innovators may be more inspiring than self-interested innovators, provided that their actions do not directly pose a threat to the moral self-concept of observers. In sum, our research sheds empirical light on the conditions under which innovators are likely to facilitate, rather than slow down the transition to a more sustainable society.

  5. Issues in Constructivist Early Moral Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeVries, Rheta; Zan, Betty; Hildebrandt, Carolyn

    2002-01-01

    Cites empirical evidence contrary to Goodman's assertion that preschool children are egocentric and incapable of moral reflection. Offers evidence that heteronomous regulation of children leads to numerous undesirable outcomes and that encouragement of children's autonomy leads to positive outcomes. Points out numerous misconceptions of…

  6. Moral Complexity: The Fatal Attraction of Truthiness and the Importance of Mature Moral Functioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narvaez, Darcia

    2010-03-01

    Recently, intuitionist theories have been effective in capturing the academic discourse about morality. Intuitionist theories, like rationalist theories, offer important but only partial understanding of moral functioning. Both can be fallacious and succumb to truthiness: the attachment to one's opinions because they "feel right," potentially leading to harmful action or inaction. Both intuition and reasoning are involved in deliberation and expertise. Both are malleable from environmental and educational influence, making questions of normativity-which intuitions and reasoning skills to foster-of utmost importance. Good intuition and reasoning inform mature moral functioning, which needs to include capacities that promote sustainable human well-being. Individual capacities for habituated empathic concern and moral metacognition-moral locus of control, moral self-regulation, and moral self-reflection-comprise mature moral functioning, which also requires collective capacities for moral dialogue and moral institutions. These capacities underlie moral innovation and are necessary for solving the complex challenges humanity faces. © The Author(s) 2010.

  7. Evaluation by employees of employee management on large US dairy farms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durst, Phillip T; Moore, Stanley J; Ritter, Caroline; Barkema, Herman W

    2018-05-23

    Employees, many of whom are not native English speakers, perform the majority of work on large US dairy farms. Although management of employees is a critical role of dairy owners and managers, factors that improve employee engagement and retention are not well known. Objectives were to (1) identify key dairy farm employee management issues based on employee perceptions, (2) evaluate strengths and weaknesses of farms based on employee responses, (3) investigate differences between Latino and English-speaking employees, and (4) investigate differences in perception between employers and employees. Employees from 12 US dairy farms (each with a minimum of 10 employees) were interviewed by phone following a questionnaire provided. Employees provided their responses to 21 Likert scale questions and 8 open-ended questions. There was a wide range in employee turnover among farms (100%). Latino employees had much shorter tenure and were more often employed in milking and livestock care than English-speaking employees. Employee perceptions differed among farms regarding whether they would recommend their farm as a place to work, teamwork within the dairy, whether rules were fairly applied, availability of tools and equipment, clear lines of supervision, and recognition for good work in the previous 15 d. Latino employees (n = 91) were more positive in many of these measures than their English-speaking counterparts (n = 77) but less often provided ideas to their employer on how to improve the business. Employers, surveyed on how they thought their employees would answer, underestimated employee responses on several questions, particularly the interest of employees in learning about dairy. When asked to cite 3 goals of the operation, there were differences among owners, managers, and employees. Although employees rated their commitment to the farm and their interest in learning as high, based on turnover, there was an obvious disparity between reality and ideal employee

  8. Religion, morality, evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloom, Paul

    2012-01-01

    How did religion evolve? What effect does religion have on our moral beliefs and moral actions? These questions are related, as some scholars propose that religion has evolved to enhance altruistic behavior toward members of one's group. I review here data from survey studies (both within and across countries), priming experiments, and correlational studies of the effects of religion on racial prejudice. I conclude that religion has powerfully good moral effects and powerfully bad moral effects, but these are due to aspects of religion that are shared by other human practices. There is surprisingly little evidence for a moral effect of specifically religious beliefs.

  9. Costs of employee turnover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiří Duda

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to establish a general methodology for calculating the costs incurred by employee turnover. This paper deals with identification of costs incurred by the departure of an employee, and does not deal with the cost of recruitment of a new employee. Economic calculations are adjusted to the tax policy in the Czech Republic. The costs of employee turnover (according to Bliss, 2012 include the costs of substitution of the unoccupied position, costs of conducting the exit interview and termination of the contract. The cost of an executive’s time to understand the causes of leaving and costs of the leaving employee’s training were also determined. Important factors in the costs of employee turnover also include the loss of knowledge and possibly also a loss of customers. Costs of lost employee and department productiveness represent an important part of the costs of employee turnover, as well. For all of these costs there have been proposed general calculations formulas.

  10. "Moral Ecology" and "Moral Capital": Tools towards a Sociology of Moral Education from a South African Ethnography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swartz, Sharlene

    2010-01-01

    Research and pedagogy in the field of morality and moral education has long been dominated by philosophical and psychological disciplines. Although sociological studies and theorising in the field have not been absent, it has been limited and non-systematic. Drawing on a study that investigated the lived morality of a group of young South Africans…

  11. A Mind-Reader Does Not Always Have Deontological Moral Judgments and Prosocial Behavior: A Developmental Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun

    2016-01-01

    The rationalistic theories of morality emphasize that reasoning plays an important role in moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Theory of mind as a reasoning ability in the mental domain has been considered a facilitator of moral development. The present study examined whether theory of mind was consistently positively associated with morality from middle childhood to late adulthood. Two hundred and four participants, including 48 elementary school children, 45 adolescents, 62 younger adults, and 49 older adults, completed theory of mind, moral judgment and prosocial behavior tasks. Theory of mind was measured with strange stories that tapped into an understanding of lies, white lies, double bluffs, irony, and persuasion. Moral judgments were measured with variants of the trolley dilemma. Prosocial behavior was measured through participants' performance in an interactive situation in which a helping request was made. The results indicated specific rather than similar developmental trajectories of theory of mind, moral judgments, and prosocial behavior. There was a quadratic trend in theory of mind, a combination of quadratic and cubic trends in deontological moral judgments and a linear decline in helping behavior. It is thus suggested that theory of mind may not be associated with morality in an unchanging way during development. Further results indicated that theory of mind and deontological moral judgments were negatively correlated for children, adolescents, and older adults but positively correlated for younger adults. Theory of mind and helping behavior were positively correlated for children but negatively correlated for adolescents. However, the relationships disappeared in adulthood. In sum, the present study reveals that theory of mind may be a nice tool for its facilitation of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior, but it may also be a nasty tool for its blocking of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Moreover, theory

  12. Reactions to morally motivated deviance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cramwinckel, F.M.; Van den Bos, K.; Van Dijk, E.

    2015-01-01

    People value morality in themselves and others. They want to be moral and good individuals, associate themselves with others who share their moral values, and belong to moral groups. As an ironic consequence of the importance of morality, people sometimes respond negatively to morally motivated

  13. Measuring biotechnology employees' ethical attitudes towards a controversial transgenic cattle project: the ethical valance matrix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Small, Bruce H; Fisher, Mark W

    2005-01-01

    What is the relationship between biotechnology employees' beliefs about the moral outcomes of a controversial transgenic research project and their attitudes of acceptance towards the project? To answer this question, employees (n=466) of a New Zealand company, AgResearch Ltd., were surveyed regarding a project to create transgenic cattle containing a synthetic copy of the human myelin basic protein gene (hMBP). Although diversity existed amongst employees' attitudes of acceptance, they were generally: in favor of the project, believed that it should be allowed to proceed to completion, and that it is acceptable to use transgenic cattle to produce medicines for humans. These three items were aggregated to form a project acceptance score. Scales were developed to measure respondents' beliefs about the moral outcomes of the project for identified stakeholders in terms of the four principles of common morality (benefit, non-harm, justice, and autonomy). These data were statistically aggregated into an Ethical Valence Matrix fo the project. The respondents' project Ethical Valence Scores correlated significantly with their project acceptance scores (r=0.64, pethical reasoning could be a central mechanism for the evaluation of the acceptability of a project. We propose that the Ethical Valence Matrix may be used as a tool to measure ethical attitudes towards controversial issues, providing a metric for comparison of perceived ethical consequences for multiple stakeholder groups and for the evaluation and comparison of the ethical consequences of competing alternative issues or projects. The tool could be used to measure both public and special interest groups' ethical attitudes and results used for the development of socially responsible policy or by science organizations as a democratizing decision aid to selection amongst projects competing for scarce research funds.

  14. Neural correlates of moral and non-moral emotion in female psychopathy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carla L Harenski

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available This study presents the first neuroimaging investigation of female psychopathy in an incarcerated population. Prior studies have found that male psychopathy is associated with reduced limbic and paralimbic activation when processing emotional stimuli and making moral judgments. The goal of this study was to investigate whether these findings extend to female psychopathy. During fMRI scanning, 157 incarcerated and 46 non-incarcerated female participants viewed unpleasant pictures, half which depicted moral transgressions, and neutral pictures. Participants rated each picture on moral transgression severity. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R in all incarcerated participants. Non-incarcerated participants were included as a control group to derive brain regions of interest associated with viewing unpleasant versus neutral pictures (emotion contrast, and unpleasant pictures depicting moral transgressions versus unpleasant pictures without moral transgressions (moral contrast. Regression analyses in the incarcerated group examined the association between PCL-R scores and brain activation in the emotion and moral contrasts. Results of the emotion contrast revealed a negative correlation between PCL-R scores and activation in the right amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate. Results of the moral contrast revealed a negative correlation between PCL-R scores and activation in the right temporo-parietal junction. These results indicate that female psychopathy, like male psychopathy, is characterized by reduced limbic activation during emotion processing. In contrast, reduced temporo-parietal activation to moral transgressions has been less observed in male psychopathy. These results extend prior findings in male psychopathy to female psychopathy, and reveal aberrant neural responses to morally-salient stimuli that may be unique to female psychopathy.

  15. Morale and Productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-01

    account for valuation of highly technical skill sets and variation among job descriptions. 9 Once morale can be effectively measured and linked to...morale progression through phases (arrival, engagement, acceptance, and reentry), which have corresponding peaks and valleys for morale and, by

  16. It's not all about moral reasoning: Understanding the content of Moral Case Deliberation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svantesson, Mia; Silén, Marit; James, Inger

    2018-03-01

    Moral Case Deliberation is one form of clinical ethics support described as a facilitator-led collective moral reasoning by healthcare professionals on a concrete moral question connected to their practice. Evaluation research is needed, but, as human interaction is difficult to standardise, there is a need to capture the content beyond moral reasoning. This allows for a better understanding of Moral Case Deliberation, which may contribute to further development of valid outcome criteria and stimulate the normative discussion of what Moral Case Deliberation should contain. To explore and compare the content beyond moral reasoning in the dialogue in Moral Case Deliberation at Swedish workplaces. A mixed-methods approach was applied for analysing audio-recordings of 70 periodic Moral Case Deliberation meetings at 10 Swedish workplaces. Moral Case Deliberation facilitators and various healthcare professions participated, with registered nurses comprising the majority. Ethical considerations: No objection to the study was made by an Ethical Review Board. After oral and written information was provided, consent to be recorded was assumed by virtue of participation. Other than 'moral reasoning' (median (md): 45% of the spoken time), the Moral Case Deliberations consisted of 'reflections on the psychosocial work environment' to a varying extent (md: 29%). Additional content comprised 'assumptions about the patient's psychosocial situation' (md: 6%), 'facts about the patient's situation' (md: 5%), 'concrete problem-solving' (md: 6%) and 'process' (md: 3%). The findings suggest that a restorative function of staff's wellbeing in Moral Case Deliberation is needed, as this might contribute to good patient care. This supports outcome criteria of improved emotional support, which may include relief of moral distress. However, facilitators need a strategy for how to proceed from the participants' own emotional needs and to develop the use of their emotional knowing to focus on

  17. Gender and the experience of moral distress in critical care nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connell, Christopher B

    2015-02-01

    Nursing practice is complex, as nurses are challenged by increasingly intricate moral and ethical judgments. Inadequately studied in underrepresented groups in nursing, moral distress is a serious problem internationally for healthcare professionals with deleterious effects to patients, nurses, and organizations. Moral distress among nurses has been shown to contribute to decreased job satisfaction and increased turnover, withdrawal from patients, physical and psychological symptoms, and intent to leave current position or to leave the profession altogether. Do significant gender differences exist in the moral distress scores of critical care nurses? This study utilized a quantitative, descriptive methodology to explore moral distress levels in a sample of critical care nurses to determine whether gender differences exist in their mean moral distress scores. Participants (n = 31) were critical care nurses from an American Internet nursing community who completed the Moral Distress Scale-Revised online over a 5-day period in July 2013. Institutional review board review approved the study, and accessing and completing the survey implied informed consent. The results revealed a statistically significant gender difference in the mean moral distress scores of participants. Females reported statistically significantly higher moral distress scores than did males. Overall, the moral distress scores for both groups were relatively low. The findings of a gender difference have not previously been reported in the literature. However, other findings are consistent with previous studies on moral distress. Although the results of this study are not generalizable, they do suggest the need for continuing research on moral distress in underrepresented groups in nursing, including cultural and ethnic groups. © The Author(s) 2014.

  18. Morality in everyday life

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hofmann, W.; Wisneski, D.C.; Brandt, M.J.; Skitka, L.J.

    2014-01-01

    The science of morality has drawn heavily on well-controlled but artificial laboratory settings. To study everyday morality, we repeatedly assessed moral or immoral acts and experiences in a large (N = 1252) sample using ecological momentary assessment. Moral experiences were surprisingly frequent

  19. Justice and Caring and the Problem of Moral Relativism: Reframing the Gender Question in Ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brell, Carl D., Jr.

    1989-01-01

    Examines the issue of moral relativism as it pertains to conceptualizations of gender effect on moral development. Reviews positions of theorists regarding the importance of formal and contextually relative criteria to the development of moral reasoning. Argues that neither a justice nor a caring ethic alone can solve the problem of moral…

  20. What Develops in Moral Development? A Model of Moral Sensibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherblom, Stephen A.

    2012-01-01

    The field of moral psychology would benefit from an integrative model of what develops in moral development, contextualized within the larger scope of social science research. Moral sensibility is proposed as the best concept to embody stated aims, but the content of this concept must be more finely articulated and conceptualized as a dynamic…

  1. ACTIVATING THE MORAL SELF-DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROCESS OF ETHICS EDUCATION AND CULTURE STUDIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. S. Frants

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper considers the problem of young people’s moral education with the reference to the system of secondary vocational education; the relevance of the study being enhanced by the greater independence of vocational college students compared to their high school peers. In addition, the paper describes the psychological and pedagogical difficulties in developing the moral norms, behavior principles, and life position in adolescence, when a mere moral declaration has little effect. Taking into consideration the students’ psychological and age characteristics, the authors suggest the active methods of dialogical interactions and recommend the system of ethical education and culture studies based on a differentiated understanding of specificity of the domestic moral culture, and axiological analysis of its educational potential. The multi-variant moral norms coexisting in modernRussiainclude the traditional, aristocratic, pragmatic and other types of values; all of them can be introduced in the series of educational discussions. The paper lists the approximate topics for such ethical and cultural debates, and demonstrates the expected effect of students’ moral self-assessment related to their life position and behavior patterns. The recognized moral values are likely to make a foundation for the students’ proper behavior both in college and in their future work.

