Rationality and moral autonomy: An essay in moral psychology

Although there are many variations on the theme, so much is made of the good of moral autonomy that it is difficult not to suppose that there is everything to be said for being morally autonomous and nothing at all to be said for being morally nonautonomous. However, this view of moral autonomy cannot be made to square with the well-received fact that most people are morally nonautonomous — not, at any rate, unless one is prepared to maintain that most people are irrational in this respect. I am not. Thus, I reject what I take to be the prevailing view of moral autonomy. I argue that it is false that (1) moral autonomy is such that it is rational for every person to prefer being morally autonomous to being morally nonautonomous, but true that (2) moral autonomy is such that if anyone is morally autonomous, then it is rational for him to prefer being morally autonomous to being morally nonautonomous.     

An exploration of values in ethical consumer decision making

Consumer concern for ethical issues has been well documented across much of the developed world. Research on values is also prominent in the literature. Neglected in consumer behaviour is an understanding of the pertinence of particular values in ethical decision making contexts. This paper outlines the results of qualitative research, which explores those values pertinent to ethical consumers in decision making and the nature of their influence in grocery consumption contexts. A questionnaire was used to ascertain the dominance and nature of values influencing consumer decision making in this context.     

Linking perceived market competition threat to moral disengagement: The roles of fear of failure and moral relativism

Current Psychology - Drawing on moral disengagement theory, this study examined the interplay of perceived market competition threat, fear of failure, moral relativism, and moral disengagement....     

An exploratory study of ethical values in nonprofit fundraising: survey of fundraising executives

An initial study used the Ethical Position Quotient in an extension of this measure from for-profit organizations to nonprofit organizations. Responses from professional fundraising executives for nonprofit organizations were generally more idealistic than relativistic regarding ethical decision-making. Additionally, in a comparison of the executives' answers to those of M.B.A. students, the students were significantly more relativistic and less idealistic than the nonprofit executives. On Forsyth's Taxonomy of Ethical Perspectives, approximately 20% of the students were absolutists versus 66% of the fundraising executives. Conversely, 70% of the M.B.A. students were situationists compared to only a third of the executives. This disparity in responses between these groups provides a rich and interesting platform for research.     

Children in clinical research: a conflict of moral values

This paper examines the culture, the dynamics and the financial underpinnings that determine how medical research is being conducted on children in the United States. Children have increasingly become the subject of experiments that offer them no potential direct benefit but expose them to risks of harm and pain. A wide range of such experiments will be examined, including a lethal heartburn drug test, the experimental insertion of a pacemaker, an invasive insulin infusion experiment, and a fenfluramine "violence prediction" experiment. Emphasis, however, is given to psychoactive drug tests because of the inherent ethical and diagnostic problems involved in the absence of any objective, verifiable diagnostic tool. Effort is made to provide readers comprehensive reference sources to evidence-based reports about the serious risks these drugs pose for adults and children so that the reader may judge whether the benefits (if any) outweigh the risks for children.     

Relational diagnosis: An essay review

A review ofHandbook of relational diagnosis and dysfunctional family patterns. Florence W. Kaslow, Ed. 566 pages. $55. Cloth. ISBN # 0471-08078-0. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.     

Sex differences in moral internalization and values.

The subjects were fifth- and seventh-grade white middle-class children and their parents. The major moral internalization indices pertain to internal moral judgment, guilt intensity, and fear of punishment. The findings support the prevalent view that consideration for others is more salient in females. They also suggest, with considerable consistency (especially in adults) that moral transgressions are more likely to be associated with guilt in females and fear in males. No sex differences in internal moral judgment were obtained. Evidence was presented suggesting that the differences in children may be due partly to different discipline and affection patterns. It was also suggested that the results for adults as well as children might be explained by differential sex-role socialization as well as by increasing pressures on males over the life cycle to achieve and succeed, which may often conflict with concerns about the welfare of others.     

Happiness in dual-career couples: Changing research,changing values

This article offers a framework for understanding contradictory findings in the field of the dual-career couple by presenting two patterns: (1) the early, conventional one of the 1960s, which viewed married women's participation in the labor force as threatening marriage and the family, and (2) the contemporary view, which emerged during the 1970s and which admits that women can happily combine career with family. The article suggests that there is little evidence to support the view that dual-career couples experience increased rate of marital conflict, marital dissatisfaction, and role blur; rather, the intellectual and psychological benefits in dual-career couples seem to outweigh the disadvantages, particularly for wives.     

Primary and secondary qualities: An essay in epistemology

It seems almost a truism to say that colour is a sensation; and yet Young, by honestly recognizing this elementary truth, established the first consistent theory of colour. So far as I know, Thomas Young was the first who, starting from the well-known fact that there are three primary colours, sought for the explanation of this fact, not in the nature of light, but in the constitution of man. (James Clerk Maxwell, p. 267.)It is doubtless scientific to disregard certain aspects when we work; but to urge that therefore such aspects are not fact, and that what we use without them is an independent real thing-this is barbarous metaphysics. (F. H. Bradley, p. 15.)     

Defending psychopathy: an argument from values and moral responsibility

How psychopaths and their capacity for moral action are viewed is not only philosophically interesting but is also important and relevant for policy. The philosophical discussion of psychopathy has focussed upon the psychological faculties that are prerequisites for moral responsibility and empirical findings regarding psychopathy that are relevant to philosophical accounts of moral understanding and motivation. However, there are legitimate worries about whether psychopathy is a robust scientific construct, and there are risks attached to reifying psychopathy or other psychiatric constructs. We defend the concept of psychopathy by pointing out the relevance of empirical studies about it for our ordinary practices of ascribing moral responsibility and folk psychological accounts of moral understanding and motivation.