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Copyright of Acta Comportamentalia is the property of Instituto de Psicologia y Educacion de la Universidad Veracruzana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces frame-specific randomization devices to vary the situational context of an online lying experiment. Participants are asked to report outcomes of random draws from two different sources of uncertainty—decimals of the value of a stock index or a neutrally framed random number generator. The findings show that the frame-specific randomization device is not prone to the social norm effects documented in the literature. Because different environments can evoke different norms, I replicate the experiment in the more constrained setting of a traditional physical laboratory revealing no systematic differences in behavior. Furthermore, I am not able to show that participants who take longer to report are more honest and this is specific to the physical laboratory environment. Finally, the findings reveal gender differences in honesty depending on the environment—males are more honest when they participate in the laboratory as opposed to online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of a key feature of competitive markets on moral behavior: the possibility that a competitor might step in and conclude the deal if a conscientious market actor forgoes a profitable business opportunity for ethical reasons. In a series of experiments, we study whether people invoke the replacement excuse, that is, the argument "if I don't do it, someone else will," to justify narrowly self-interested actions. Our data are consistent with the possibility that the existence of a clear social norm of moral conduct can limit the impact of the availability of the replacement excuse on behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the game-theoretical literature on forming international environmental agreements (IEAs) countries use to be self-interested materialists and stable coalitions are small. This paper analyzes IEA games with identical countries that exhibit Kantian moral behavior. Kantians are concerned with doing the right thing which means that they take those actions and only those actions that they advocate all others take as well. Countries may behave morally with respect to both emissions (reduction) and membership in an IEA. If countries are emissions Kantians or membership Kantians the equilibrium of the IEA games is socially optimal. To model more realistic Kantian behavior, we define an emissions [membership] moralist as a country whose welfare is a weighted average of the welfare of an emissions [membership] Kantian and a materialist. The game with emissions moralists produces stable coalitions not larger than those in the standard game with materialists. The game with membership moralists yields stable coalitions that are increasing in the membership morality. The aggregate emissions decline if the degree of morality of either type of moralists increases. Finally, we characterize the equilibrium of an IEA game with moderate moralists with respect to both emissions and membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to model the relationship between parent-child interaction and perceived social support with moral behavior, mediated by cultural intelligence, in adolescent female students in Tehran. Methods and Materials: The research method is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this study includes all female high school students aged 12 to 16, with a total number of students in the academic year 2022-2023. Four hundred students were selected as the sample using cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Moral Behavior Questionnaire by Sabat and colleagues, the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, and Farley (1988), and the Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire by Ang and Earley (2004). Data analysis was performed using SPSS.22 and Smart PLS software, employing descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling. Findings: The research results showed that the model explaining the parent-child interaction, perceived social support, and moral behavior with the mediation of cultural intelligence has a good fit. The results indicated that parent-child interaction has a direct effect on moral behavior (P<0.01). It was also found that perceived social support has a direct effect on moral behavior (P<0.01). Conclusion: The results confirmed that parent-child interaction does not affect moral behavior through the mediating role of cultural intelligence. Finally, other findings showed that perceived social support indirectly affects moral behavior through the mediating role of cultural intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alpha: Revista de Artes, Letras y Filosofía is the property of Universidad de Los Lagos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To promote our understanding of moral behavior of adolescents as well as moral and civic education in Hong Kong, Wofoo Foundation collaborated with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to conduct five studies. While the first three studies are survey studies examining the issues from the perspectives of high school students, teachers and parents, the fourth and fifth studies reviewed moral and character education in Hong Kong and examined the views of principals and teachers on moral and civic education, respectively. In this paper, we present the major findings and recommendations of these studies and integrate them for future service, policy and research considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern for a positive self-image is a central assumption in a large class of signaling models. In this paper, we exogenously vary the impact of self-image concerns by manipulating self-directed attention and study the impact on moral behavior. The choice context in the experiment is whether subjects inflict a painful electric shock on another subject to receive a monetary reward. In the main treatment, subjects see their own face on the decision screen in a real-time video feed. In three control conditions, subjects see either no video at all or a neutral video, or they see themselves in a mirror. We find that increasing self-awareness significantly reduces the fraction of subjects inflicting pain. The finding emphasizes the importance of self-image concerns for moral decision making with implications for theory as well as practical applications to promote socially desirable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to explore the likelihood of lost items to be recovered by public transport (PT) users with a focus on the moral values of other PT users in the city of Accra. To achieve this goal, a non-experimental research design was employed to identify the factors influencing PT users’ decisions to return lost items. Data were collected using a revealed preference survey (RP), which was distributed both manually and online using Google Form. The survey consisted of a structured questionnaire with close-ended questions. A total of 603 respondents completed the survey, and the reliability of the questionnaire was verified using Cronbach’s Alpha (CA), yielding a score of 0.804. The study’s findings revealed that religious values (Mean = 4.41, SD = 1.97) and empathy (Mean = 4.37, SD = 1.92) were the two most significant factors that influenced respondents’ decisions to return lost items. Regarding the ‘value of an item’, the high standard deviation indicates that respondents’ perceptions of an item’s value varied greatly and may not have affected respondents decision to return lost but found item. Future research in urban transportation should concentrate on experimental research where reflection of respondents’ true decision to return or keep a found item can be ascertained.