  2. Moral disengagement in self-reported and peer-nominated school bullying

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Obermann, Marie-Louise

    2011-01-01

    . Discrepancies between self-reported and peer-nominated bullying involvement indicates that a person’s social reputation has a stronger association with moral disengagement than so far expected. Implications are discussed, highlighting the importance of further research and theory development.......This study examined the relation between moral disengagement and different self-reported and peer-nominated positions in school bullying. The aims of this study were to (1) investigate moral disengagement among children for whom self-reported and peernominated bully status diverged and (2) compare...... levels of disengagement among self-reported and peer-nominated pure bullies, pure victims, bully–victims, and children not involved in bullying. A sample of 739 Danish sixth grade and seventh grade children (mean age 12.6) was included in the study. Moral disengagement was measured using a Danish version...

  3. Religion and morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKay, Ryan; Whitehouse, Harvey

    2015-03-01

    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. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

  4. Emotion-based learning systems and the development of morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blair, R J R

    2017-10-01

    In this paper it is proposed that important components of moral development and moral judgment rely on two forms of emotional learning: stimulus-reinforcement and response-outcome learning. Data in support of this position will be primarily drawn from work with individuals with the developmental condition of psychopathy as well as fMRI studies with healthy individuals. Individuals with psychopathy show impairment on moral judgment tasks and a pronounced increased risk for instrumental antisocial behavior. It will be argued that these impairments are developmental consequences of impaired stimulus-aversive conditioning on the basis of distress cue reinforcers and response-outcome learning in individuals with this disorder. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  5. Morality and Ecological Moral: contributions to the teaching practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ligiane Raimundo Gomes

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available This research searched to investigate if the acquisition of the notion of respect to the environment, that we call “ecological moral”, is constructed during the childish development, solidarily to the construction of the morality, presupposing that the notion of respect on the ecological field is the same that found the conquest of the moral autonomy. For this investigation, it had been taken a sample of 15 participants, five by age group – form 6 to 8 years old, 10 to 11 years old and 13 to 15 years old. Through the piagetian clinical method, it was told to the children and adolescents two groups of stories: three stories were taken from Piaget’s studies about morality, focusing the conscience of rules and the notions of lie and justice, and four another hypothetical stories were created specifically to study the respect to the environment, focusing, respectively, the selective collection, the extinction of the birds, the pollution of a river and the cutting of tree. The statements of the participants were analysed according to the theoretical reference of Piaget concerning to the morality, also helped by some studious that have been amplifying the application field of Piaget’s theory. The data analysis allowed us to set up three levels for the development of the notion of respect to the environment, proving that the ecological moral has a psychogenetic dimension and there is a relation between the development of the morality and the acquisition of the ecological moral.

  6. Corporate Benefits of Employee Recreation Programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finney, Craig

    1984-01-01

    Employee recreation programs have been shown to reduce absenteeism, increase performance and productivity, reduce stress levels, and increase job satisfaction. Studies that present positive results of employee recreation are discussed. (DF)

  7. Moral Education in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Jeffrey F.

    1988-01-01

    Reports the attitudes of 80 Taiwanese teachers of morality about moral education in the face of drastic social change and modernization. Discusses the content and nature of traditional Chinese morality, the effects of contemporary culture on children's moral development, and teaching methods. Contains 18 references. (SV)

  8. Making Sense of Employee Discourses

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Mona Agerholm

    In response to the growing interest in the field of organizational identification and the analysis of employee attachment in organizations, this paper presents a multidimensional reception model for analyzing the level of employee identification with corporate value statements. The identification...... model extends a multidimensional model for media reception originally proposed by Schrøder in the field of media reception studies. The proposed model combines the reception dimensions Comprehension, Discrimination, Implementation, Motivation, and Position. This model allows the analysis...... of the complexity, nuances and diversities of employee identification with corporate texts in organizations. In addition to this, the model may help to uncover the positive and negative factors that influence the identification level....

  9. Moral distress and its interconnection with moral sensitivity and moral resilience: viewed from the philosophy of Viktor E. Frankl.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lützén, Kim; Ewalds-Kvist, Béatrice

    2013-10-01

    The interconnection between moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral resilience was explored by constructing two hypothetical scenarios based on a recent Swedish newspaper report. In the first scenario, a 77-year-old man, rational and awake, was coded as "do not resuscitate" (DNR) against his daughter's wishes. The patient died in the presence of nurses who were not permitted to resuscitate him. The second scenario concerned a 41-year-old man, who had been in a coma for three weeks. He was also coded as "do not resuscitate" and, when he stopped breathing, was resuscitated by his father. The nurses persuaded the physician on call to resume life support treatment and the patient recovered. These scenarios were analyzed using Viktor Frankl's existential philosophy, resulting in a conceivable theoretical connection between moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral resilience. To substantiate our conclusion, we encourage further empirical research.

  10. Adolescents' Self-Attributed Moral Emotions Following a Moral Transgression: Relations with Delinquency, Confidence in Moral Judgment and Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krettenauer, Tobias; Eichler, Dana

    2006-01-01

    The study investigates adolescents' self-attributed moral emotions following a moral transgression by expanding research with children on the happy-victimizer phenomenon. In a sample of 200 German adolescents from Grades 7, 9, 11, and 13 (M=16.18 years, SD=2.41), participants were confronted with various scenarios describing different moral rule…

  11. Moral Behavior as Rule Governed Behavior: Person and System Effects on Moral Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurtines, William M.; And Others

    Recent approaches to research on moral development have considered the preeminence of situational factors in moral development and moral behavior. An open systems approach emphasizes the interactive effects of person and situation variables on moral decision-making. The interactive effects of three sets of variables on moral decision-making were…

  12. Does an employee assistance programme benefit employers and employees alike?

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacAlister, E

    1999-09-01

    EAPs are not a psychological sticking plaster. They are a clinically and corporately balanced service which benefits the employee, via the direct services and the employer, via the feedback in the form of usage statistics derived from the continuous tracking of the account through which organizational and employment issues are identified. Well positioned EAPs offer employees confidential counselling, and information services including legal, financial and child-based issues and are able to offer employers tailored training and consultancy.

  13. Moral motivation within groups

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lee, Romy van der

    2013-01-01

    Morality is of particular importance to people: People want to be considered moral and want to belong to moral groups. Consequently, morality judgments have the potential to motivate individuals to behave in ways that are considered to be ‘good’. In the current dissertation, I examined the impact of

  14. Foundations for Moral Relativism

    OpenAIRE

    Velleman, J. David

    2015-01-01

    In this new edition of Foundations for Moral Relativism, a distinguished moral philosopher tames a bugbear of current debate about cultural difference. J. David Velleman shows that different communities can indeed be subject to incompatible moralities, because their local mores are rationally binding. At the same time, he explains why the mores of different communities, even when incompatible, are still variations on the same moral themes. The book thus maps out a universe of many moral world...

  15. Popper's Third World: Moral Habits, Moral Habitat and Their Maintenance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozolins, Janis Talivaldis

    2010-01-01

    If we accept Popper's idea that the human habitat is described in terms of three worlds, and that there are overlaps between these three worlds, our moral actions and values will also be subject to the same kinds of consideration as a repertoire of behaviours exhibited in a physical environment. We will develop moral habits in a moral habitat and…

  16. Dilema Moral: Kepalsuan dan Keteladanan Komunikasi Politik di Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad E. Fuady

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Political activities often generate political question toward ethics or moral issues. Political world believed as moral costly and degrading political figures into somewhat vague and  manipulative person in order to maintain his/her positions. The case of Amien Rais, who failed to be Indonesian president resulted from fair election, supported such assumptions. Porn-video-streaming involving important political members also provided a strong case that political domain is actually a dirty world. But, in every situation, democracy needs a fair and honest people to give a high standard performance in politics. A good political leader would leave good memories and excellent example for other political leaders who fill in the same positions in the future.

  17. Global medicine: Is it ethical or morally justifiable for doctors and other healthcare workers to go on strike?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background Doctor and healthcare worker (HCW) strikes are a global phenomenon with the potential to negatively impact on the quality of healthcare services and the doctor-patient relationship. Strikes are a legitimate deadlock breaking mechanism employed when labour negotiations have reached an impasse during collective bargaining. Striking doctors usually have a moral dilemma between adherence to the Hippocratic tenets of the medical profession and fiduciary obligation to patients. In such circumstances the ethical principles of respect for autonomy, justice and beneficence all come into conflict, whereby doctors struggle with their role as ordinary employees who are rightfully entitled to a just wage for just work versus their moral obligations to patients and society. Discussion It has been argued that to deny any group of workers, including "essential workers" the right to strike is akin to enslavement which is ethically and morally indefensible. While HCW strikes occur globally, the impact appears more severe in developing countries challenged by poorer socio-economic circumstances, embedded infrastructural deficiencies, and lack of viable alternative means of obtaining healthcare. These communities appear to satisfy the criteria for vulnerability and may be deserving of special ethical consideration when doctor and HCW strikes are contemplated. Summary The right to strike is considered a fundamental right whose derogation would be inimical to the proper functioning of employer/employee collective bargaining in democratic societies. Motivations for HCW strikes include the natural pressure to fulfil human needs and the paradigm shift in modern medical practice, from self-employment and benevolent paternalism, to managed healthcare and consumer rights. Minimizing the incidence and impact of HCW strikes will require an ethical approach from all stakeholders, and recognition that all parties have an equal moral obligation to serve the best interests of society

  18. Global medicine: is it ethical or morally justifiable for doctors and other healthcare workers to go on strike?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chima, Sylvester C

    2013-01-01

    Doctor and healthcare worker (HCW) strikes are a global phenomenon with the potential to negatively impact on the quality of healthcare services and the doctor-patient relationship. Strikes are a legitimate deadlock breaking mechanism employed when labour negotiations have reached an impasse during collective bargaining. Striking doctors usually have a moral dilemma between adherence to the Hippocratic tenets of the medical profession and fiduciary obligation to patients. In such circumstances the ethical principles of respect for autonomy, justice and beneficence all come into conflict, whereby doctors struggle with their role as ordinary employees who are rightfully entitled to a just wage for just work versus their moral obligations to patients and society. It has been argued that to deny any group of workers, including "essential workers" the right to strike is akin to enslavement which is ethically and morally indefensible. While HCW strikes occur globally, the impact appears more severe in developing countries challenged by poorer socio-economic circumstances, embedded infrastructural deficiencies, and lack of viable alternative means of obtaining healthcare. These communities appear to satisfy the criteria for vulnerability and may be deserving of special ethical consideration when doctor and HCW strikes are contemplated. The right to strike is considered a fundamental right whose derogation would be inimical to the proper functioning of employer/employee collective bargaining in democratic societies. Motivations for HCW strikes include the natural pressure to fulfil human needs and the paradigm shift in modern medical practice, from self-employment and benevolent paternalism, to managed healthcare and consumer rights. Minimizing the incidence and impact of HCW strikes will require an ethical approach from all stakeholders, and recognition that all parties have an equal moral obligation to serve the best interests of society. Employers should implement

  19. Individual Differences in Moral Development: Does Intelligence Really Affect Children?s Moral Reasoning and Moral Emotions?

    OpenAIRE

    Bei?ert, Hanna M.; Hasselhorn, Marcus

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between intelligence and individual differences in children’s moral development across a range of different moral transgressions. Taking up prior research that showed morality and intelligence to be related in adolescents and adults, the current study wants to test if these findings can be extended to younger children. The study was designed to address some of the shortcomings in prior research by examining young children aged between 6 years; 4 months...

  20. Toward interventions to address moral distress: navigating structure and agency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musto, Lynn C; Rodney, Patricia A; Vanderheide, Rebecca

    2015-02-01

    The concept of moral distress has been the subject of nursing research for the past 30 years. Recently, there has been a call to move from developing an understanding of the concept to developing interventions to help ameliorate the experience. At the same time, the use of the term moral distress has been critiqued for a lack of clarity about the concepts that underpin the experience. Some researchers suggest that a closer examination of how socio-political structures influence healthcare delivery will move moral distress from being seen as located in the individual to an experience that is also located in broader healthcare structures. Informed by new thinking in relational ethics, we draw on research findings from neuroscience and attachment literature to examine the reciprocal relationship between structures and agents and frame the experience of moral distress. We posit moral distress as a form of relational trauma and subsequently point to the need to better understand how nurses as moral agents are influenced by-and influence-the complex socio-political structures they inhabit. In so doing, we identify this reciprocity as a framework for interventions. © The Author(s) 2014.

  1. Employee Fitness Programs: Exploring Relationships between Perceived Organizational Support toward Employee Fitness and Organizational Sustainability Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhe Wang

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the influence of employee fitness programs on organizational sustainability performance from the perspective of organizational support as perceived by employees. Organizational sustainability performance was specified as a second-order factor, which was affected by three first-order factors: financial performance, social performance, and environmental performance. A snowball sampling method was employed to conduct an online survey of working adults in Shanghai to test the proposed hypotheses. Results show that perceived organizational support toward employee fitness has a positive and significant effect on organizational sustainability performance, and the positive effect is mediated by job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This study also provides theoretical and managerial implications.

  2. Media's Moral Messages: Assessing Perceptions of Moral Content in Television Programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glover, Rebecca J.; Garmon, Lance C.; Hull, Darrell M.

    2011-01-01

    This study extends the examination of moral content in the media by exploring moral messages in television programming and viewer characteristics predictive of the ability to perceive such messages. Generalisability analyses confirmed the reliability of the Media's Moral Messages (MMM) rating form for analysing programme content and the existence…

  3. Ethical Perspectives, Reactions to Other's Moral Behavior, and Consequent Moral Action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, William R.; Forsyth, Donelson R.

    In analyzing various moral and legal philosophies, two perspectives emerge, absolute moral rules/higher law, and situationally-specific moral rules/legal positivism. From these two perspectives, four types of individuals emerge in accordance with their degree of adherence to ideological tenets: (1) situationists (high on idealism and relativism);…

  4. The Impact of Job Satisfaction and Employee Education on Employee Efficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. M. C. De Silva

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Against a backdrop of continuing discussion on the challenges faced by the apparel industry in Sri Lanka, the human involvement is yet to be considered as a significant organizational element. Therefore this study empirically examined the impact of job satisfaction and employee education on employee efficiency in the apparel industry with reference to the Gampaha district. The study was aimed to examine the problem “Is there an impact of job satisfaction and employee education on employee efficiency?”This study was conducted from a randomly selected sample of 90 respondents from an Apparel organization by administrating a structured questionnaire, which consisted of 37 questions that featured a 6 point scale. The sample of the study only consisted of machine operators. For the purpose of analyzing both descriptive and dummy variables regression was used. Descriptive analysis was used to clarify the basic features of the sample. In order to examine the relationship employee efficiency has with job satisfaction and employee education, an ANOVA model was constructed. The constructed ANOVA model for the study is as follows. EF = â0+ â1D1 + â2D2 +â3D3 + U The findings of the research revealed that there was no positive relationship between employee efficiency, job satisfaction and education and it was statistically confirmed by rejecting the two hypotheses. According to the study, the researcher observed that employee efficiency neither relates to employee job satisfaction nor the level of education of employees since they work to achieve their day to day targets.

  5. The morality of socioscientific issues: Construal and resolution of genetic engineering dilemmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadler, Troy D.; Zeidler, Dana L.

    2004-01-01

    The ability to negotiate and resolve socioscientific issues has been posited as integral components of scientific literacy. Although philosophers and science educators have argued that socioscientific issues inherently involve moral and ethical considerations, the ultimate arbiters of morality are individual decision-makers. This study explored the extent to which college students construe genetic engineering issues as moral problems. Twenty college students participated in interviews designed to elicit their ideas, reactions, and feelings regarding a series of gene therapy and cloning scenarios. Qualitative analyses revealed that moral considerations were significant influences on decision-making, indicating a tendency for students to construe genetic engineering issues as moral problems. Students engaged in moral reasoning based on utilitarian analyses of consequences as well as the application of principles. Issue construal was also influenced by affective features such as emotion and intuition. In addition to moral considerations, a series of other factors emerged as important dimensions of socioscientific decision-making. These factors included personal experiences, family biases, background knowledge, and the impact of popular culture. The implications for classroom science instruction and future research are discussed.

