Dispositional resistance to change: Measurement equivalence and the link to personal values across 17 nations.

The concept of dispositional resistance to change has been introduced in a series of exploratory and confirmatory analyses through which the validity of the Resistance to Change (RTC) Scale has been established (S. Oreg, 2003). However, the vast majority of participants with whom the scale was validated were from the United States. The purpose of the present work was to examine the meaningfulness of the construct and the validity of the scale across nations. Measurement equivalence analyses of data from 17 countries, representing 13 languages and 4 continents, confirmed the cross-national validity of the scale. Equivalent patterns of relationships between personal values and RTC across samples extend the nomological net of the construct and provide further evidence that dispositional resistance to change holds equivalent meanings across nations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A case of ESP: critique of "Personal values and ESP scores" by Gertrude R. Schmeidler.

The statistics employed in the subject study (see 27: 4909) are questioned and the author concludes that the findings presented are "due not so much to telepathy as to numerology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ecological moral realism: An alternative theoretical framework for studying moral psychology.

The authors propose that the empirical study of human moral behavior as undertaken by positive psychologists, psychologists interested in the study of values, and experimental ethicists can be normative at its core, yet also remain truly scientific. To do this, those interested in the empirical study of human moral behavior should consider the concept of affordances, which is central to the Gibsonian ecological psychology tradition, as an approach to studying virtues and strengths. From this perspective, virtues can be better defined as part of moral analogues of affordances (MAAs). Just as the affordance being-climbable is a relation between climbing ability and height, so one can similarly define a MAA as an opportunity for moral behavior. Virtues, on this account, would be defined as abilities to behave appropriately in morally relevant situations. If one studies virtues as components of MAAs, virtues are only comprehensible in terms of morally relevant situations. Similarly, morally relevant situations are comprehensible only in terms of abilities to behave appropriately in them, that is, in terms of virtues. We believe that such an approach holds many advantages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of moral judgment and moral identity on moral behavior: An empirical examination of the moral individual.

Recognizing limitations in classic cognitive moral development theory, several scholars have drawn from theories of identity to suggest that moral behavior results from both moral judgments and moral identity. The authors conducted 2 survey-based studies with more than 500 students and managers to test this argument. Results demonstrated that moral identity and moral judgments both independently influenced moral behavior. In addition, in situations in which social consensus regarding the moral behavior was not high, moral judgments and moral identity interacted to shape moral behavior. This interaction effect indicated that those who viewed themselves as moral individuals pursued the most extreme alternatives (e.g., never cheating, regularly cheating)--a finding that affirms the motivational power of a moral identity. The authors conclude by considering the implications of this research for both theory and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A measure of moral values.

Presents a measure of moral values which seems to have acceptable conceptual and psychometric properties, and evidence concerning the personological correlates of mature moral judgment. Using a brief, semiprojective task, moral judgments were elicited from 3 differing groups of male undergraduates (n = 92) which could be reliably (r = .88) scored for maturity of moral judgment. Additional data from 71 Ss indicates that Ss whose moral judgments were rated as mature tended to be sensitive to injustice, well socialized, empathic, and autonomous, and based their judgments on an intuitive understanding of morality. Those whose judgments were rated as immature tended to be insensitive to injustice, less socialized, nonempathic, and conforming, and their moral reasoning had a rational as opposed to an intuitive flavor. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge, moral praise, and moral side effects.

Thomas Nadelhoffer (2004) claims that a morally praiseworthy agent cannot knowingly produce a morally positive side effect. I claim that the argument Nadelhoffer uses to establish this claim has two false premises. The two false premises are: (1) If something is a side effect, then it is not desired or intended; and (2) If agent S is morally praiseworthy and knows that her performing p will produce a morally positive q, then q forms part of S's reason for p-ing. I offer a counterexample that shows the falsity of (1) and (2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The integration of agency and communion in moral personality: Evidence of enlightened self-interest.

