Picturing the Soul: Moral Psychology and the Recovery of the Emotions

This paper draws from the resources of Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy to analyze the ethical status of the emotions at two related levels of reflection. Methodologically, it argues that a recovery of the emotions requires a revised notion of moral theory which affirms the basic orientation of consciousness to some notion of value or the good. Such a theory challenges many of the rationalist premises which in the past have led moral theory to reject the role of emotions in ethics. In particular, it acknowledges the centrality of moral psychology to ethics and reclaims the notion of consciousness rather than the will as the primary mode of human moral being. At a second, more substantive level, the paper explores the relation between the emotions and consciousness. Specifically, it defends a cognitivist and reflexive theory of the emotions which affirms a strong relation between the emotions and our evaluative beliefs. On this view, the emotions reflexively mediate our relation to objective value. In order to earn their cognitive status, however, the emotions must be tested in relation to a critical principle in order to guard against the egoistic tendencies of consciousness to build up images of reality to serve its own purposes. Therefore, a theory of the Good must be part of the critical content of a reflexive theory of the emotions.     

Measuring moral disengagement with a situational judgment test: Advancing the assessment of an important workplace construct

Moral disengagement (MD) has been characterized as a uniquely important predictor of counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). This study describes the development and validation of a situational judgment test (SJT) for measuring MD in the workplace, which offers potential advantages over existing Likert‐type scales. The development/validation efforts involved two independent rounds of subject‐matter expert (SME) review and data collected from three independent samples. The resulting test, labeled the MD‐SJT, displayed high reliability, was related to an established measure of MD as well as hypothesized personality variables, and was incrementally predictive of CWBs above the established measure of MD. This study advances knowledge pertaining to the assessment of MD, which is a critically important construct in the workplace.     

Servant leadership,leader gender,and team gender role: Testing a female advantage in a cascading model of performance

We integrate the theory of gender role congruity with extant research on servant leadership to propose and test a moderated process model in which we hypothesize that servant leadership's effects on outcomes are stronger when implemented by women, and when it takes place within teams high in feminine gender role composition. Specifically, we theorize that servant leadership's communal emphases on stakeholders and relationships align with female role prototypes, which should lead to female advantages for job performance through the proposed serial mediators of prosocial motivation and follower servant leadership behaviors. We test this moderated, serial‐mediation model in a temporally lagged field study with a multi‐organizational sample including 109 teams. We find evidence that the mediated process model is moderated at the first stage such that in teams higher in feminine gender role composition, servant leadership has greater direct effects on prosocial motivation, as well as indirect effects on follower servant leadership and performance. We do not find support for our hypothesis that a similar moderated effect would emerge for leader sex; instead, we find that the effect of servant leadership on follower servant leadership, and subsequently to performance, is stronger for women leaders than it is for men. The implications of these findings for the servant leadership and role congruity literatures are discussed.     

Psychological Correlates of Populist Attitudes

Studies of demand-side populism with a focus on attitudinal and behavioral factors are becoming more popular, but only a few have explored the phenomenon's psychological determinants. We tackle the lack of conversation between populism scholars and political psychologists and test the impact of conspiracy beliefs, moral disengagement, need for cognition, and belief in simple solutions on populist attitudes. We use the most widespread ideational definition in an attempt to bring clarity to demand-side populism, as the literature often conflates the concept of populism with adjacent ideological and psychological factors. We analyze representative samples from two very different countries (Italy and Turkey) to test our hypotheses. We use two of the most often-used measures of populist attitudes and also explore populism's individual building blocks: people-centrism, antielitism, and a Manichean worldview. We consistently find conspiracy beliefs (and our control variable of institutional trust) as primary sources of populist attitudes, whereas the impact of the other psychological factors is more dependent on context and operationalization. Our article calls for more conceptual clarity, careful theorization, and more work on the refinement of available survey measures. We also highlight the importance of national contexts and the dangers of generalization based on individual country studies.     