  6. The Role of Moral Emotions in the Development of Children's Sharing Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ongley, Sophia F.; Malti, Tina

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the role of moral emotions in the development of children's sharing behavior (N = 244 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children). Children's sympathy was measured with both self- and primary caregiver-reports, and participants anticipated their negatively and positively valenced moral emotions (i.e., feeling guilty, sad, or bad; and…

  7. 21 CFR 1301.92 - Illicit activities by employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AND DISPENSERS OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES Employee Screening-Non-Practitioners § 1301.92 Illicit activities by employees. It is the position of DEA that employees who possess, sell, use... 21 Food and Drugs 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Illicit activities by employees. 1301.92 Section...

  8. Latent Fairness in Adults' Relationship-Based Moral Judgments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun; Li, Jiafeng

    2015-01-01

    Can adults make fair moral judgments when individuals with whom they have different relationships are involved? The present study explored the fairness of adults' relationship-based moral judgments in two respects by performing three experiments involving 999 participants. In Experiment 1, 65 adults were asked to decide whether to harm a specific person to save five strangers in the footbridge and trolley dilemmas in a within-subject design. The lone potential victim was a relative, a best friend, a person they disliked, a criminal or a stranger. Adults' genetic relatedness to, familiarity with and affective relatedness to the lone potential victims varied. The results indicated that adults made different moral judgments involving the lone potential victims with whom they had different relationships. In Experiment 2, 306 adults responded to the footbridge and trolley dilemmas involving five types of lone potential victims in a within-subject design, and the extent to which they were familiar with and affectively related to the lone potential victim was measured. The results generally replicated those of Experiment 1. In addition, for close individuals, adults' moral judgments were less deontological relative to their familiarity with or positive affect toward these individuals. For individuals they were not close to, adults made deontological choices to a larger extent relative to their unfamiliarity with or negative affect toward these individuals. Moreover, for familiar individuals, the extent to which adults made deontological moral judgments more closely approximated the extent to which they were familiar with the individual. The adults' deontological moral judgments involving unfamiliar individuals more closely approximated their affective relatedness to the individuals. In Experiment 3, 628 adults were asked to make moral judgments with the type of lone potential victim as the between-subject variable. The results generally replicated those of the previous

  9. Latent Fairness in Adults’ Relationship-Based Moral Judgments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun; Li, Jiafeng

    2015-01-01

    Can adults make fair moral judgments when individuals with whom they have different relationships are involved? The present study explored the fairness of adults’ relationship-based moral judgments in two respects by performing three experiments involving 999 participants. In Experiment 1, 65 adults were asked to decide whether to harm a specific person to save five strangers in the footbridge and trolley dilemmas in a within-subject design. The lone potential victim was a relative, a best friend, a person they disliked, a criminal or a stranger. Adults’ genetic relatedness to, familiarity with and affective relatedness to the lone potential victims varied. The results indicated that adults made different moral judgments involving the lone potential victims with whom they had different relationships. In Experiment 2, 306 adults responded to the footbridge and trolley dilemmas involving five types of lone potential victims in a within-subject design, and the extent to which they were familiar with and affectively related to the lone potential victim was measured. The results generally replicated those of Experiment 1. In addition, for close individuals, adults’ moral judgments were less deontological relative to their familiarity with or positive affect toward these individuals. For individuals they were not close to, adults made deontological choices to a larger extent relative to their unfamiliarity with or negative affect toward these individuals. Moreover, for familiar individuals, the extent to which adults made deontological moral judgments more closely approximated the extent to which they were familiar with the individual. The adults’ deontological moral judgments involving unfamiliar individuals more closely approximated their affective relatedness to the individuals. In Experiment 3, 628 adults were asked to make moral judgments with the type of lone potential victim as the between-subject variable. The results generally replicated those of the

  10. The Epistemology of Moral Bioenhancement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crutchfield, Parker

    2016-07-01

    Moral bioenhancement is the potential practice of manipulating individuals' moral behaviors by biological means in order to help resolve pressing moral issues such as climate change and terrorism. This practice has obvious ethical implications, and these implications have been and continue to be discussed in the bioethics literature. What have not been discussed are the epistemological implications of moral bioenhancement. This article details some of these implications of engaging in moral bioenhancement. The argument begins by making the distinction between moral bioenhancement that manipulates the contents of mental states (e.g. beliefs) and that which manipulates other, non-representational states (e.g. motivations). Either way, I argue, the enhanced moral psychology will fail to conform to epistemic norms, and the only way to resolve this failure and allow the moral bioenhancement to be effective in addressing the targeted moral issues is to make the moral bioenhancement covert. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. Go local: morality and international activism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandar Jokic

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available A step towards constructing an ethics of international activism is proposed by formulating a series of constraints on what would constitute morally permissible agency in the context that involves delivering services abroad, directly or indirectly. Perhaps surprisingly, in this effort the author makes use of the concept of ‘force multiplier’. This idea and its official applications have explanatory importance in considering the correlation between the post-Cold War phenomenal growth in the number of international non-governmental organizations and the emergence of the US as the sole, unchallenged superpower. Four moral constraints useful for morally assessing international activism are formulated and defended. The final outcome is an argument in favor of an overarching duty for any activist-minded Westerner to go local, while developing nations are urged to closely regulate, even criminalize, activities by international activists and ‘human rights organizations’ on their territory when not in solidarity or in support of local movements. The position defended, urging the normative primacy of local over international activism, also finds support in Immanuel Kant's Third Definitive Article for A Perpetual Peace.

  12. The business of care: the moral labour of care workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Eleanor K

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on a case study conducted in a private residential care home, this article examines the emotional labour of care workers in relation to the moral construction of care and the practical experiences of work. An examination of the company's discursive attempts to construct, manage and demarcate its employees' emotional labour was carried out alongside an exploration of the carers' own interpretations of, and enrolment in, the care-giving role. The potential economic and emotional consequences of these occurrences were a key focus of the inquiry. The study found that carers, encouraged by the company, naturalised their emotional labour, and that this had contradictory consequences. On the one hand it justified the economic devaluation of the carer's work and left her vulnerable to emotional over-involvement and client aggression. On the other, it allowed the worker to defend the moral interests of those within her care and to see when those interests were in conflict with the economic motivations of her employer. © 2015 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. The Moral Self-Image Scale: Measuring and Understanding the Malleability of the Moral Self.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Jennifer; Leliveld, Marijke C; Tenbrunsel, Ann E

    2015-01-01

    Recent ethical decision-making models suggest that individuals' own view of their morality is malleable rather than static, responding to their (im)moral actions and reflections about the world around them. Yet no construct currently exists to represent the malleable state of a person's moral self-image (MSI). In this investigation, we define this construct, as well as develop a scale to measure it. Across five studies, we show that feedback about the moral self alters an individual's MSI as measured by our scale. We also find that the MSI is related to, but distinct from, related constructs, including moral identity, self-esteem, and moral disengagement. In Study 1, we administered the MSI scale and several other relevant scales to demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, we examine the relationship between the MSI and one's ought versus ideal self. In Studies 3 and 4, we find that one's MSI is affected in the predicted directions by manipulated feedback about the moral self, including feedback related to social comparisons of moral behavior (Study 3) and feedback relative to one's own moral ideal (Study 4). Lastly, Study 5 provides evidence that the recall of one's moral or immoral behavior alters people's MSI in the predicted directions. Taken together, these studies suggest that the MSI is malleable and responds to individuals' moral and immoral actions in the outside world. As such, the MSI is an important variable to consider in the study of moral and immoral behavior.

  14. "Moral Positioning" and Occupational Socialization in the Training of Hairdressers, Secretaries, and Caterers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickinson, Hilary; Erben, Michael

    1984-01-01

    Examined are the moral consequences of training methods on hairdressers, caterers, and secretaries. It is argued that there is a real possibility that persons can and do become embedded in a social situation to the detriment of their being able to conceptualize ready alternatives to their current social outlook. (RM)

  15. The influence of workplace condition and employee satisfaction on employee committee in South African Companies

    OpenAIRE

    Elizabeth Chinomona; Tebogo Mofokeng

    2015-01-01

    Developing and maintaining a relationship with employees has become an imperative thing to do for businesses to be competitive in today’s dynamic environment. Workplace conditions tends to have either a positive or negative impact on employees’ behaviour and output. Satisfied employees are likely to be more productive and involved in organisational activities. Committed employees are more likely to facilitate the provision of superior service quality. Despite the increase in research focusing...

  16. Moral Development in Business Education--Social Conditions Influencing Moral Judgement Competence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bienengräber, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Workplace relations like any social relation first and foremost have a moral dimension. Thus, if vocational education sees one of its major goals in helping apprentices to deal with moral issues, one of the core objectives in vocational education is the support of the apprentice's development of moral judgement competence. Since Lawrence Kohlberg…

  17. How does morality work in the brain? A functional and structural perspective of moral behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pascual, Leo; Rodrigues, Paulo; Gallardo-Pujol, David

    2013-01-01

    Neural underpinnings of morality are not yet well understood. Researchers in moral neuroscience have tried to find specific structures and processes that shed light on how morality works. Here, we review the main brain areas that have been associated with morality at both structural and functional levels and speculate about how it can be studied. Orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortices are implicated in emotionally-driven moral decisions, while dorsolateral prefrontal cortex appears to moderate its response. These competing processes may be mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex. Parietal and temporal structures play important roles in the attribution of others' beliefs and intentions. The insular cortex is engaged during empathic processes. Other regions seem to play a more complementary role in morality. Morality is supported not by a single brain circuitry or structure, but by several circuits overlapping with other complex processes. The identification of the core features of morality and moral-related processes is needed. Neuroscience can provide meaningful insights in order to delineate the boundaries of morality in conjunction with moral psychology. PMID:24062650

  18. Moral Cognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schleim, Stephan; Clausen, Jens; Levy, Neil

    2015-01-01

    Research on moral cognition is a growing and heavily multidisciplinary field. This section contains chapters addressing foundational psychological, neuroscientific, and philosophical issues of research on moral decision-making. Further- more, beyond summarizing the state of the art of their

  19. Sentimentalist Moral Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slote, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Care ethics, and moral sentimentalism more generally, have not developed a picture of moral education that is comparable in scope or depth to the rationalist/Kantian/Rawlsian account of moral education that has been offered by Lawrence Kohlberg. But it is possible to do so if one borrows from the work of Martin Hoffman and makes systematic use of…

  20. A multidimensional analysis of disparities between individuals' moral judgments and moral intentions

    OpenAIRE

    Oktay, Selim

    2001-01-01

    Cataloged from PDF version of article. One major issue that needs to be investigated in the area of business ethics is the disparities between individuals' moral judgments and their actual behaviors. Since it is very difficult to measure actual behaviors, moral intentions are measured in the current study, instead of behaviors. A multidimensional approach including the analysis of gender differences and effects of work experience on moral judgments and moral intentions, fact...

  1. Does it pay to be moral? How indicators or morality and compntence enhance organizational and work team atrractiveness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Prooijen, A.M.; Ellemers, Naomi

    Based on a social identity analysis, the authors argue that people are attracted to teams and organizations with positive features. Such features can refer to the competence and achievements of the organization, or to its moral values and ethical conduct. However, in work contexts, ethics and

  2. Does it pay to be moral? How indicators of morality and competence enhance organizational and work team attractiveness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Prooijen, A.M.; Ellemers, N.

    2015-01-01

    Based on a social identity analysis, the authors argue that people are attracted to teams and organizations with positive features. Such features can refer to the competence and achievements of the organization, or to its moral values and ethical conduct. However, in work contexts, ethics and

  3. Patent first, ask questions later: morality and biotechnology in patent law.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bagley, Margo A

    2003-12-01

    This Article explores the U.S. "patent first, ask questions later" approach to determining what subject matter should receive patent protection. Under this approach, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or the Agency) issues patents on "anything under the sun made by man," and to the extent a patent's subject matter is sufficiently controversial, Congress acts retrospectively in assessing whether patents should issue on such interventions. This practice has important ramifications for morally controversial biotechnology patents specifically, and for American society generally. For many years a judicially created "moral utility" doctrine served as a type of gatekeeper of patent subject matter eligibility. The doctrine allowed both the USTPO and courts to deny patents on morally controversial subject matter under the fiction that such inventions were not "useful." The gate, however, is currently untended. A combination of the demise of the moral utility doctrine, along with expansive judicial interpretations of the scope of patent-eligible subject matter, has resulted in virtually no basis on which the USTPO or courts can deny patent protection to morally controversial, but otherwise patentable, subject matter. This is so despite position statements by the Agency to the contrary. Biotechnology is an area in which many morally controversial inventions are generated. Congress has been in react-mode following the issuance of a stream of morally controversial biotech patents, including patents on transgenic animals, surgical methods, and methods of cloning humans. With no statutory limits on patent eligibility, and with myriad concerns complicating congressional action following a patent's issuance, it is not Congress, the representative of the people, determining patent eligibility. Instead, it is patent applicants, scientific inventors, who are deciding matters of high public policy through the contents of the applications they file with the USTPO. This Article

  4. Psychological mechanisms underlying doping attitudes in sport: motivation and moral disengagement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodge, Ken; Hargreaves, Elaine A; Gerrard, David; Lonsdale, Chris

    2013-08-01

    We examined whether constructs outlined in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002), namely, autonomy-supportive and controlling motivational climates and autonomous and controlled motivation, were related to attitudes toward performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport and drug-taking susceptibility. We also investigated moral disengagement as a potential mediator. We surveyed a sample of 224 competitive athletes (59% female; M age = 20.3 years; M = 10.2 years of experience participating in their sport), including 81 elite athletes. Using structural equation modeling analyses, our hypothesis proposing positive relationships with controlling climates, controlled motivation, and PEDs attitudes and susceptibility was largely supported, whereas our hypothesis proposing negative relationships among autonomous climate, autonomous motivation, and PEDs attitudes and susceptibility was not supported. Moral disengagement was a strong predictor of positive attitudes toward PEDs, which, in turn, was a strong predictor of PEDs susceptibility. These findings are discussed from both motivational and moral disengagement viewpoints.

  5. Moral reasoning of Piagetian-matched retarded and nonretarded children and adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahn, J V

    1983-09-01

    The moral reasoning of four IQ/etiology groups was investigated: 19 organically abnormal moderately retarded, 19 organically abnormal mildly retarded, 19 mildly retarded due to psychosocial disadvantage, and 19 nonretarded individuals. In each group 12 Ss were preoperational and seven concrete operational. Moral reasoning was assessed by an instrument using moral dilemmas based on Kohlberg's procedures. The Slosson Intelligence Test was used to determine the IQs and mental ages of each S. Piagetian stage was determined with the standard conservation of number tasks. The findings indicated no overall significant differences between the mildly retarded and the nonretarded Ss or between the mildly retarded and the moderately retarded Ss, but differences were found between the moderately retarded and the nonretarded Ss. A significant interaction was found between the two independent variables, IQ/etiology and cognitive level. The results were discussed as supporting Zigler's development position and as damaging to Kohlberg's position.