Agency and communion are fundamental human motives, often conceptualized as being in tension. This study examines the notion that moral exemplars overcome this tension and adaptively integrate these 2 motives within their personality. Participants were 25 moral exemplars—recipients of a national award for extraordinary volunteerism—and 25 demographically matched comparison participants. Each participant responded to a life review interview and provided a list of personal strivings, which were coded for themes of agency and communion; interviews were also coded for the relationship between agency and communion. Results consistently indicated that exemplars not only had both more agency and communion than did comparison participants but were also more likely to integrate these themes within their personality. Consistent with our claim that enlightened self-interest is driving this phenomenon, this effect was evident only when agency and communion were conceptualized in terms of promoting interests (of the self and others, respectively) and not in terms of psychological distance (from others) and only when the interaction was observed with a person approach and not with the traditional variable approach. After providing a conceptual replication of these results using different measures elicited in different contexts and relying on different coding procedures, we addressed and dismissed various alternative explanations, including chance co-occurrence and generalized complexity. These results provide the first reliable evidence of the integration of motives of agency and communion in moral personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mapping the moral domain.

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 on the basis of a theoretical model of 5 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 we present new findings about morality: (a) Comparative model fitting of confirmatory factor analyses provides empirical justification for a 5-factor structure of moral concerns; (b) convergent/discriminant validity evidence suggests that moral concerns predict personality features and social group attitudes not previously considered morally relevant; and (c) 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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The self-importance of moral identity.

Recent theorizing in moral psychology extends rationalist models by calling attention to social and cultural influences (J. Haidt, 2001). Six studies using adolescents, university students, and adults measured the associations among the self-importance of moral identity, moral cognitions, and behavior. The psychometric properties of the measure were assessed through an examination of the underlying factor structure (Study 1) and convergent, nomological, and discriminant validity analyses (Studies 2 and 3). The predictive validity of the instrument was assessed by examinations of the relationships among the self-importance of moral identity, various psychological outcomes, and behavior (Studies 4, 5, and 6). The results are discussed in terms of models of moral behavior, social identity measurement, and the need to consider moral self-conceptions in explaining moral conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment.

Research on moral judgment has been dominated by rationalist models, in which moral judgment is thought to be caused by moral reasoning. The author gives 4 reasons for considering the hypothesis that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgment; rather, moral reasoning is usually a post hoc construction, generated after a judgment has been reached. The social intuitionist model is presented as an alternative to rationalist models. The model is a social model in that it deemphasizes the private reasoning done by individuals and emphasizes instead the importance of social and cultural influences. The model is an intuitionist model in that it states that moral judgment is generally the result of quick, automatic evaluations (intuitions). The model is more consistent than rationalist models with recent findings in social, cultural, evolutionary, and biological psychology, as well as in anthropology and primatology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of Piaget's theories of moral development.

This study treats two main hypotheses involved in Piaget's and Lerner's work: (1) That the questions used for the interviews upon which these theories are based involve a single underlying dimension or entity other than the child's age; and (2) That this dimension of moral judgment is associated with the type of authority relations to which a child is subjected. Upon analysis, the moral-judgment questions used reveal three, rather than one, independent clusters and indices based upon these clusters showed no significant association with measures of parental authority. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious moral licensing: The influence of others' past moral actions on moral behavior.

