Moral psychology

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Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Some use the term "moral psychology" relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. However, others tend to use the term more broadly to include any topics at the intersection of ethics and psychology (and philosophy of mind). Such topics are ones that involve the mind and are relevant to moral issues. Some of the main topics of the field are moral judgment, moral reasoning, moral responsibility, moral development, moral character (especially as related to virtue ethics), altruism, psychological egoism, moral luck, and moral disagreement.

Some psychologists that have worked in the field are Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Elliot Turiel, Jonathan Haidt, Marc Hauser, C. Daniel Batson, and Joshua D. Greene. Some philosophers that have worked in the field are Stephen Stich, John Doris, Joshua Knobe, Shaun Nichols, Thomas Nagel, Robert C. Roberts, Jesse Prinz, Michael Smith, and R. Jay Wallace.

History

Historically, early philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato engaged in both empirical research and a priori conceptual analysis about the ways in which people make decisions about issues that raise moral concerns. Moral psychological issues have been central theoretical issues explored by philosophers from the early days of the profession right up until the present. With the development of psychology as a discipline separate from philosophy, it was natural for psychologists to continue pursuing work in moral psychology, and much of the empirical research of the 20th century in this area was completed by academics working in psychology departments.

Nowadays, moral psychology is a thriving area of research in both philosophy and psychology, even at an interdisciplinary level. For example, the psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg questioned boys and young men about their thought processes when they were faced with a moral dilemma,^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} producing one of many very useful empirical studies in the area of moral psychology. As another example, the philosopher Joshua Knobe recently completed an empirical study on how the way in which an ethical problem is phrased dramatically affects an individual's intuitions about the proper moral response to the problem.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} More conceptually focused research has recently been completed by researchers such as John Doris. Doris (2002) discusses the way in which social psychological experiments---such as the Stanford Prison Experiments involving the idea of situationism---call into question a key component in virtue ethics: the idea that individuals have a single, environment-independent moral character. As a further example, Shaun Nichols (2004) examines how empirical data on psychopathology suggests that moral rationalism is false.

Contemporary Theories

Recent attempts to develop an integrated model of moral motivation have identified at least six different levels of moral functioning, each of which has been shown to predict some type of moral or prosocial behavior: moral intuitions, moral emotions, moral virtues/vices (behavioral capacities), moral values, moral reasoning, and moral willpower. This "Social Intuitionist Model" of moral motivation suggests that moral behaviors are typically the product of multiple levels of moral functioning, and are usually energized by the "hotter" levels of intuition, emotion, and behavioral virtue/vice. The "cooler" levels of values, reasoning, and willpower, while still important, are proposed to be secondary to the more affect-intensive processes.

Topics

The subjects covered by moral psychology include:

Action Agency Personal Identity Psychological Egoism Altruism Moral rationalism

Human character Ethical temperament Standards of evaluation for moral action Moral luck Standards of personal moral success

The structure of action Perceived causes and events of moral action Emotions in morality The faculties of the mind involved in moral decision The interaction of those faculties and the emotions

Moral commitment Rationality in moral matters Moral judgement The relationship between ethics and moral action The means by which moral agents understand each other

Humean versus Anti-Humean theories of motivation Practical reasoning Internalism and externalism in ethics

See also

• Carol Gilligan
• Jonathan Haidt
• Kohlberg's stages of moral development
• Social intuitionism
• Virtue epistemology

References and further reading

• Batson, C. D. (1991). The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Doris, John M. (2002). Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Doris, John & Stich, Stephen. (2008). "Moral Psychology: Empirical Approaches". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). link
• Jackson, Frank & Smith, Michael (eds.) (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, Oxford University Press.
• Lapsley, Daniel K. (1996). Moral Psychology. Westview Press. ISBN 0813330335
• "moral psychology" (2007). Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 06, 2008 from Encyclopedia.com: link
• Nagel, Thomas. (1970). The Possibility of Altruism. Princeton University Press.
• Nichols, Shaun. (2004). Sentimental Rules: On the Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Plato. The Republic, public domain.
• Richardson, Henry S. (2008). "Moral Reasoning", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). link
• Roberts, Robert C. Emotions: An Essay in aid of Moral Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. (2007). Moral Psychology, 3 volumes. MIT Press. ISBN 0262693542
• Smith, Michael. (1994). The Moral Problem. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.
• Thagard, Paul. (2007). "The Moral Psychology of Conflicts of Interest: Insights from Affective Neuroscience". Journal of Applied Philosophy, 24(4), pp. 367-380.
• Wallace, R. Jay. (2007). "Moral Psychology", Ch. 4 of Jackson & Smith (2007), pp. 86-113.
• Wallace, R. Jay (2006). Normativity and the Will. Selected Essays on Moral Psychology and Practical Reason. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

External links

• Moral Psychology: Empirical Approaches - an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP).
• Moral Character - entry in the SEP.
• Empathy - entry in the SEP.
• Moral Motivation - entry in the SEP.
• Moral Responsibility - entry in the SEP.
• Psychological Issues in Metaethics - section 1b of the "Ethics" entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP).
• Moral Character - entry in the IEP.
• Moral Development - entry in the IEP.
• Responsibility - entry in the IEP.
• Moral Psychology Research Group - with Knobe, Nichols, Doris and others.