  6. Reduced empathic concern leads to utilitarian moral judgments in trait alexithymia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patil, Indrajeet; Silani, Giorgia

    2014-01-01

    Recent research with moral dilemmas supports dual-process model of moral decision making. This model posits two different paths via which people can endorse utilitarian solution that requires personally harming someone in order to achieve the greater good (e.g., killing one to save five people): (i) weakened emotional aversion to the prospect of harming someone due to reduced empathic concern for the victim; (ii) enhanced cognition which supports cost-benefit analysis and countervails the prepotent emotional aversion to harm. Direct prediction of this model would be that personality traits associated with reduced empathy would show higher propensity to endorse utilitarian solutions. As per this prediction, we found that trait alexithymia, which is well-known to have deficits in empathy, was indeed associated with increased utilitarian tendencies on emotionally aversive personal moral dilemmas and this was due to reduced empathic concern for the victim. Results underscore the importance of empathy for moral judgments in harm/care domain of morality.

  7. Reduced empathic concern leads to utilitarian moral judgments in trait alexithymia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Indrajeet ePatil

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Recent research with moral dilemmas supports dual-process model of moral decision making. This model posits two different paths via which people can endorse utilitarian solution that requires personally harming someone in order to achieve the greater good (e.g., killing one to save five people: (i weakened emotional aversion to the prospect of harming someone due to reduced empathic concern for the victim; (ii enhanced cognition which supports cost-benefit analysis and countervails the prepotent emotional aversion to harm. Direct prediction of this model would be that personality traits associated with reduced empathy would show higher propensity to endorse utilitarian solutions. As per this prediction, we found that trait alexithymia, which is well-known to have deficits in empathy, was indeed associated with increased utilitarian tendencies on emotionally aversive personal moral dilemmas and this was due to reduced empathic concern for the victim. Results underscore the importance of empathy for moral judgments in harm/care domain of morality.

  8. Justifying group-specific common morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strong, Carson

    2008-01-01

    Some defenders of the view that there is a common morality have conceived such morality as being universal, in the sense of extending across all cultures and times. Those who deny the existence of such a common morality often argue that the universality claim is implausible. Defense of common morality must take account of the distinction between descriptive and normative claims that there is a common morality. This essay considers these claims separately and identifies the nature of the arguments for each claim. It argues that the claim that there is a universal common morality in the descriptive sense has not been successfully defended to date. It maintains that the claim that there is a common morality in the normative sense need not be understood as universalist. This paper advocates the concept of group specific common morality, including country-specific versions. It suggests that both the descriptive and the normative claims that there are country-specific common moralities are plausible, and that a country-specific normative common morality could provide the basis for a country's bioethics.

  9. The moral ties that bind . . . Even to out-groups: the interactive effect of moral identity and the binding moral foundations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Isaac H; Aquino, Karl; Koleva, Spassena; Graham, Jesse

    2014-08-01

    Throughout history, principles such as obedience, loyalty, and purity have been instrumental in binding people together and helping them thrive as groups, tribes, and nations. However, these same principles have also led to in-group favoritism, war, and even genocide. Does adhering to the binding moral foundations that underlie such principles unavoidably lead to the derogation of out-group members? We demonstrated that for people with a strong moral identity, the answer is "no," because they are more likely than those with a weak moral identity to extend moral concern to people belonging to a perceived out-group. Across three studies, strongly endorsing the binding moral foundations indeed predicted support for the torture of out-group members (Studies 1a and 1b) and withholding of necessary help from out-group members (Study 2), but this relationship was attenuated among participants who also had a strong moral identity. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. Impact of ethical climate on moral distress revisited: multidimensional view.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atabay, Gülem; Çangarli, Burcu Güneri; Penbek, Şebnem

    2015-02-01

    Moral distress is a major problem in nursing profession. Researchers identified that the stronger the ethical basis of the organization, the less moral distress is reported. However, different ethical climates may have different impacts on moral distress. Moreover, conceptualization of moral distress and ethical climate as well as their relationship may change according to the cultural context. The main aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between different types of ethical climate as described in Victor and Cullen's framework, and moral distress intensity among nurses in Turkish healthcare settings. An online survey was administrated to collect data. Questionnaires included moral distress and ethical climate scales in addition to demographic questions. Data were collected from registered nurses in Turkey. In all, 201 of 279 nurses completed questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 72%. Ethical approval was obtained from the university to which the authors were affiliated, after a detailed investigation of the content and data collection method. Factor analyses showed that moral distress had three dimensions, namely, organizational constraints, misinformed and over-treated patients, and lack of time and resources, while ethical climate had four types, namely, rules, well-being of stakeholders, individualism, and organizational interests. Positive correlations were identified between certain types of ethical climate (rules, individualism, or organizational interests) and moral distress intensity. Factor distribution of the scales shows some commonalities with the findings of previous research. However, context-specific dimensions and types were also detected. No particular ethical climate type was found to have a negative correlation with moral distress. Recommendations were made for reducing the negative impact of ethical climate on moral distress. These include solving the nursing-shortage problem, increasing autonomy, and improving physical

  11. Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Enabling Employees to Employ More of Their Whole Selves at Work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glavas, Ante

    2016-01-01

    Research at the individual level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been growing rapidly. Yet we still lack a more complete understanding of why and how individuals (i.e., employees) are affected by CSR. This study contributes to that gap by exploring the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. Moreover, in order to address the problem of low levels of employee engagement in the workplace, CSR is proposed and tested as a pathway for engaging a significant part of the workforce. Building on engagement theory, a model is tested in which CSR enables employees to bring more of their whole selves to work, which results in employees being more engaged. Data from 15,184 employees in a large professional service firm in the USA was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that authenticity (i.e., being able to show one's whole self at work) positively and significantly mediates the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. However, the other mediator tested in this study, perceived organizational support (POS; i.e., direct benefits to the employee), did not significantly mediate the relationship. In addition, results of moderated mediation suggest that when CSR is extra-role (i.e., not embedded in one's job design such as volunteering), it weakens the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. Moreover, post hoc analyses show that even when POS is controlled for, authenticity has an impact above and beyond POS on employee engagement. These results extend prior CSR literature which has often been top-down and has focused on how employees will be positively affected by what the organization can give them (e.g., POS). Rather, a bottom-up approach might reveal that the more that employees can give of their whole selves, the more engaged they might be at work.

  12. Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Enabling Employees to Employ More of Their Whole Selves at Work

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ante eGlavas

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Research at the individual level of corporate social responsibility (CSR has been growing rapidly. Yet we still lack a more complete understanding of why and how individuals (i.e., employees are affected by CSR. This study contributes to that gap by exploring the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. Moreover, in order to address the problem of low levels of employee engagement in the workplace, CSR is proposed and tested as a pathway for engaging a significant part of the workforce. Building on engagement theory, a model is tested in which CSR enables employees to bring more of their whole selves to work, which results in employees being more engaged. Data from 15,184 employees in a large professional service firm in the U.S. was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that authenticity (i.e., being able to show one’s whole self at work positively and significantly mediates the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. However, the other mediator tested in this study, perceived organizational support (POS; i.e., direct benefits to the employee, did not significantly mediate the relationship. In addition, results of moderated mediation suggest that when CSR is extra-role (i.e., not embedded in one’s job design such as volunteering, it weakens the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. Moreover, post hoc analyses show that even when POS is controlled for, authenticity has an impact above and beyond POS on employee engagement. These results extend prior CSR literature which has often been top-down and has focused on how employees will be positively affected by what the organization can give them (e.g., POS. Rather, a bottom-up approach might reveal that the more that employees can give of their whole selves, the more engaged they might be at work.

  13. Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the moral circle: Competing constraints on moral learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graham, Jesse; Waytz, Adam; Meindl, Peter; Iyer, Ravi; Young, Liane

    2017-10-01

    The idea of the moral circle pictures the self in the center, surrounded by concentric circles encompassing increasingly distant possible targets of moral concern, including family, local community, nation, all humans, all mammals, all living things including plants, and all things including inanimate objects. The authors develop the idea of two opposing forces in people's moral circles, with centripetal forces pulling inward, urging greater concern for close others than for distant others, and centrifugal forces pushing outward, resisting "drawing the line" anywhere as a form of prejudice and urging egalitarian concern for all regardless of social distance. Review of the developmental literature shows very early emergence of both moral forces, suggesting at least partly intuitive bases for each. Moral education approaches favoring one force over the other are compared, to show how these forces can provide constraints on moral learning. Finally, the centripetal/centrifugal forces view is applied to current moral debates about empathy and about politics. The authors argue that this view helps us see how intercultural and interpersonal disagreements about morality are based in intrapersonal conflicts shared by all people. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. Teaching Moral Theories Using "Lone Survivor"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Barry L.

    2015-01-01

    Four members of SEAL Team 10 faced a moral dilemma during Operation Redwings in 2005. Their mission was compromised when three goat herders discovered their position. They had to decide if they should kill the herders and continue their mission or release them, thus terminating their mission unsuccessfully. Students in an applied ethics class were…

  15. MAMA MODEL APPROACH: ITS IMPLICATION TO COMMITMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITEZENSHIP BEHAVIOR OF OPERATIONAL HOTEL EMPLOYEE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ida Bagus Gede Udiyana

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The aims of this study is to find the existence of MAMA (Motivation, Ability, and Moral Awareness model to the commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB. The subject of the research is the five stars hotels at Nusa Dua Bali. Respondents of this study are the operational employees at the hotels who have Hindu religion with 198 samples. The method of collecting data was simple random sampling method with proportional allocation. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM analysis technique was utilized to analyze the data in this research. This research has found that MAMA model (Motivation, Ability, and Moral Awareness influences OCB. Furthermore this research has found a theory that the main variable which is causing the appearance of organizational citizenship behavior is MAMA (motivation, ability, and moral awareness as an intrinsic behavior, and commitment or organizational citizenship behavior function of MAMA, and commitment or to be formulated as OCB f. Info

  16. Virtue ethics, positive psychology, and a new model of science and engineering ethics education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hyemin

    2015-04-01

    This essay develops a new conceptual framework of science and engineering ethics education based on virtue ethics and positive psychology. Virtue ethicists and positive psychologists have argued that current rule-based moral philosophy, psychology, and education cannot effectively promote students' moral motivation for actual moral behavior and may even lead to negative outcomes, such as moral schizophrenia. They have suggested that their own theoretical framework of virtue ethics and positive psychology can contribute to the effective promotion of motivation for self-improvement by connecting the notion of morality and eudaimonic happiness. Thus this essay attempts to apply virtue ethics and positive psychology to science and engineering ethics education and to develop a new conceptual framework for more effective education. In addition to the conceptual-level work, this essay suggests two possible educational methods: moral modeling and involvement in actual moral activity in science and engineering ethics classes, based on the conceptual framework.

  17. A Quantitative Analysis of Moral Exemplars Presented in Moral Education Textbooks in Korea and Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Hyemin; Park, Sung Choon; Kim, Jongsung; Jeong, Changwoo; Kunii, Yutaka; Kim, Sora

    2018-01-01

    This study is a comparative analysis of the characteristics of moral exemplars presented in moral education textbooks in Korea and Japan. The purpose of the study is to examine and compare moral values presented through the lives and stories of moral exemplars in the two countries that have moral education as an independent and separate subject…

  18. Bystander Behavior in Bullying Situations: Basic Moral Sensitivity, Moral Disengagement and Defender Self-Efficacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thornberg, Robert; Jungert, Tomas

    2013-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate how basic moral sensitivity in bullying, moral disengagement in bullying and defender self-efficacy were related to different bystander behaviors in bullying. Therefore, we examined pathways that linked students' basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy to different…

  19. Weighing in on Genetic Engineering and Morality: Students Reveal Their Ideas, Expectations, and Reservations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadler, Troy D.; Zeidler, Dana L.

    The ability to negotiate and resolve socioscientific issues has been posited as integral components of scientific literacy. Although philosophers and science educators have argued that socioscientific issues inherently involve moral and ethical considerations, the ultimate arbiters of morality are individual decision-makers. This study explored…

  20. How to reduce turnover by creating a positive work climate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kushell, R E

    1979-08-01

    Despite company attempts to reduce employee turnover by offering attractive salaries and benefits, Kushell notes that attrition continues at an alarming rate. He states that more than one of every three employees will change jobs over the next five years, a transition that will take its toll on company morale and productivity. The underlying factor, according to the author, is the quality of the working environment. A 1969 University of Michigan survey of 1,533 workers, at every occupation level, reported that all respondents ranked interesting work and authority to get the job done far ahead of good pay and job security. Sources of employee frustration include a stifling bureaucracy, excessive job expectations, and unsuitable jobs. The author suggests that top managers ask themselves whether they are missing out on or losing talented employees. If this is the case, there are several guidelines management should follow: improve communication between employees and top management; define expectations of the employee; and promote candor in the job interview. Kushell concludes that top executives can have an impact on turnover by paying attention to what employees really want rather than what management thinks they want.

  1. MORALE Assignment

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Carienvt

    some aspects of military life are so ingrained in military culture that the ... Military and political leaders around the world regard high morale of the armed .... expensive modern centralised practices borrowed from contemporary business will ..... psychological plan for the management of morale of SANDF soldiers during an.

  2. Evaluation and perceived results of moral case deliberation: A mixed methods study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janssens, Rien M J P A; van Zadelhoff, Ezra; van Loo, Ger; Widdershoven, Guy A M; Molewijk, Bert A C

    2015-12-01

    Moral case deliberation is increasingly becoming part of various Dutch healthcare organizations. Although some evaluation studies of moral case deliberation have been carried out, research into the results of moral case deliberation within aged care is scarce. How did participants evaluate moral case deliberation? What has moral case deliberation brought to them? What has moral case deliberation contributed to care practice? Should moral case deliberation be further implemented and, if so, how? Quantitative analysis of a questionnaire study among participants of moral case deliberation, both caregivers and team leaders. Qualitative analysis of written answers to open questions, interview study and focus group meetings among caregivers and team leaders. Caregivers and team leaders in a large organization for aged care in the Netherlands. A total of 61 moral case deliberation sessions, carried out on 16 care locations belonging to the organization, were evaluated and perceived results were assessed. Participants gave informed consent and anonymity was guaranteed. In the Netherlands, the law does not prescribe independent ethical review by an Institutional Review Board for this kind of research among healthcare professionals. Moral case deliberation was evaluated positively by the participants. Content and atmosphere of moral case deliberation received high scores, while organizational issues regarding the moral case deliberation sessions scored lower and merit further attention. Respondents indicated that moral case deliberation has the potential to contribute to care practice as relationships among team members improve, more openness is experienced and more understanding for different perspectives is fostered. If moral case deliberation is to be successfully implemented, top-down approaches should go hand in hand with bottom-up approaches. The relevance of moral case deliberation for care practice received wide acknowledgement from the respondents. It can contribute

  3. Objectivity And Moral Relativism

    OpenAIRE

    Magni, Sergio Filippo

    2017-01-01

    The relativity of morals has usually been taken as an argument against the objectivity of ethics. However, a more careful analysis can show that there are forms of moral objectivism which have relativistic implications, and that moral relativism can be compatible with the objectivity of ethics. Such an objectivity is not always in contrast to moral relativism and it is possible to be relativists without having to give up the claim of objectivity in ethics

  4. A UHF RFID positioning system for use in warehouse navigation by employees with cognitive disability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunther, Eric J M; Sliker, Levin J; Bodine, Cathy

    2017-11-01

    Unemployment among the almost 5 million working-age adults with cognitive disabilities in the USA is a costly problem in both tax dollars and quality of life. Job coaching is an effective tool to overcome this, but the cost of job coaching services sums with every new employee or change of employment roles. There is a need for a cost-effective, automated alternative to job coaching that incurs a one-time cost and can be reused for multiple employees or roles. An effective automated job coach must be aware of its location and the location of destinations within the job site. This project presents a design and prototype of a cart-mounted indoor positioning and navigation system with necessary original software using Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (UHF RFID). The system presented in this project for use within a warehouse setting is one component of an automated job coach to assist in the job of order filler. The system demonstrated accuracy to within 0.3 m under the correct conditions with strong potential to serve as the basis for an effective indoor navigation system to assist warehouse workers with disabilities. Implications for rehabilitation An automated job coach could improve employability of and job retention for people with cognitive disabilities. An indoor navigation system using ultra high frequency radio frequency identification was proposed with an average positioning accuracy of 0.3 m. The proposed system, in combination with a non-linear context-aware prompting system, could be used as an automated job coach for warehouse order fillers with cognitive disabilities.