This article investigates the effect of others' prior nonprejudiced behavior on an individual's subsequent behavior. Five studies supported the hypothesis that people are more willing to express prejudiced attitudes when their group members' past behavior has established nonprejudiced credentials. Study 1a showed that participants who were told that their group was more moral than similar other groups were more willing to describe a job as better suited for Whites than for African Americans. In Study 1b, when given information on group members' prior nondiscriminatory behavior (selecting a Hispanic applicant in a prior task), participants subsequently gave more discriminatory ratings to the Hispanic applicant for a position stereotypically suited for majority members (Whites). In Study 2, moral self-concept mediated the effect of others' prior nonprejudiced actions on a participant's subsequent prejudiced behavior such that others' past nonprejudiced actions enhanced the participant's moral self-concept, and this inflated moral self-concept subsequently drove the participant's prejudiced ratings of a Hispanic applicant. In Study 3, the moderating role of identification with the credentialing group was tested. Results showed that participants expressed more prejudiced attitudes toward a Hispanic applicant when they highly identified with the group members behaving in nonprejudiced manner. In Study 4, the credentialing task was dissociated from the participants' own judgmental task, and, in addition, identification with the credentialing group was manipulated rather than measured. Consistent with prior studies, the results showed that participants who first had the opportunity to view an in-group member's nonprejudiced hiring decision were more likely to reject an African American man for a job stereotypically suited for majority members. These studies suggest a vicarious moral licensing effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Interaction Systems: Theory and Measurement: Book review.

Review of book: Robert Freed Bales (Au.) Social Interaction Systems: Theory and Measurement. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999, 396 pp. Reviewed by A. Paul Hare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The new history of psychology: A review and critique.

In the past 30 years, the "new history of psychology" and its adherents have advocated a critical approach to scholarship, increased use of primary sources, a focus on sociopolitical forces, and the active inclusion of psychologists from underrepresented groups. This article argues that many scholars exaggerate the differences between old and new history of psychology, and that where the differences are indeed large, those discrepancies reveal certain limitations unique to the new history approach. These limitations, presented in the form of 5 questions posed to new historians, lead to a discussion of professional issues in the history of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power and satisfaction in marriage: A review and critique.

Examines empirical studies of the relation between husband–wife power interactions and marital satisfaction. Both self-report and observational measures of marital power interactions have tended, in general, to suffer from similar difficulties, including overly simplistic conceptualizations of power processes and limitations in the measurement of marital power and marital satisfaction. Despite these weaknesses, the present group of studies has been fairly consistent in indicating that marriages in which the wife appears to be dominant are the most likely to be unhappy, whereas highest levels of satisfaction are more often found among egalitarian couples. Another group of studies focusing on the bases of marital power suggests that coercive control techniques may be related to marital dissatisfaction. A discussion of the kind of expanded framework that studies will need in order to make additional theoretical and substantive contributions to the understanding of power and satisfaction in marriage is presented. (90 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social influence research in counseling: A review and critique.

This review concerns recent research on counseling as a social influence process. Studies published since 1981 are presented in two groups, according to whether they pertain to the first or second stage of S. R. Strong's (see PA, Vol 42:12025) influence model, and within these groups, according to the type of methodology used (interview and noninterview analogue studies and field studies) and the variables of interest (counselor, message, and client variables, and combinations of these). Then, the social influence literature as a whole is critically examined as to its methodological and theoretical adequacy. Major criticisms include the low external validity of the research, the disproportionate emphasis of the research on counselor perceptions rather than influence itself, and the weak connection between research and theory. Solutions are proposed for particular methodological problems, and recommendations are made for further research and theory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immoral actions in otherwise moral individuals: Interrogating the structure and meaning of moral hypocrisy.

Not all forms of deception are alike. Unlike pathological lying or frank antisocial behavior, moral hypocrisy reflects the deceptive pursuit of self-interest in which the individual uniquely violates his or her own moral standards. Four hypotheses relevant to this concept are identified in a critical review of the psychoanalytic literature. These hypotheses are evaluated logically and in light of findings from contemporary research. The author argues that explanations resting on the concepts of superego weakness, impulse strength, and/or narcissism fail to provide an adequate account of the complex intentions betokened by hypocrisy. By contrast, the mechanism of disavowal enjoys strong, broad-based support once it is freed from the narrow confines of perception and reality testing. Rather than a attenuation of reality testing, hypocrisy represents a mode of perception in which contradictory moral imperatives coexist without conflict. Authentic engagement and empathy with patients is facilitated by a nonjudgmental appreciation of the human capacity for moral disengagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)