亲顾客偏离行为的顾客响应：基于道德情绪的理论模型

边界员工为帮助顾客或维护顾客利益而有意识偏离企业正式规章制度的“亲顾客偏离” (Pro-Customer Deviance)行为在服务型企业广泛存在。本文以刺激-有机体-反应(Stimulus-Organism-Response) 框架为逻辑主线, 以亲顾客偏离行为的双重道德属性为研究视角, 基于情绪认知评价理论和情绪功能分化理论, 构建亲顾客偏离行为的顾客响应模型。主要内容包括：(1)确立顾客对亲顾客偏离行为的道德认知评价体系, 明晰顾客对亲顾客偏离行为的道德情绪反应; (2)探究顾客道德情绪在亲顾客偏离行为与顾客再惠顾之间的中介机制; (3)关注顾客责任归因和服务情境对道德情绪及行为反应的调节作用。文章提出亲顾客偏离行为引发的顾客道德情绪和再惠顾意愿的相关命题, 并阐述了命题检验方法, 力图厘清现有研究关于亲顾客偏离行为结果的争议话题, 对道德属性视角下的亲顾客偏离行为研究具有重要理论意义, 同时为服务型企业全面评估亲顾客偏离行为的服务绩效, 发挥其积极效应, 避免其不良后果提供指导。     

工作场所不文明行为与职场排斥间的螺旋效应

工作场所不文明行为与职场排斥间的螺旋效应模型可用道德排除理论和情感事件理论解释。根据道德排除理论遭受工作场所不文明行为会导致受害者与实施者心理距离增加, 进而对实施者实施职场排斥; 从旁观者视角来看, 目睹工作场所不文明行为会影响旁观者的道义公正感和互动公平感进而表现出对实施者的职场排斥, 且该中介过程受到利他性的调节。同样, 基于情感事件理论, 遭受职场排斥会导致职场排斥受害者的消极情绪水平增加促使其成为工作场所不文明行为的实施者。     

句子启动范式下的道德概念空间隐喻:匹配抑制还是匹配易化?

本研究在四个实验中通过应用句子启动范式来考察道德概念空间隐喻的匹配抑制与匹配易化。实验1中,被试先阅读一个含有垂直空间信息的句子,然后立即对随后出现的一个词进行道德词或者不道德词的分类判断。实验2和实验3分别要求被试关注句子中空间信息的终止位置或起始位置。实验4设置了延迟反应,要求被试在句子消失4秒后再进行词汇分类判断。结果显示,前三个实验都出现了明显的道德概念空间隐喻的非绑定性的匹配抑制,即"下-道德"或者"上-不道德",而在实验4中出现了隐喻的非绑定性的匹配易化,即"下-不道德"。这一结果证实空间信息句子的加工确实能够激活道德隐喻。但是由于句子加工时间较长,如果空间信息与道德概念占用相同的资源,就会导致道德空间隐喻的匹配抑制。如果有足够时间加工句子中的空间信息,就能够启动随后的道德概念加工,出现匹配易化。可见,资源的竞争与激活是道德概念空间隐喻出现匹配抑制和匹配易化的关键。     

Moral supervenience

Abstract

It is widely held, even among nonnaturalists, that the moral supervenes on the natural. This is to say that for any two metaphysically possible worlds w and w′, and for any entities x in w and y in w′, any isomorphism between x and y that preserves the natural properties preserves the moral properties. In this paper, I put forward a conceivability argument against moral supervenience, assuming non-naturalism. First, I argue that though utilitarianism may be true, and the trolley driver is permitted to kill the one to save the five, there is a conceivable scenario that is just like our world in all natural respects, yet at which deontology is true, and the trolly driver is not permitted to kill the one to save the five. I then argue that in the special case of morality, it is possible to infer from the conceivability of such a scenario to its possibility. It follows that supervenience is false.     

Using Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy to Treat Veterans With Moral Injury-Based PTSD: Two Case Examples

Moral injury refers to acts of commission or omission that violate individuals’ moral or ethical standards. Morally injurious events are often synonymous with psychological trauma, especially in combat situations—thus, morally injurious events are often implicated in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for military service members and veterans. Although prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) have been well established as effective treatments for veterans who are struggling with PTSD, it has been suggested that these two evidence-based therapies may not be sufficient for treating veterans whose PTSD resulted from morally injurious events. The purpose of this paper is to detail how the underlying theories of PE and CPT can account for moral injury-based PTSD and to describe two case examples of veterans with PTSD stemming from morally injurious events who were successfully treated with PE and CPT. The paper concludes with a summary of challenges that clinicians may face when treating veterans with PTSD resulting from moral injury using either PE or CPT.