  5. Does Ethics Education Influence the Moral Action of Practicing Nurses and Social Workers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grady, Christine; Danis, Marion; Soeken, Karen L.; O’Donnell, Patricia; Taylor, Carol; Farrar, Adrienne; Ulrich, Connie M.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose/methods This study investigated the relationship between ethics education and training, and the use and usefulness of ethics resources, confidence in moral decisions, and moral action/activism through a survey of practicing nurses and social workers from four United States (US) census regions. Findings The sample (n = 1215) was primarily Caucasian (83%), female (85%), well educated (57% with a master’s degree). no ethics education at all was reported by 14% of study participants (8% of social workers had no ethics education, versus 23% of nurses), and only 57% of participants had ethics education in their professional educational program. Those with both professional ethics education and in-service or continuing education were more confident in their moral judgments and more likely to use ethics resources and to take moral action. Social workers had more overall education, more ethics education, and higher confidence and moral action scores, and were more likely to use ethics resources than nurses. Conclusion Ethics education has a significant positive influence on moral confidence, moral action, and use of ethics resources by nurses and social workers. PMID:18576241

  6. The Moral Self-Image Scale: Measuring and Understanding the Malleability of the Moral Self

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer eJordan

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Recent ethical decision-making models suggest that individuals’ own view of their morality is malleable rather than static, responding to their (immoral actions and reflections about the world around them. Yet no construct currently exists to represent the malleable state of a person’s moral self-image (MSI. In this investigation, we define this construct, as well as develop a scale to measure it. Across five studies, we show that feedback about the moral self alters an individual’s MSI as measured by our scale. We also find that MSI is related to, but distinct from, related constructs, including moral identity, self-esteem, and moral disengagement. In Study 1, we administered the MSI scale and several other relevant scales to demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, we examine the relationship between the MSI and one’s ought versus ideal self. In Studies 3 and 4, we find that one’s MSI is affected in the predicted directions by manipulated feedback about the moral self, including feedback related to social comparisons of moral behavior (Study 3 and feedback relative to one’s own moral ideal (Study 4. Lastly, Study 5 provides evidence that the recall of one’s moral or immoral behavior alters people’s MSI in the predicted directions. Taken together, these studies suggest that the MSI is malleable and responds to individuals’ moral and immoral actions in the outside world. As such, the MSI is an important variable to consider in the study of moral and immoral behavior.

  7. Sweet old things: moral complexities in old age in Muriel Spark's Memento Mori.

    Science.gov (United States)

    England, Suzanne E; Rust, Martha D

    2015-04-01

    Through the lens of Muriel Spark's dark comedic novel, Memento Mori, this paper explores questions of morality, mortality, and the moral choices and performances in old age and in the systems and places of care. Spark's elderly characters are complex moral actors - some virtuous and some decidedly not - who have been receiving mysterious phone calls telling them simply, "Remember you must die." We, the co-authors, are from two different disciplines, namely Renaissance and medieval literature, and social work and critical gerontology. Among the questions that interest us is the paradox of a master narrative that on the one hand exempts the old from moral criticism yet holds them to a higher moral standard - essentially positioning them as moral nonentities, and relieving the old, their caretakers, and society of moral responsibility. Another is the question of whether moral agency in old age has distinctive aspects, and whether consciousness of one's impending mortality effects moral reasoning and performance. In this paper we offer our individual readings of the ways the novel opens up conceptual space in aging theory, and conclude with our thoughts about what our collaboration suggests for continuing cross-disciplinary dialogue. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. THE EFFECT OF ISLAMIC WORK ETHICS ON THE PERFORMANCE RESULT OF MUSLIM EMPLOYEES OF MARKETING SECTOR IN THE MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitra Hadisi

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the effect of Islam on efficiency of Muslim employees in multinational companies. The findings of the studies conducted to date examining the potential and actual impact of Islam in multinational setting indicates that although it seems that religion has no significant effect on multinational companies, but its internal effects such as internal and interpersonal conflicts with the type of activity of companies may be intensified. Moreover, these effects would be different based on the department of individual employees. For example, when the religious orientations of Muslims increase, their activities, according to the type of the product or service provided, in marketing sector of multinational companies may be affected. As the products and services offered would have more moral dimensions and marketing activities would be based on general moral rules, not a particular religion, we may achieve more effective results and personal and interpersonal conflicts can be reduced.

  9. Emotion and deliberative reasoning in moral judgment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denise Dellarosa Cummins

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available According to an influential dual-process model, a moral judgment is the outcome of a rapid, affect-laden process and a slower, deliberative process. If these outputs conflict, decision time is increased in order to resolve the conflict. Violations of deontological principles proscribing the use of personal force to inflict intentional harm are presumed to elicit negative affect which biases judgments early in the decision-making process. This model was tested in three experiments. Moral dilemmas were classified using (a decision time and consensus as measures of system conflict and (b the aforementioned deontological criteria. In Experiment 1, decision time was either unlimited or reduced. The dilemmas asked whether it was appropriate to take a morally questionable action to produce a greater good outcome. Limiting decision time reduced the proportion of utilitarian (yes decisions, but contrary to the model’s predictions, (a vignettes that involved more deontological violations logged faster decision times, and (b violation of deontological principles was not predictive of decisional conflict profiles. Experiment 2 ruled out the possibility that time pressure simply makes people more like to say no. Participants made a first decision under time constraints and a second decision under no time constraints. One group was asked whether it was appropriate to take the morally questionable action while a second group was asked whether it was appropriate to refuse to take the action. The results replicated that of Experiment 1 regardless of whether yes or no constituted a utilitarian decision. In Experiment 3, participants rated the pleasantness of positive visual stimuli prior to making a decision. Contrary to the model’s predictions, the number of deontological decisions increased in the positive affect rating group compared to a group that engaged in a cognitive task or a control group that engaged in neither task. These results are consistent

  10. Social Effects of Organisational Restructuring on Employee ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    First Lady

    turn affects workforce loyalty, productivity and morale either positively or negatively ... (CEC, 2008; Brand and Wilson, 2000; Luthan and Sommer, 1999; and .... The review of literature presented an overview of organisational restructuring.

  11. Mirrored morality: an exploration of moral choice in video games.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver, Andrew J; Lewis, Nicky

    2012-11-01

    This exploratory study was designed to examine how players make moral choices in video games and what effects these choices have on emotional responses to the games. Participants (n=75) filled out a moral foundations questionnaire (MFQ) and then played through the first full act of the video game Fallout 3. Game play was recorded and content analyzed for the moral decisions made. Players also reported their enjoyment of and emotional reactions to the game and reflected on the decisions they made. The majority of players made moral decisions and behaved toward the nonplayer game characters they encountered as if these were actual interpersonal interactions. Individual differences in decision making were predicted by the MFQ. Behaving in antisocial ways did increase guilt, but had no impact on enjoyment.

  12. Personal Moral Norms and Attitudes Toward Endangered Species Policies on Private Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leigh Raymond

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Research across multiple disciplines has shown that personal moral norms can play an important role in shaping individuals′ attitudes and behaviour. Despite this, we know relatively little about patterns of support among landowners for either a personal moral norm favouring a strong, ′intrinsic′ right of private ownership, or a moral duty to prevent extinction. In addition, we know even less about the ability of such norms to predict attitudes toward species protection on private lands, especially for non-charismatic species with few qualities that typically generate positive attitudes for conservation. Results from a mail survey of central Indiana landowners suggest broad support for a personal moral norm favouring a strong, ′intrinsic′ right of ownership as well as a personal moral norm to prevent extinction, and that these norms are better predictors of attitudes toward endangered species policies than partisan identification, identification as an environmentalist, strong religious beliefs, or several other demographic factors. The results suggest that those seeking to influence landowner attitudes toward species protection policies should pay closer attention to the influence of these personal moral norms.

  13. Children's giving: moral reasoning and moral emotions in the development of donation behaviors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ongley, Sophia F; Nola, Marta; Malti, Tina

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the role of moral reasoning and moral emotions (i.e., sympathy and guilt) in the development of young children's donating behavior (N = 160 4- and 8-year-old children). Donating was measured through children's allocation of resources (i.e., stickers) to needy peers and was framed as a donation to "World Vision." Children's sympathy was measured with both self- and primary caregiver-reports and participants reported their anticipation of guilt feelings following actions that violated prosocial moral norms, specifically the failure to help or share. Participants also provided justifications for their anticipated emotions, which were coded as representing moral or non-moral reasoning processes. Children's moral reasoning emerged as a significant predictor of donating behavior. In addition, results demonstrated significant developmental and gender effects, with 8-year-olds donating significantly more than 4-year-olds and 4-year-old girls making higher value donations than boys of the same age. We discuss donation behaviors within the broader context of giving and highlight the moral developmental antecedents of giving behaviors in childhood.

  14. Moral individualism and elective death.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prado, C G

    2013-01-01

    Moral individualism (Brooks, 2011; Smith, 2011) is a contemporary interpretation of morality as entirely a matter of personal choice. It is a popular rather than theory-based interpretation and has a number of social generative sources related to present-day preoccupation with individuality and personal distinctiveness. A key generative source is popularization of postmodernism, which prioritizes self-reinvention and provides moral individualism with the appearance of intellectual legitimacy. Moral individualism is a deeply flawed misconception of morality because it abolishes moral communality. My concern in this paper is that in doing so, it seriously jeopardizes productive discussion of the moral permissibility of elective death or choosing to die in despairingly and dire circumstances. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Free-Will and the Undesirability of Moral Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, David

    1975-01-01

    This paper makes two arguments: (1) that education does not imply determinism; and (2) that if one takes the libertarian position with regard to the free-will/determinism issue, one is forced to the conclusion that moral education is undesirable. (RC)

  16. 5. H.M. Majeed Reincarnation, Predestination and Moral ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    REGINALDS

    The article also reveals some serious philosophical difficulties which this Akan conception of moral ... life are believed to be determined or fixed in advance. ... 1 I do not suggest that Indian philosophy may not have a position similar to this.

  17. Working for wellness: defining, measuring, and enhancing employee well-being

    OpenAIRE

    Page, Kathryn May

    2017-01-01

    The focus of this thesis was on the utility of the workplace in promoting employee well-being. The thesis applied principles of positive psychology (PP) to the field of occupational health psychology (OHP). Paper 1 reviewed employee well-being with a focus on both general and work-related dimensions. Paper 2 developed a niche for positive employee well-being programs. It reviewed a number of strategies for improving employee health and well-being, including occupational health and safety leg...

  18. Can Innate, modular "foundations" explain morality? Challenges for Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suhler, Christopher L; Churchland, Patricia

    2011-09-01

    Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory is an influential scientific account of morality incorporating psychological, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. The theory proposes that morality is built upon five innate "foundations," each of which is believed to have been selected for during human evolution and, subsequently, tuned-up by learning during development. We argue here that although some general elements of Haidt's theory are plausible, many other important aspects of his account are seriously flawed. First, innateness and modularity figure centrally in Haidt's account, but terminological and conceptual problems foster confusion and ambiguities. Second, both the theory's proposed number of moral foundations and its taxonomy of the moral domain appear contrived, ignoring equally good candidate foundations and the possibility of substantial intergroup differences in the foundations' contents. Third, the mechanisms (viz., modules) and categorical distinctions (viz., between foundations) proposed by the theory are not consilient with discoveries in contemporary neuroscience concerning the organization, functioning, and development of the brain. In light of these difficulties, we suggest that Haidt's theory is inadequate as a scientific account of morality. Nevertheless, the theory's weaknesses are instructive, and hence, criticism may be useful to psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers attempting to advance theories of morality, as well as to researchers wishing to invoke concepts such as innateness and modularity more generally.

  19. The Effects of Moral Identity on Moral Emotion and Antisocial Behavior in Sport

    OpenAIRE

    Kavussanu, M; Stanger, N; Ring, C

    2015-01-01

    Given the prevalence and significance of antisocial behavior in sport, researchers have begun to explore the role that self conscious moral emotions play in reducing such behavior. In this research, we examined whether moral identity inhibits antisocial behaviour and whether these effects are mediated by anticipated guilt. Using a cross-sectional design, Study 1 showed that moral identity was negatively related to antisocial behavior. Study 2 found that the negative association between moral ...

  20. The impact of hotel employee satisfaction on hospitability performance

    OpenAIRE

    Laškarin Ažić, Marina

    2017-01-01

    Purpose − The hospitality industry is characterized by the complexity of managing guest experiences, which forces human resources managers to find new ways of managing relationships with employees and guests. Good relations in an organization (often displayed by organizational culture) are the main incentive for stimulating positive behavior among employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine factors related to employee satisfaction and hospitality in order to understand positive behavio...

  1. THE IMPLICATIONS OF TAX MORALE ON TAX COMPLIANCE BEHAVIOR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nichita Ramona-Anca

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The present paper focuses on the analysis of tax compliance behavior from the tax morale standpoint. We grounded our research on the idea that empirical studies constantly invalidating the assumptions of theoretical models of tax evasion show there are more factors influencing compliance than just the economic ones (e.g., audit probability, fine, tax rate, income. Giving the fact that audit probabilities are generally very low and that tax evasion is not as high as one could expect, tax morale might have to do with the high degrees of tax compliance registered around the world. In a stream of articles on taxation published beginning with the late 60n#8217;s, tax morale defined as the intrinsic motivation to comply or n#8220;internalised obligation to pay taxn#8221; (Braithwaite and Ahmed 2005 has been found to positively relate to tax compliance and negatively relate to shadow economy. This paper attempts to offer a broader view on the influence of tax morale on compliance behavior, covering articles ranging from national and cross-cultural surveys to experimental games. Moreover, the aim of the article is to emphasize the policy implications of tax morale research and the changes governments could make in order to raise the amount of public levies.

  2. Construction of Life-Practice Moral Education Based on Traditional Chinese Morality with Life Connotation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yi, Lian-yun; Peng, Jing

    2006-01-01

    The actual effect is a big problem in current school moral education. By analyzing the problems in the theory and practice of the current school moral education, the author points out that the reason is that, for a long time, the meaning of morality has been dissimilated, and moral education is considered as a kind of knowledge input and…

  3. Seeking Moral Autonomy in a Chinese Context: A Study of Elementary Moral Education Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Lena; Misco, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    In this article, we explored Chinese moral education standards for grades one and two by using the heuristic of moral autonomy and by employing a typology of moral autonomy, one based on Kantian and Deweyan ideas about moral autonomy and agency. Given the larger charge for all of schooling to develop independence, problem-solving, and creativity…

  4. Moral Economy and Moral Capital in the Community of Clinical Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaye, Chrystal; Young, Jessica; Egan, Tony; Williamson, Martyn

    2018-03-01

    This New Zealand study used focused ethnography to explore the activities of communities of clinical practice (CoCP) in a community-based long-term conditions management program within a large primary health care clinic. CoCP are the informal vehicles by which patient care was delivered within the program. Here, we describe the CoCP as a micro-level moral economy within which values such as trust, respect, authenticity, reciprocity, and obligation circulate as a kind of moral capital. As taxpayers, citizens who become patients are credited with moral capital because the public health system is funded by taxes. This moral capital can be paid forward, accrued, banked, redeemed, exchanged, and forfeited by patients and their health care professionals during the course of a patient's journey. The concept of moral capital offers another route into the "black box" of clinical work by providing an alternative theoretic for explaining the relational aspects of patient care.

