Understanding the Moral Person: Identity, Behavior, and Emotion
Tóm tắt
In this paper, the moral person is understood through the lens of identity theory in sociological social psychology. Identity theory helps identify the internal dynamics of individuals as moral persons by apprehending their self-views’, behavior, and emotions within and across situations. When the identity process is activated, the cognitive, behavioral, and affective dimensions of individuals inter-relate through a self-regulated control system. When this control system is laced with moral meanings, we see how moral persons emerge and are maintained or challenged in situations. I review studies that I carried out over 2 years that sampled over 3,000 individuals using survey and laboratory research. A series of hypothesis consistent with identity theory were tested to examine individuals’ moral identity, moral behavior, and moral emotions. The findings confirm the predictive power of identity theory in explaining the moral person. Future avenues for research are briefly discussed.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Aquino K, Freeman D (2009) Moral identity in business situations: a social-cognitive framework for understanding moral functioning. In: Narvaez D, Lapsley DK (eds) Personality, identity, and character: explorations in moral psychology. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 375–395
Aquino K, Freeman D, Reed A II, Lim VKG (2009) Testing a social-cognitive model of moral behavior: the interactive influence of situations and moral identity centrality. J Pers Soc Psychol 97:123–141
Blasi A (1983) Moral cognition and moral action: a theoretical perspective. Dev Rev 3:178–210
Burke PJ, Harrod MM (2005) Too much of a good thing? Soc Psychol Q 68:359–374
Burke PJ, Stets JE (1999) Trust and commitment through self-verification. Soc Psychol Q 62:347–366
Burke PJ, Stets JE (2009) Identity theory. Oxford University Press, New York
DeGrazia D (2005) Human identity and bioethics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Deonna JA, Rodogno R, Teroni F (2012) In defense of shame: the faces of an emotion. Oxford University Press, Oxford
DeScioli P, Christner J, Kurzban R (2011) The omission strategy. Psychol Sci 22:442–446
Durkheim E 1961 [1925] Moral education: a study in the theory and application of the sociology of education. Free Press, New York
Gilligan C (1982) In a different voice: psychological theory and women’s development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Graham J, Nosek BA, Haidt J, Iyer R, Koleva S, Ditto PH (2011) Mapping the moral domain. J Pers Soc Psychol 101:366–385
Haidt J (2003) The moral emotions. In: Davidson RJ, Scherer KR, Goldsmith HH (eds) Handbook of affective sciences. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 852–870
Haidt J (2012) The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon, New York
Haidt J, Graham J (2007) When morality opposes justice: conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Soc Justice Res 20:98–116
Haidt J, Graham J (2009) Planet of the Durkheimians: where community, authority, and sacredness are foundations of morality. In: Jost JT, Kay AC, Thorisdottir H (eds) Social and psychological bases of ideology and system justification. Oxford, New York, pp 371–401
Heider F (1944) Social perception and phenomenal causality. Psychol Rev 51:358–374
Hogg MA (2000) Social identity and social comparison. In: Suls J, Wheeler L (eds) Handbook of social comparison: theory and research. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 401–421
Kohlberg L (1981) The philosophy of moral development. Harper and Row, San Francisco
Lewis M (2008) Self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt. In: Lewis M, Haviland-Jones JM, Barrett LF (eds) Handbook of emotions. Guilford, New York, pp 742–756
Moors A, Ellsworth PC, Scherer KR, Frijda NH (2013) Appraisal theories of emotion: state of the art and future development. Emot Rev 5:119–124
Owens TJ, Robinson DT, Smith-Lovin L (2010) Three faces of identity. Annu Rev Sociol 36:477–499
Parfit D (1984) Reasons and persons. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Rozin P, Lowery L, Imada S, Haidt J (1999) The Cad triad hypothesis: a mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). J Pers Soc Psychol 76:574–586
Schechtman M (1996) The constitution of selves. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Scheff TJ (2000) Shame and the social bond: a sociological theory. Sociol Theory 18:84–99
Shweder RA, Much NC, Mahapatra M, Park L (1997) The big “three” of morality (autonomy, community, and divinity), and the big “three” explanations of suffering. In: Brandt A, Rozin P (eds) Morality and health. Routledge, New York, pp 119–169
Spranca M, Minsk E, Baron J (1991) Omission and commission in judgment and choice. J Exp Soc Psychol 27:76–105
Stets JE (2010) The social psychology of the moral identity. In: Hitlin S, Vaisey S (eds) Handbook of the sociology of morality. Springer, New York, pp 385–409
Stets JE (2011) Applying identity theory to moral acts of commission and omission. Adv Group Process 28:97–124
Stets JE, Burke PJ (2000) Identity theory and social identity theory. Soc Psychol Q 63:224–237
Stets JE, Burke PJ (2005) New directions in identity control theory. Adv Group Process 22:43–64
Stets JE, Carter MJ (2011) The moral self: applying identity theory. Soc Psychol Q 74:192–215
Stets JE, Carter MJ (2012) A theory of the self for the sociology of morality. Am Sociol Rev 77:120–140
Stets JE, Serpe RT (2013) Identity theory. In: DeLamater J, Ward A (eds) Handbook of social psychology. Springer, New York
Stets JE, Carter MJ, Harrod MM, Cerven C, Abrutyn S (2008) The moral identity, status, moral emotions, and the normative order. In: Robinson DT, Clay-Warner J (eds) Social structure and emotion. Elsevier, San Diego, CA, pp 227–251
Stryker S 2002 [1980] Symbolic interactionism: a social structural version. The Blackburn Press, Caldwell, NJ
Suhler CL, Churchland P (2011) Can innate, modular ‘foundations’ explain morality? Challenges for Haidt’s moral foundations theory. J Cogn Neurosci 23:2103–2116
Swann WB (2011) Self-verification theory. In: Van Lange PA, Kruglanski AW, Higgins ET (eds) Handbook of theories of social psychology, vol 2. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 23–42
Tangney JP, Stuewig J, Mashek DJ (2007) Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annu Rev Psychol 58:345–372
Turiel E (1983) The development of social knowledge: morality and convention. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Turner JH, Stets JE (2006) Moral emotions. In: Stets JE, Turner JH (eds) Handbook of the sociology of emotions. Springer, New York, pp 544–566
Weber M (1978) Value-judgments in social science. In: Runciman WG (ed) Weber: selections in translation. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 69–98