  5. La vrai morale se moque de la morale: questões éticas em Pascal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Telma de Souza Birchal

    2002-12-01

    Full Text Available Em Pascal encontramos um duplo registro da questão moral: por um lado, o autor dos Pensées dirige uma dura crítica aos ideais morais da filosofia, especialmente aos do estoicismo; por outro, ele afirma uma "verdadeira moral" que "zomba da moral". A análise desse duplo registro será feita a partir de quatro contextos encontrados nos Pensamentos: 1- O contexto epistemológico da diferença entre espírito geométrico e espírito de finesse, ao qual se remetem os termos correlatos "moral do espírito" e "moral do julgamento"; 2- O contexto antropológico da "desproporção do homem" e da virtude como meio-termo; 3- O contexto antropológico - teológico da miséria e da grandeza do homem 4- O contexto metafísico-teológico da teoria das "três ordens de coisas". A "verdadeira moral" constitui-se, afinal, por dois movimentos: no primeiro, a moral pascaliana é simplesmente naturalista e compartilha do espírito mecanicista do seu século. Em seu segundo movimento, ela é teológica e constitui-se essencialmente como uma hermenêutica do desejo.We find in Pascal a double approach to the moral issue. On the one hand the author of the Pensées strongly criticizes the moral ideals of philosophy, in particular those of Stoicism but, on the other, he claims that there is a "true morals" which "mocks of morals". We here analyze this double approach from the point of view of four contexts exhibited in the Pensées: 1- The epistemological context that distinguishes the "esprit de géométrie" and the "esprit de finesse" which points, respectively, to a "moral of the ' esprit'" and to a "moral of judgment". 2- The anthropological context of the "disproportion of men" and of virtue as mean 3- The anthropological-theological context of the misery and greatness of man. 4- The metaphysical-theological context of the theory of the "three orders of things". The "true morals" is construed in two movements. In the first, Pascal's morals is naturalistic and

  6. Moral Violations Reduce Oral Consumption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Cindy; Van Boven, Leaf; Andrade, Eduardo B.; Ariely, Dan

    2014-01-01

    Consumers frequently encounter moral violations in everyday life. They watch movies and television shows about crime and deception, hear news reports of corporate fraud and tax evasion, and hear gossip about cheaters and thieves. How does exposure to moral violations influence consumption? Because moral violations arouse disgust and because disgust is an evolutionarily important signal of contamination that should provoke a multi-modal response, we hypothesize that moral violations affect a key behavioral response to disgust: reduced oral consumption. In three experiments, compared with those in control conditions, people drank less water and chocolate milk while (a) watching a film portraying the moral violations of incest, (b) writing about moral violations of cheating or theft, and (c) listening to a report about fraud and manipulation. These findings imply that “moral disgust” influences consumption in ways similar to core disgust, and thus provide evidence for the associations between moral violations, emotions, and consumer behavior. PMID:25125931

  7. Moral Violations Reduce Oral Consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Cindy; Van Boven, Leaf; Andrade, Eduardo B; Ariely, Dan

    2014-07-01

    Consumers frequently encounter moral violations in everyday life. They watch movies and television shows about crime and deception, hear news reports of corporate fraud and tax evasion, and hear gossip about cheaters and thieves. How does exposure to moral violations influence consumption? Because moral violations arouse disgust and because disgust is an evolutionarily important signal of contamination that should provoke a multi-modal response, we hypothesize that moral violations affect a key behavioral response to disgust: reduced oral consumption. In three experiments, compared with those in control conditions, people drank less water and chocolate milk while (a) watching a film portraying the moral violations of incest, (b) writing about moral violations of cheating or theft, and (c) listening to a report about fraud and manipulation. These findings imply that "moral disgust" influences consumption in ways similar to core disgust, and thus provide evidence for the associations between moral violations, emotions, and consumer behavior.

  8. ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE VOICE: EMPLOYEE SELF-EFFICACY AND SELF-IMPACT AS MEDIATORS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Duanxu; Gan, Chenjing; Wu, Chaoyan; Wang, Danqi

    2015-06-01

    Previous studies have used social learning theory to explain the influence of ethical leadership. This study continues the previous research by using social learning theory to explain the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice. In addition, this study extends previous studies by introducing expectancy theory to explore whether self-impact also mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice. Ethical leadership, self-efficacy, self-impact, and employee voice were assessed using paired surveys among 59 supervisors and 295 subordinates employed at nine firms in the People's Republic of China. Using HLM and SEM analyses, the results revealed that ethical leadership was positively related to employee voice and that this relationship was partially mediated by both self-efficacy and self-impact.

  9. Emotional Intelligence Effect and Side of Gender Spritual Intelligence against Performance of Employees in the West Sumatra Staffing Parliament

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yusnaena Yusnaena

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Human resources play an important role in the organization of the company. Although supported by the infrastructure and sufficient financial resources, without the support of human resources who are competent in their respective fields of activities in the organization, the company will not run properly. It is proved that human resources are the key issue and have to be managed as well as possible, because as the key, human resources will determine the success of an organization's operational activities. Provincial Parliament stressed the need for employees who have emotional and spiritual balance accumulated in the form of morality working and able to work together in solid team work. It is necessary for emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence. But the phenomenon in the field indicates the employee's performance is far from the desired expectation as there are many employees who are less concerned about jobs, less concerned about the peer delay - temporize absence of a sense of community work, is selfishness and want to win yourself all this illustrates the field of emotional intelligence oversight and intelligence spiritual so disturbing to the achievement of actual performance. This study is a descriptive study that compares the explanatory theories with circumstances that occur in the field. The sampling method selected is a total sampling technique. Data was processed using a multiple linear regression analysis formula. The results of this study conclude that the variables Emotional Intelligence have significant positive effect on employee performance in the Secretariat of the West Sumatra Provincial Parliament. The variable Spiritual Intelligence does not significantly influence the performance of employees of the West Sumatra Provincial Parliament Secretariat.

  10. When moral identity symbolization motivates prosocial behavior: the role of recognition and moral identity internalization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winterich, Karen Page; Aquino, Karl; Mittal, Vikas; Swartz, Richard

    2013-09-01

    This article examines the role of moral identity symbolization in motivating prosocial behaviors. We propose a 3-way interaction of moral identity symbolization, internalization, and recognition to predict prosocial behavior. When moral identity internalization is low, we hypothesize that high moral identity symbolization motivates recognized prosocial behavior due to the opportunity to present one's moral characteristics to others. In contrast, when moral identity internalization is high, prosocial behavior is motivated irrespective of the level of symbolization and recognition. Two studies provide support for this pattern examining volunteering of time. Our results provide a framework for predicting prosocial behavior by combining the 2 dimensions of moral identity with the situational factor of recognition. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

  11. Revisiting Folk Moral Realism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pölzler, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Moral realists believe that there are objective moral truths. According to one of the most prominent arguments in favour of this view, ordinary people experience morality as realist-seeming, and we have therefore prima facie reason to believe that realism is true. Some proponents of this argument have claimed that the hypothesis that ordinary people experience morality as realist-seeming is supported by psychological research on folk metaethics. While most recent research has been thought to contradict this claim, four prominent earlier studies (by Goodwin and Darley, Wainryb et al., Nichols, and Nichols and Folds-Bennett) indeed seem to suggest a tendency towards realism. My aim in this paper is to provide a detailed internal critique of these four studies. I argue that, once interpreted properly, all of them turn out in line with recent research. They suggest that most ordinary people experience morality as "pluralist-" rather than realist-seeming, i.e., that ordinary people have the intuition that realism is true with regard to some moral issues, but variants of anti-realism are true with regard to others. This result means that moral realism may be less well justified than commonly assumed.

  12. Morality and ethics in high technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroeter, K.U.

    2003-01-01

    The ethical debate about what is feasible culminates, for one side, in the indignant moral question whether man is allowed to do all he is able to do and, for the other side, in the very obligation to keep redefining the limits of creation, and to act accordingly. Consequently, the Young Generation, at their meeting in Gronau, Westphalia (about which we reported), discussed about ''High Technology - Responsible on Ethical and Moral Grounds?'' The paper presented to the participants by pastor Kai Uwe Schroeter reflects this dichotomy, but also takes a clear position in favor of the expansion of nuclear power. This issue of atw contains a revised version of the paper. It is published in the hope that it will furnish arguments for the philosophical and ethical debates about high technology. (orig.) [de

  13. Spontaneous Development of Moral Concepts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siegal, M.

    1975-01-01

    Moral competence is more difficult to attain than scientific competence. Since language comprehension plays a central role in conceptual development, and moral language is difficult to learn, there is a common deficiency in moral conceptual development. This suggests a theory of non-spontaneous solutions to moral problems. (Author/MS)

  14. Improving moral judgments: philosophical considerations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kalis, A.

    2010-01-01

    In contemporary moral psychology, an often-heard claim is that knowing how we make moral judgments can help us make better moral judgments. Discussions about moral development and improvement are often framed in terms of the question of which mental processes have a better chance of leading to good

  15. Moral Education and Caring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noddings, Nel

    2010-01-01

    Michael Slote's very interesting work on moral sentimentalism and moral education raises some important questions on the meaning of empathy, the limitations of "inductions", and the development of moral education from the perspective of care ethics. These questions are addressed in this commentary. (Contains 5 notes.)

  16. The Role of Adolescents' Morality and Identity in Volunteering. Age and Gender Differences in a Process Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Goethem, Anne A. J.; van Hoof, Anne; van Aken, Marcel A. G.; Raaijmakers, Quinten A. W.; Boom, Jan; de Castro, Bram Orobio

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to explain adolescents' volunteering in terms of their morality and identity and to examine the moderation effect of gender and age in this process. Data were collected among 698 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 20 (M = 15.19; SD = 1.43). Adolescents' moral reasoning was positively associated with understanding moral issues…

  17. Moral realism in nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Steven D

    2014-04-01

    For more than 15 years Professor Per Nortvedt has been arguing the case for moral realism in nursing and the health-care context more generally. His arguments focus on the clinical contexts of nursing and medicine and are supplemented by a series of persuasive examples. Following a description of moral realism, and the kinds of considerations that support it, criticisms of it are developed that seem persuasive. It is argued that our moral responses are explained by our beliefs as opposed to moral realities. In particular, two key arguments presented by Nortvedt are challenged: the so-called argument from convergence and the argument from clinical sensitivity. Both of these key planks in the case for moral realism are rejected, and an alternative 'social conditioning' account briefly sketched, which, it is claimed, has the same explanatory power as Nortvedt's thesis but does not rest on an appeal to independently existing moral properties. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Do Job Demands of Chinese Manufacturing Employees Predict Positive or Negative Outcomes? A Test of Competing Hypotheses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Janelle H; Sinclair, Robert R; Shi, Junqi; Wang, Mo

    2015-12-01

    Karasek's job demands-control (JDC) model posits that job control can buffer against the harmful effects of demands experienced by employees. A large volume of JDC research has obtained support for the main effects of demands and control, but not the interactive effects. Recent research on the challenge-hindrance stressors framework, however, found that work stressors may not always be deleterious, suggesting alternative hypotheses about the effects of demands and control. The present study therefore examined competing hypotheses concerning the effects of job demands on occupational health outcomes. Using a sample of 316 employees in a Chinese manufacturing company, we found that, consistent with the challenge-hindrance framework, production demands were challenge stressors associated with favourable outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and psychological well-being). In addition, results showed that the interactive role of job control depended on the nature of outcome variables. Future recommendations and implications of findings are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  19. Employee and customer satisfaction in healthcare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Todd; Wood, Ben D

    2010-01-01

    There were multiple factors identified in a literature review that have a relationship to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and links between employee and customer satisfaction. Some of the factors identified were communication, wait times, perceived value, trust, dissatisfaction with management, changes in the workplace, vision,and fun at work. Managers must identify these topics to ensure customer satisfaction, customer loyalty,and employee satisfaction which will ultimately have a positive impact on their organizations.

  20. Three attempts to replicate the moral licensing effect

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blanken, I.; van de Ven, N.; Zeelenberg, M.; Meijers, Marijn H. C.

    2014-01-01

    The present work includes three attempts to replicate the moral licensing effect by Sachdeva, Iliev, and Medin (2009). The original authors found that writing about positive traits led to lower donations to charity and decreased cooperative behavior. The first two replication attempts (student

  1. Relativistic Absolutism in Moral Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogt, W. Paul

    1982-01-01

    Discusses Emile Durkheim's "Moral Education: A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education," which holds that morally healthy societies may vary in culture and organization but must possess absolute rules of moral behavior. Compares this moral theory with current theory and practice of American educators. (MJL)

  2. Labour law treatment of health, work ability and personal integrity of the employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jovanović Predrag

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Health and working ability are assumptions of entering into and the existence of labour relations. The purpose of entering into and the existence of labour relations is in the organised and meaningful work, in the interest of the employer and the employee. The main obligation of the employee is to do their work personally in accordance with their health and work abilities. With regards to the said abilities, the employee is accepted to the work, and protection and maintaining of these abilities is the assumption of the survival and long lasting of the employment. This makes legitimate the need that the health and work ability be protected by law in a suitable way. To that effect, we can talk about protection of health of the employees and safety at work. Since health does not only mean the absence of illness, but also the overall social security of the employees at work and in connection with work, this and issue of insurance of different risks that follow work of the employee fall into measures of health protection. Finally, not only manpower, as an organic unity of health and work abilities, takes part in labour relations, but also the entire personality of the employee with the overall personal (moral and ethical integrity, which also on its part requires appropriate labour law treatment and protection (ban on discrimination, harassment, abuse, protection of personal data, etc..

  3. Does "science" make you moral? The effects of priming science on moral judgments and behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma-Kellams, Christine; Blascovich, Jim

    2013-01-01

    Previous work has noted that science stands as an ideological force insofar as the answers it offers to a variety of fundamental questions and concerns; as such, those who pursue scientific inquiry have been shown to be concerned with the moral and social ramifications of their scientific endeavors. No studies to date have directly investigated the links between exposure to science and moral or prosocial behaviors. Across four studies, both naturalistic measures of science exposure and experimental primes of science led to increased adherence to moral norms and more morally normative behaviors across domains. Study 1 (n = 36) tested the natural correlation between exposure to science and likelihood of enforcing moral norms. Studies 2 (n = 49), 3 (n = 52), and 4 (n = 43) manipulated thoughts about science and examined the causal impact of such thoughts on imagined and actual moral behavior. Across studies, thinking about science had a moralizing effect on a broad array of domains, including interpersonal violations (Studies 1, 2), prosocial intentions (Study 3), and economic exploitation (Study 4). These studies demonstrated the morally normative effects of lay notions of science. Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms and exhibit more morally normative behavior. These studies are the first of their kind to systematically and empirically test the relationship between science and morality. The present findings speak to this question and elucidate the value-laden outcomes of the notion of science.

  4. Mind Perception Is the Essence of Morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Kurt; Young, Liane; Waytz, Adam

    2012-04-01

    Mind perception entails ascribing mental capacities to other entities, whereas moral judgment entails labeling entities as good or bad or actions as right or wrong. We suggest that mind perception is the essence of moral judgment. In particular, we suggest that moral judgment is rooted in a cognitive template of two perceived minds-a moral dyad of an intentional agent and a suffering moral patient. Diverse lines of research support dyadic morality. First, perceptions of mind are linked to moral judgments: dimensions of mind perception (agency and experience) map onto moral types (agents and patients), and deficits of mind perception correspond to difficulties with moral judgment. Second, not only are moral judgments sensitive to perceived agency and experience, but all moral transgressions are fundamentally understood as agency plus experienced suffering-that is, interpersonal harm-even ostensibly harmless acts such as purity violations. Third, dyadic morality uniquely accounts for the phenomena of dyadic completion (seeing agents in response to patients, and vice versa), and moral typecasting (characterizing others as either moral agents or moral patients). Discussion also explores how mind perception can unify morality across explanatory levels, how a dyadic template of morality may be developmentally acquired, and future directions.

  5. Moral Law and Moral Education: Defending Kantian Autonomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, James Scott

    2007-01-01

    In this paper, I examine why Kantian ethics has had such a hard time of it. I look at readings of Kant's moral theory that have had great force in the 20th century and conclude that these have much to do with an ensuing confusion, which has led to charges of rigidity, formality and severity. Then I demonstrate that when we make moral judgements we…

  6. The relationship of ethics education to moral sensitivity and moral reasoning skills of nursing students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Mihyun; Kjervik, Diane; Crandell, Jamie; Oermann, Marilyn H

    2012-07-01

    This study described the relationships between academic class and student moral sensitivity and reasoning and between curriculum design components for ethics education and student moral sensitivity and reasoning. The data were collected from freshman (n = 506) and senior students (n = 440) in eight baccalaureate nursing programs in South Korea by survey; the survey consisted of the Korean Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Korean Defining Issues Test. The results showed that moral sensitivity scores in patient-oriented care and conflict were higher in senior students than in freshman students. Furthermore, more hours of ethics content were associated with higher principled thinking scores of senior students. Nursing education in South Korea may have an impact on developing student moral sensitivity. Planned ethics content in nursing curricula is necessary to improve moral sensitivity and moral reasoning of students.

  7. The Navy’s Moral Compass: Commanding Officers and Personal Misconduct

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-07-01

    commanding officer corps and our service, to take positive action to develop each officer’s moral compass and establish an ethical standard. Step One...high moral ground in their discretionary judgments. Furthermore, the Army Operating Concept of 2010 includes three pages of ethical and behavioral...Journal of Business Ethics 12, no. 6 (1993), p. 265. 24. U.S. Navy Dept., U.S. Navy Regulations (Washington, D.C.: 1990), sec. 802, para. 1. 25

  8. Moral Behavior as Rule Governed Behavior: A Psychosocial Role-Theoretical Approach to Moral Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurtines, William M.

    Research on moral development and behavior has traditionally emphasized person related variables such as level or stage of moral reasoning, individual differences in moral traits and dispositions, or past reinforcement history. The effects of context on moral action and decision, in contrast, have received relatively little attention. It is…

  9. Kant's Account of Moral Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giesinger, Johannes

    2012-01-01

    While Kant's pedagogical lectures present an account of moral education, his theory of freedom and morality seems to leave no room for the possibility of an education for freedom and morality. In this paper, it is first shown that Kant's moral philosophy and his educational philosophy are developed within different theoretical paradigms: whereas…

  10. Effects of ethics education on moral sensitivity of nursing students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeom, Hye-A; Ahn, Sung-Hee; Kim, Su-Jeong

    2017-09-01

    While nursing ethics education is commonly provided for undergraduate nursing students in most nursing colleges, consensus on the content and teaching modules for these ethics courses have still not been established. This study aimed to examine the effects of nursing ethics education on the moral sensitivity and critical thinking disposition of nursing students in Korea. A one-group pre- and post-test design was used. Moral sensitivity was measured using the Korean version of the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire. Critical thinking disposition was measured using the Critical Thinking Disposition Questionnaire. Participants and research context: Participants were 70 undergraduate nursing students who were attending a university located in Seoul, Korea. The nursing ethics education was provided 7 times, from September to December 2010, and comprised 90-min sessions each week. Ethical considerations: This study was conducted in accordance with the Human Subject Research Ethics Committee guidelines. After the education, the levels for the patient-oriented care, a sub-domain of moral sensitivity, and inquisitiveness, a sub-domain of critical thinking disposition, significantly improved. There were no changes in overall scores for moral sensitivity and critical thinking disposition. There were significant positive correlations between moral sensitivity and critical thinking disposition both pre- and post-intervention. These results reflect the need for ongoing efforts to develop innovative content, structure, and instructional methods for undergraduate nursing ethics education programs.

  11. 29 CFR 825.604 - Special rules for school employees, restoration to “an equivalent position.”

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... employee to “an equivalent position” must provide substantially the same protections as provided in the Act... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Special rules for school employees, restoration to âan... to Employees of Schools § 825.604 Special rules for school employees, restoration to “an equivalent...

  12. Situational variation in moral judgment: In a stage or on a stage?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpendale, J I; Krebs, D L

    1992-04-01

    Two issues were examined in this study-the consistency of moral judgment across different types of dilemma and different social contexts, and the relationship between the structure (stage) of moral judgment and the content of moral decisions. Forty subjects were given two hypothetical dilemmas about business decisions and two standard Kohlberg dilemmas. Half the subjects directed their responses to a business audience, half to a philosophical audience. Responses to the moral dilemmas were scored in accordance with the Colby and Kohlberg (1987) scoring manual. Stage of moral reasoning was found to be significantly higher on the Kohlberg dilemmas than on the business dilemmas. A significant interaction between type of dilemma and audience was attributed to the tendency of subjects directing their responses to a business audience to interpret one of the business dilemmas in terms of the moral order of business, but for subjects directing their responses to a philosophy audience to treat it as a philosophical dilemma. The other business dilemma evoked uniformly low-level moral judgments. The amount of selfishness intrinsic in subjects' moral choices on the business dilemmas was significantly negatively correlated with moral maturity on the business dilemmas, but not with their moral maturity on Kohlberg's test. These results are interpreted as more consistent with models of moral development such as those advanced by C. G. Levine ([1979] "Stage Acquisition and Stage Use: An Appraisal of Stage Displacement Explanations of Variation in Moral Reasoning, " Human Development, Vol. 22, pp. 145-164), J. Rest ([1983] "Morality," in: P. H. Mussen [ed.], J. H. Flavell and E. Markman [Vol. eds.], Handbook of Child Psychology [Vol. 3, 4th ed.], John Wiley & Sons, New York), and R. Harré ([1984]) Personal Being: A Theory for Individual Psychology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts), which posit a relatively wide range of within-person stage use and emphasize the

  13. Moral Education in Pakistan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haq, Shafiqua

    1980-01-01

    This report describes formal and informal methods of moral education operative in Pakistan. The nation's Islamic environment is explained; school policy, objectives, and practices are outlined; and informal moral education efforts through the mass media are noted. Problems in moral education in Pakistan and proposals for the future are discussed.…

  14. Moral distress in nursing personnel Sufrimiento moral en trabajadores de enfermería Sofrimento moral em trabalhadores de enfermagem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edison Luiz Devos Barlem

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: to analyze the frequency and intensity of moral distress experienced by nursing personnel in southern Brazil, covering elements of their professional practice. METHOD: a survey was undertaken in two hospitals in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with 247 nurses. Data was collected by means of the adapted Moral Distress Scale. RESULTS: the perception of situations that lead to moral distress is enhanced in nurses and in nursing staff working in institutions with greater openness to dialogue, which hold team meetings, with fewer working hours and a greater ratio of professionals to patients. CONCLUSION: understanding moral distress allows us to go beyond solving the problems of the workers themselves, enabling the development of an ethics of active individuals and wide opportunities, defined mainly by the relationship with oneself.OBJETIVO: analizar la frecuencia e intensidad del sufrimiento moral vivido por los profesionales de enfermería del sur de Brasil, abarcando los elementos de su rutina profesional. MÉTODO: investigación survey en dos hospitales, con 247 profesionales de enfermería. Los datos fueron recolectados mediante aplicación de la adaptación del Moral Distress Scale. RESULTADOS: la percepción de situaciones que conducen al sufrimiento moral es intensificada en enfermeros; en trabajadores de enfermería que actúan en instituciones con mayor apertura al dialogo, que realizan reuniones de equipo, con menos horas de trabajo y mayor relación del número de profesionales por paciente. CONCLUSIÓN: entender el sufrimiento moral permite ir más allá de la resolución de los problemas de los propios trabajadores, lo que posibilita la elaboración de una ética de sujetos activos y de amplias posibilidades, definidas principalmente por la relación consigo mismo.OBJETIVO: analisar a frequência e a intensidade de sofrimento moral vivenciado por trabalhadores de enfermagem do Sul do Brasil, contemplando elementos do seu cotidiano

  15. Who Engages with Moral Beauty?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diessner, Rhett; Iyer, Ravi; Smith, Meghan M.; Haidt, Jonathan

    2013-01-01

    Aristotle considered moral beauty to be the "telos" of the human virtues. Displays of moral beauty have been shown to elicit the moral emotion of elevation and cause a desire to become a better person and to engage in prosocial behavior. Study 1 ("N" = 5380) shows engagement with moral beauty is related to several psychological…

  16. Stress alters personal moral decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Youssef, Farid F; Dookeeram, Karine; Basdeo, Vasant; Francis, Emmanuel; Doman, Mekaeel; Mamed, Danielle; Maloo, Stefan; Degannes, Joel; Dobo, Linda; Ditshotlo, Phatsimo; Legall, George

    2012-04-01

    While early studies of moral decision making highlighted the role of rational, conscious executive processes involving frontal lobe activation more recent work has suggested that emotions and gut reactions have a key part to play in moral reasoning. Given that stress can activate many of the same brain regions that are important for and connected to brain centres involved in emotional processing we sought to evaluate if stress could influence moral decision making. Sixty-five undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to control (n=33) and experimental groups (n=32). The latter underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and induction of stress was assessed by measurement of salivary cortisol levels. Subjects were then required to provide a response to thirty moral dilemmas via a computer interface that recorded both their decision and reaction time. Three types of dilemmas were used: non-moral, impersonal moral and personal moral. Using a binary logistic model there were no significant predicators of utilitarian response in non-moral and impersonal moral dilemmas. However the stressed group and females were found to predict utilitarian responses to personal moral dilemmas. When comparing percentage utilitarian responses there were no significant differences noted for the non-moral and impersonal moral dilemmas but the stressed group showed significantly less utilitarian responses compared to control subjects. The stress response was significantly negatively correlated with utilitarian responses. Females also showed significantly less utilitarian responses than males. We conclude that activation of the stress response predisposed participants to less utilitarian responses when faced with high conflict personal moral dilemmas and suggest that this offers further support for dual process theory of moral judgment. We also conclude that females tend to make less utilitarian personal moral decisions compared to males, providing further evidence that there are

  17. A PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON MORAL PHILOSOPHY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CIPRIAN IULIAN ŞOPTICĂ

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The subject of this article concerns the what, the how and the whyof moral phenomenology. The first question we take into consideration is „What is moral phenomenology”? The second question which arises is „How to pursue moral phenomenology”? The third question is „Why pursue moral phenomenology”? We will analyze the study Moral phenomenology:foundation issues1, by which the American phenomenologist Uriah Kriegel aims three lines of research: the definition of moral phenomenology and the description of field research within the phenomenological tradition; the establishment of a method of moral phenomenology research; the emphasis of the purpose of such research and its importance for moral philosophy in general.

  18. Has Richard Rorty a moral philosophy?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Asghari

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available I try to show that Richard Rorty, although is not a moral philosopher like Kant, nerveless, has moral philosophy that must be taken seriously. Rorty was not engaged with moral philosophy in the systematic manner common among leading modern and contemporary moral philosophers. This paper has two parts: first part, in brief, is concerned with principles of his philosophy such as anti-essentialism, Darwinism, Freudism, and historicism. Second part which be long and detailed, considers many moral themes in Rorty's thought such as critique of Kantian morality, solidarity, moral progress, cruelty and concept of other, etc. Subsequently, I will try to answer the research question of the article namely, has Rorty a moral philosophy?

  19. Charisma and Moral Reasoning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica Flanigan

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Charisma is morally problematic insofar as it replaces followers’ capacity to engage in genuine moral reasoning. When followers defer to charismatic leaders and act in ways that are morally wrong they are not only blameworthy for wrongdoing but for failing in their deliberative obligations. Even when followers defer to charismatic leaders and do the right thing, their action is less praiseworthy to the extent that it was the result of charisma rather than moral deliberation. Therefore, effective charismatic leadership reliably undermines the praiseworthiness and amplifies the blameworthiness of follower’s actions.

  20. Mind Perception Is the Essence of Morality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Kurt; Young, Liane; Waytz, Adam

    2012-01-01

    Mind perception entails ascribing mental capacities to other entities, whereas moral judgment entails labeling entities as good or bad or actions as right or wrong. We suggest that mind perception is the essence of moral judgment. In particular, we suggest that moral judgment is rooted in a cognitive template of two perceived minds—a moral dyad of an intentional agent and a suffering moral patient. Diverse lines of research support dyadic morality. First, perceptions of mind are linked to moral judgments: dimensions of mind perception (agency and experience) map onto moral types (agents and patients), and deficits of mind perception correspond to difficulties with moral judgment. Second, not only are moral judgments sensitive to perceived agency and experience, but all moral transgressions are fundamentally understood as agency plus experienced suffering—that is, interpersonal harm—even ostensibly harmless acts such as purity violations. Third, dyadic morality uniquely accounts for the phenomena of dyadic completion (seeing agents in response to patients, and vice versa), and moral typecasting (characterizing others as either moral agents or moral patients). Discussion also explores how mind perception can unify morality across explanatory levels, how a dyadic template of morality may be developmentally acquired, and future directions. PMID:22754268

  1. The Moral Standing of Machines: Towards a Relational and Non-Cartesian Moral Hermeneutics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Coeckelbergh, Mark

    2014-01-01

    Should we give moral standing to machines? In this paper, I explore the implications of a relational approach to moral standing for thinking about machines, in particular autonomous, intelligent robots. I show how my version of this approach, which focuses on moral relations and on the conditions of

  2. 5 CFR 575.104 - Ineligible categories of employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... INCENTIVES Recruitment Incentives § 575.104 Ineligible categories of employees. An agency may not pay a recruitment incentive to an employee in— (a) A position to which an individual is appointed by the President... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ineligible categories of employees. 575...

  3. The role of emotions for moral judgments depends on the type of emotion and moral scenario.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ugazio, Giuseppe; Lamm, Claus; Singer, Tania

    2012-06-01

    Emotions seem to play a critical role in moral judgment. However, the way in which emotions exert their influence on moral judgments is still poorly understood. This study proposes a novel theoretical approach suggesting that emotions influence moral judgments based on their motivational dimension. We tested the effects of two types of induced emotions with equal valence but with different motivational implications (anger and disgust), and four types of moral scenarios (disgust-related, impersonal, personal, and beliefs) on moral judgments. We hypothesized and found that approach motivation associated with anger would make moral judgments more permissible, while disgust, associated with withdrawal motivation, would make them less permissible. Moreover, these effects varied as a function of the type of scenario: the induced emotions only affected moral judgments concerning impersonal and personal scenarios, while we observed no effects for the other scenarios. These findings suggest that emotions can play an important role in moral judgment, but that their specific effects depend upon the type of emotion induced. Furthermore, induced emotion effects were more prevalent for moral decisions in personal and impersonal scenarios, possibly because these require the performance of an action rather than making an abstract judgment. We conclude that the effects of induced emotions on moral judgments can be predicted by taking their motivational dimension into account. This finding has important implications for moral psychology, as it points toward a previously overlooked mechanism linking emotions to moral judgments.

  4. Construing Morality at High versus Low Levels Induces Better Self-control, Leading to Moral Acts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chia-Chun Wu

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Human morality entails a typical self-control dilemma in which one must conform to moral rules or socially desirable norms while exerting control over amoral, selfish impulses. Extant research regarding the connection between self-control and level of construal suggest that, compared with a low-level, concrete construal (highlighting means and resources, e.g., answering ‘how’ questions, a high-level, abstract construal (highlighting central goals, e.g., answering ‘why’ questions promotes self-control. Hence, construing morality at higher levels rather than lower levels should engender greater self-control and, it follows, promote a tendency to perform moral acts. We conducted two experiments to show that answering “why” (high-level construal vs. “how” (low-level construal questions regarding morality was associated with a situational state of greater self-control, as indexed by less Stroop interference in the Stroop color-naming task (Experiments 1 and 2. Participants exposed to “why” questions regarding morality displayed a greater inclination for volunteerism (Experiment 1, showed a lower tendency toward selfishness in a dictator game (Experiment 2, and were more likely to return undeserved money (Experiment 2 compared with participants exposed to “how” questions regarding morality. In both experiments, self-control mediated the effect of a high-level construal of morality on dependent measures. The current research constitutes a new approach to promoting prosociality and moral education. Reminding people to think abstractly about human morality may help them to generate better control over the temptation to benefit from unethical acts and make it more likely that they will act morally.

  5. Construing Morality at High versus Low Levels Induces Better Self-control, Leading to Moral Acts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chia-Chun; Wu, Wen-Hsiung; Chiou, Wen-Bin

    2017-01-01

    Human morality entails a typical self-control dilemma in which one must conform to moral rules or socially desirable norms while exerting control over amoral, selfish impulses. Extant research regarding the connection between self-control and level of construal suggest that, compared with a low-level, concrete construal (highlighting means and resources, e.g., answering 'how' questions), a high-level, abstract construal (highlighting central goals, e.g., answering 'why' questions) promotes self-control. Hence, construing morality at higher levels rather than lower levels should engender greater self-control and, it follows, promote a tendency to perform moral acts. We conducted two experiments to show that answering "why" (high-level construal) vs. "how" (low-level construal) questions regarding morality was associated with a situational state of greater self-control, as indexed by less Stroop interference in the Stroop color-naming task (Experiments 1 and 2). Participants exposed to "why" questions regarding morality displayed a greater inclination for volunteerism (Experiment 1), showed a lower tendency toward selfishness in a dictator game (Experiment 2), and were more likely to return undeserved money (Experiment 2) compared with participants exposed to "how" questions regarding morality. In both experiments, self-control mediated the effect of a high-level construal of morality on dependent measures. The current research constitutes a new approach to promoting prosociality and moral education. Reminding people to think abstractly about human morality may help them to generate better control over the temptation to benefit from unethical acts and make it more likely that they will act morally.

  6. Psychology as a Moral Science

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brinkmann, Svend

    What does morality have to do with psychology in a value-neutral, postmodern world? According to a provocative new book, everything. Taking exception with current ideas in the mainstream (including cultural, evolutionary, and neuropsychology) as straying from the discipline’s ethical foundations,...... as a Moral Science contains enough controversial ideas to spark great interest among researchers and scholars in psychology and the philosophy of science.......What does morality have to do with psychology in a value-neutral, postmodern world? According to a provocative new book, everything. Taking exception with current ideas in the mainstream (including cultural, evolutionary, and neuropsychology) as straying from the discipline’s ethical foundations......, Psychology as a Moral Science argues that psychological phenomena are inherently moral, and that psychology, as prescriptive and interventive practice, reflects specific moral principles. The book cites normative moral standards, as far back as Aristotle, that give human thoughts, feelings, and actions...

  7. How employee engagement matters for hospital performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, Graham

    2012-01-01

    Managers increasingly understand that employee engagement is a prerequisite for high performance. This article examines how job, work environment, management and organizational factors influence levels of engagement among healthcare employees. Original data come from the Ontario Hospital Association-NRC Picker Employee Experience Survey, involving over 10,000 employees in 16 Ontario hospitals. The article provides a clear definition and measure of engagement relevant to healthcare. In addition to identifying the main drivers of engagement, findings shows that a high level of employee engagement is related to retention, patient-centred care, patient safety culture and employees' positive assessments of the quality of care or services provided by their team. Implications of these findings for healthcare leaders are briefly considered.

  8. 49 CFR 805.735-26 - Employee's complaint on filing requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ...) NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDUCT § 805.735-26 Employee's complaint on filing requirements. An employee who believes that his position has been improperly included... 49 Transportation 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Employee's complaint on filing requirements. 805...

  9. Inability and Obligation in Moral Judgment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckwalter, Wesley; Turri, John

    2015-01-01

    It is often thought that judgments about what we ought to do are limited by judgments about what we can do, or that “ought implies can.” We conducted eight experiments to test the link between a range of moral requirements and abilities in ordinary moral evaluations. Moral obligations were repeatedly attributed in tandem with inability, regardless of the type (Experiments 1–3), temporal duration (Experiment 5), or scope (Experiment 6) of inability. This pattern was consistently observed using a variety of moral vocabulary to probe moral judgments and was insensitive to different levels of seriousness for the consequences of inaction (Experiment 4). Judgments about moral obligation were no different for individuals who can or cannot perform physical actions, and these judgments differed from evaluations of a non-moral obligation (Experiment 7). Together these results demonstrate that commonsense morality rejects the “ought implies can” principle for moral requirements, and that judgments about moral obligation are made independently of considerations about ability. By contrast, judgments of blame were highly sensitive to considerations about ability (Experiment 8), which suggests that commonsense morality might accept a “blame implies can” principle. PMID:26296206

  10. Adolescents' aggressive and prosocial behaviors: links with social information processing, negative emotionality, moral affect, and moral cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laible, Deborah J; Murphy, Tia Panfile; Augustine, Mairin

    2014-01-01

    The goal of this study was to examine whether moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases independently predicted adolescents' prosocial and aggressive behavior in adolescence. A total of 148 adolescents completed self-report measures of prosocial and aggressive behavior, moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases. Although in general all 3 factors (emotional, moral, and social cognitive) were correlated with adolescent social behavior, the most consistent independent predictors of adolescent social behavior were moral affect and cognition. These findings have important implications for intervention and suggest that programs that promote adolescent perspective taking, moral reasoning, and moral affect are needed to reduce aggressive behavior and promote prosocial behavior.

  11. The Concept of the Moral Domain in Moral Foundations Theory and Cognitive Developmental Theory: Horses for Courses?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maxwell, Bruce; Beaulac, Guillaume

    2013-01-01

    Moral foundations theory chastises cognitive developmental theory for having foisted on moral psychology a restrictive conception of the moral domain which involves arbitrarily elevating the values of justice and caring. The account of this negative influence on moral psychology, referred to in the moral foundations theory literature as the…

  12. Functional and clinical neuroanatomy of morality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fumagalli, Manuela; Priori, Alberto

    2012-07-01

    Morality is among the most sophisticated features of human judgement, behaviour and, ultimately, mind. An individual who behaves immorally may violate ethical rules and civil rights, and may threaten others' individual liberty, sometimes becoming violent and aggressive. In recent years, neuroscience has shown a growing interest in human morality, and has advanced our understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes involved in moral decisions, their anatomical substrates and the neurology of abnormal moral behaviour. In this article, we review research findings that have provided a key insight into the functional and clinical neuroanatomy of the brain areas involved in normal and abnormal moral behaviour. The 'moral brain' consists of a large functional network including both cortical and subcortical anatomical structures. Because morality is a complex process, some of these brain structures share their neural circuits with those controlling other behavioural processes, such as emotions and theory of mind. Among the anatomical structures implicated in morality are the frontal, temporal and cingulate cortices. The prefrontal cortex regulates activity in subcortical emotional centres, planning and supervising moral decisions, and when its functionality is altered may lead to impulsive aggression. The temporal lobe is involved in theory of mind and its dysfunction is often implicated in violent psychopathy. The cingulate cortex mediates the conflict between the emotional and the rational components of moral reasoning. Other important structures contributing to moral behaviour include the subcortical nuclei such as the amygdala, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Brain areas participating in moral processing can be influenced also by genetic, endocrine and environmental factors. Hormones can modulate moral behaviour through their effects on the brain. Finally, genetic polymorphisms can predispose to aggressivity and violence, arguing for a genetic

  13. "It's a Burden You Carry": Describing Moral Distress in Emergency Nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Lisa A; Perhats, Cydne; Delao, Altair M; Moon, Michael D; Clark, Paul R; Zavotsky, Kathleen E

    2016-01-01

    Moral distress in nursing has been studied in many settings, but there is a paucity of research on moral distress as it manifests in the emergency department. One study suggests a correlation between moral distress and aspects of burnout, and other researchers report that nurses have considered leaving their position or even their profession because of moral distress. Further exploration of these issues may provide insight into their effects on ED patient care and the emergency nursing profession. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of moral distress as it is experienced and described by emergency nurses. A qualitative, exploratory design was employed using semi-structured focus groups for data collection. Using an iterative process, transcripts were analyzed for emerging themes by the research team. Six researchers analyzed the transcripts using a thematic analysis approach. Themes from the data included dysfunctional practice arena, being overwhelmed, and adaptive/maladaptive coping. Participants described, overall, a profound feeling of not being able to provide patient care as they wanted to. Causes of moral distress in emergency nurses are environment driven, not incident driven, as is described in other settings, and include a high-acuity, high-demand, technical environment with insufficient resources. Interventions should be targeted to improve environmental factors that contribute to the moral distress of emergency nurses. Future research should focus on the development and validation of an instrument to measure moral distress in this setting. Copyright © 2016 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. A PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON MORAL PHILOSOPHY

    OpenAIRE

    CIPRIAN IULIAN ŞOPTICĂ

    2011-01-01

    The subject of this article concerns the what, the how and the whyof moral phenomenology. The first question we take into consideration is „What is moral phenomenology”? The second question which arises is „How to pursue moral phenomenology”? The third question is „Why pursue moral phenomenology”? We will analyze the study Moral phenomenology:foundation issues1, by which the American phenomenologist Uriah Kriegel aims three lines of research: the definition of moral phenomenology and the desc...

  15. How "moral" are the principles of biomedical ethics?--a cross-domain evaluation of the common morality hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christen, Markus; Ineichen, Christian; Tanner, Carmen

    2014-06-17

    The principles of biomedical ethics - autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice - are of paradigmatic importance for framing ethical problems in medicine and for teaching ethics to medical students and professionals. In order to underline this significance, Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress base the principles in the common morality, i.e. they claim that the principles represent basic moral values shared by all persons committed to morality and are thus grounded in human moral psychology. We empirically investigated the relationship of the principles to other moral and non-moral values that provide orientations in medicine. By way of comparison, we performed a similar analysis for the business & finance domain. We evaluated the perceived degree of "morality" of 14 values relevant to medicine (n1 = 317, students and professionals) and 14 values relevant to business & finance (n2 = 247, students and professionals). Ratings were made along four dimensions intended to characterize different aspects of morality. We found that compared to other values, the principles-related values received lower ratings across several dimensions that characterize morality. By interpreting our finding using a clustering and a network analysis approach, we suggest that the principles can be understood as "bridge values" that are connected both to moral and non-moral aspects of ethical dilemmas in medicine. We also found that the social domain (medicine vs. business & finance) influences the degree of perceived morality of values. Our results are in conflict with the common morality hypothesis of Beauchamp and Childress, which would imply domain-independent high morality ratings of the principles. Our findings support the suggestions by other scholars that the principles of biomedical ethics serve primarily as instruments in deliberated justifications, but lack grounding in a universal "common morality". We propose that the specific manner in which the principles

  16. Studying employee well-being : Moving forward

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ilies, R.; Pluut, Helen; Aw, S.S.Y.

    2015-01-01

    In this article, we attempt to integrate the commentaries to our position paper on intra-individual models of employee well-being (EWB; Ilies, R., Aw, S. S. Y., & Pluut, H. (2015). Intraindividual models of employee well-being: What have we learned and where do we go from here? European Journal of

  17. PERKEMBANGAN MORAL SANTRI ANAK USIA DINI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Mumun Muniroh

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available This study intends to explore and analyze the moral development of students of early childhood at boarding school Salafiyah Shafi'ites Pekalongan. The study was focused on three moral development, namely the aspect of moral reasoning, moral feeling, and moral behavior. The research data was obtained through interviews, observation, field notes and documentation. Data analysis use an interactive analysis model introduced by Miles and Huberman. The results of this study are: moral reasoning of students of early childhood show heteronomous morality. Students understand some important points such as justice, stealing, punishment and tolerance. Some students have an understanding that justice, punishment or regulation are something that are governed by a caregiver who has authority and can not be changed. Moral behavior has been demonstrated too by the students early age. Students have been able to show moral behavior, such as following the rules applied in the boarding school. Meanwhile, from the aspect of moral sense, students of early childhood has evolved as embarrassment, empathy and guilt when breaking the rules.

  18. Emotional Reactions and Moral Judgment: the Effects of Morally Challenging Interactions in Military Operations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Graaff, Miriam; Schut, M; Verweij, D.E.M.; Vermetten, H.G.J.M.; Giebels, Ellen

    2016-01-01

    This study explores the association between different types of morally challenging interactions during military deployment and response strategies (e.g., moral justification), as well as the mediating role of moral emotions. Interviews with Dutch servicemen who participated in military operations

  19. Foreign language affects the contribution of intentions and outcomes to moral judgment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geipel, Janet; Hadjichristidis, Constantinos; Surian, Luca

    2016-09-01

    We examine whether the use of a foreign language, as opposed to the native language, influences the relative weight intentions versus outcomes carry in moral evaluations. In Study 1, participants were presented with actions that had positive outcomes but were motivated by dubious intentions, while in Study 2 with actions that had negative outcomes but were motivated by positive intentions. Participants received the materials either in their native or a foreign language. Foreign language prompted more positive moral evaluations in Study 1 and less positive evaluations in Study 2. These results show that foreign language reduces the relative weight placed on intentions versus outcomes. We discuss several theoretical accounts that are consistent with the results such as that foreign language attenuates emotions (triggered by intentions) or it depletes cognitive resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Physical Activity Status and Position of Governmental Employees in Changing Stage Based on the Trans-Theoretical Model in Hamadan, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdi, Jalal; Eftekhar, Hassan; Mahmoodi, Mahmood; Shojayzadeh, Davood; Sadeghi, Roya

    2015-02-24

    Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for death worldwide. Given the key role of employees as valuable human resources and increasing sedentary life style among them, the aim of this study was to evaluate physical activity status and position of governmental employees in changing stage based on the Trans-Theoretical Model (TTM) in Hamadan, Iran, in 2014.This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 1200 government employees selected using proportional stratified random sampling. Data collection was performed using a three-section questionnaire containing demographic characteristics, SQUASH (Short questionnaire to assess health-enhancing physical activity) questionnaire and Marcus et al's five-part algoritm. Data were analyzed by multiple linear and logistic regression, Chi-square, T-test and ANOVA using SPSS-20. The mean age of the participants was 38.12±8.04 years. About a half of the employees were in the preparatory stage of TTM.49.2% and 50.8% of the sample were classified as active and inactive, respectively .Associations between physical activity status and exercise stage of change were found. The associations between exercise stage of change and age, sex, work experience, education and marital status were significant (pphysical activity (PA) status and accounted for 31.2% of variance in PA (adjusted R2=0.312, R2 change=0.01). The results of this study showed that TTM was useful to evaluate and predict physical activity behavior among the Iranian governmental employees and can be utilized by health planners to inform appropriate intervention strategies, specifically in work place.