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many conservatives, including some conservative scholars, blame the ideas and influence of John Dewey for what has frequently been called a crisis of character, a catastrophic decline in moral behavior in the schools and society of North America. Dewey’s critics claim that he is responsible for the undermining of the kinds of instruction that could lead to the development of character and the strengthening of the will, and that his educational philosophy and example exert a ubiquitous and disastrous influence on students’ conceptions of moral behavior. This article sets forth the views of some of these critics and juxtaposes them with what Dewey actually believed and wrote regarding character education. The juxtaposition demonstrates that Dewey neither called for nor exemplified the kinds of character-eroding pedagogy his critics accuse him of championing; in addition, this paper highlights the ways in which Dewey argued consistently and convincingly that the pedagogical approaches advocated by his critics are the real culprits in the decline of character and moral education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When a New York City man risked his own life to save a stranger on the subway tracks, the New York Times interpreted his behavior not in terms of virtue but as a product of certain ‘hard-wiring’ he happened to possess. In denying virtue, the Times followed a school of thought that is pervasive in social science (referred to in this paper as the ‘individualists’) who, for example, explain charitable donations by pointing out tax deductions, explain volunteer work by revealing the opportunities contained therein to meet other singles, and so on. Actually, the assumptions and arguments which ground this widespread ‘denial of virtue’ are both empirically and normatively flawed, and the theory itself is belied by data about people doing good for moral reasons. Evidence drawn from personal introspection, from empirical studies of human behavior, from analysis of voting as a civil act, from interpreting peoples’ reaction to Alzheimer’s disease, from critical inspection of the logic of ‘individualist’ social explanations, and from a normative criticism of the products of the ‘individualist’ approach all support a rejection of the ‘individualist’ approach. The deniers of virtue should heed the evidence and pay mind to the amoralizing consequences of their erroneous theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzes households'' perceptions of recycling activities in a municipality in northern Sweden, Piteå. The purpose of the paper is to analyze whether moral motives matter for the assessment of households'' waste sorting costs. Data were gathered using a mail-out survey to 850 randomly chosen individuals in the municipality of Piteå, Sweden. We employ an economic model of moral motivation and econometric techniques. The main result that follows from the analysis is that the results support the notion that moral motives significantly lower the costs associated with household recycling efforts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: This study aimed to predict moral behavior based on psychological well-being and attitude to time, considering the mediating role of self-transcendence and fundamental values. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this descriptive and correlational study consisted of all students of Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamadan-Iran in the 2018-2019 academic year. The sample size was 372 students selected by the convenient sampling method. The instruments included Psychological Well-being (Diener et al., 1985), Attitude to Time (Mello and Worrell, 2010), Self-transcendence (Levinson et al., 2005), ResearcherMade Scale of Moral Behavior, and Fundamental Values Scale (Jason et al., 2001). Data were analyzed by path analysis using SPSS-25 and LISREL. Results: The results indicated that the proposed model has a good fitness with the empirical data (GFI= 0.95, IFI= 0.98, CFI= 0.95). The results showed that self-transcendence and fundamental values significantly mediate the relationship between moral behavior, psychological well-being, and attitude to time (P< 0.01). Attitude to time and psychological well-being significantly affect moral behavior by mediating self-transcendence and fundamental values. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, the probability of performing moral behavior by people with psychological well-being and positive attitude to time can be predicted when people have fundamental values and gain knowledge about them. It is also necessary that these people have reached a level of self-transcendence. Value and self-transcendence connect moral behavior with psychological well-being and attitude to time and facilitate the possibility of moral behavior in social situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moral licensing literature suggests that representing oneself as moral in the past or the future motivates current immoral behavior. These licensing effects are moderated by psychological distance, which depends, among others, on the concrete vs. abstract nature of the self-representations and temporal distance. Across two studies, we explored these relationships measuring children's altruism using two prospective moral licensing manipulations that varied on one of these dimensions of psychological distance (i.e., the concreteness of the moral primes) while holding temporal distance constant at its upper end (i.e., distant future). Results revealed higher altruism after imagining distant moral behaviors, contrary to the previous findings in other samples (i.e., adults), but only when concrete primes were used. This suggests that behavioral priming instead of moral licensing is the dominant effect in children in these circumstances due to their lower abstraction abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aimed to design a model for predicting moral behavior based on parenting styles and ego-strength with the mediating role of the structure of self-transcendence among university students. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study included all students of Bu-Ali Sina University of Hamadan city-Iran in the 2020-2021 academic year. Two-hundred eighty-five students were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments were the moral behavior scale, parenting styles scale, ego-strength scale, and self-transcendence scale. The data were analyzed by path analysis with LISREL software. Results: The results indicated that the proposed model fitted the experimental data (GFI= 0.95, IFI= 0.98, and CFI= 0.97). Also, the results of path analysis indicated that the effects of parenting styles on moral behavior and self-transcendence and the effects of ego-strength and self-transcendence on moral behavior were significant. The results of Sobel's test (z) indicated that the self-transcendence variable has a significant mediating role in the relationship between permissive style (Z= -2.68, P< 0.01), authoritative style (Z= -2.55, P< 0.01), authoritarian style (Z= -3.61, P< 0.01), and ego-strength (Z= 4.56, P< 0.01) with moral behavior. Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be said that parenting styles, ego-strength, and self-transcendence can predict conducting moral behaviors. Also, self-transcendence can be one of the factors that influence the relationship between parenting styles and ego-strength with moral behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of interest in moral character, comparatively little is known about moral behavior in everyday life. This paper reports a novel method for assessing everyday moral behaviors using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR)—a digital audio-recorder that intermittently samples snippets of ambient sounds from people’s environments—and examines the stability of these moral behaviors. In three samples (combined N = 186), participants wore an EAR over one or two weekends. Audio files were coded for everyday moral behaviors (e.g., showing sympathy, gratitude) and morally-neutral comparison language behaviors (e.g., use of prepositions, articles). Results indicate that stable individual differences in moral behavior can be systematically observed in daily life, and that their stability is comparable to the stability of neutral language behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades intensive research has been conducted on the implicit learning system in general, and the phenomena we refer to as "intuition." The import of this research suggests that intuition is not an extraordinary mechanism in the hands of a few gifted persons, but a universal neural mechanism with an evolutionary history based in social adaptation. Research further suggests that intuition is not only highly effective in shaping positive responses, but also quite common in human behavior. Such speculation naturally leads to significant implications in all learning theory, and Bowen theory in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within moral psychology, theories focusing on the conceptualization and empirical measurement of people's morality in terms of general moral values -such as Moral Foundation Theory- (implicitly) assume general moral values to be relevant concepts for the explanation and prediction of behavior in everyday life. However, a solid theoretical and empirical foundation for this idea remains work in progress. In this study we explore this relationship between general moral values and daily life behavior through a conceptual analysis and an empirical study. Our conceptual analysis of the moral value-moral behavior relationship suggests that the effect of a generally endorsed moral value on moral behavior is highly context dependent. It requires the manifestation of several phases of moral decision-making, each influenced by many contextual factors. We expect that this renders the empirical relationship between generic moral values and people's concrete moral behavior indeterminate. Subsequently, we empirically investigate this relationship in three different studies. We relate two different measures of general moral values -the Moral Foundation Questionnaire and the Morality As Cooperation Questionnaire- to a broad set of self-reported morally relevant daily life behaviors (including adherence to COVID-19 measures and participation in voluntary work). Our empirical results are in line with the expectations derived from our conceptual analysis: the considered general moral values are poor predictors of the selected daily life behaviors. Furthermore, moral values that were tailored to the specific context of the behavior showed to be somewhat stronger predictors. Together with the insights derived from our conceptual analysis, this indicates the relevance of the contextual nature of moral decision-making as a possible explanation for the poor predictive value of general moral values. Our findings suggest that the investigation of morality's influence on behavior by expressing and measuring it in terms of general moral values may need revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Moral behavior and concern for others are sometimes argued to set humans apart from other species. However, there is some evidence that humans are not the only animal species to possess these characteristics. Work from behavioral biology and neuroscience has indicated that some of these traits are present in other species, including other primates. Studying these behaviors in other species can inform us about the evolutionary trajectory of morality, helping us to understand how the behaviors evolved and which environmental characteristics were critical for their emergence. A brief historical look indicates that, while this evolutionary approach to human behavior is not always well received, this line of inquiry is not new. For instance Adam Smith, better known for his economics than his natural history, was clearly sympathetic with the view that moral behaviors are present in species other than humans. This paper focuses on how individuals respond to inequity, which is related to moral behavior. Recent evidence shows that non-human primates distinguish between inequitable and equitable outcomes. However, this is primarily in situations in which inequity hurts the self (e.g. disadvantageous inequity) rather than another (e.g. advantageous inequity). Studying such responses can help us understand the evolutionary basis of moral behavior, which increases our understanding of how our own morality emerged. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In our pilot cross-sectional study, we aimed to explore the associations between guilt and shame proneness and moral cleansing endorsement. Our sample consisted of 484 adults (73.3% females), aged 18 and 53 (M=24.09, SD=7.32). We used a novel approach to explore moral cleansing mechanisms, i.e., a two-item scale assessing behavioral cleansing endorsement (one's agreement with the idea that people must "wash away" their immoral acts by acting in ethical ways that would "clean" their moral debt). In addition to the significant associations that we found between moral cleansing endorsement and the guilt and shame proneness dimensions (i.e., negative behavior evaluation, repair action tendencies, negative self-evaluation, and withdrawal action tendencies), results also suggested that moral cleansing endorsement was significantly predicted by overall guilt and shame proneness. More specifically, we found that higher levels of guilt and shame proneness might account for higher moral cleansing endorsement levels. We also found important associations with participants' age: our findings suggested that the higher the age, the higher the endorsement for moral actions aimed to "clean" immoral deeds. Results are discussed in relation to cultural-related factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies (N = 887) tested the hypothesis that value consistency predicts intended coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) health behaviors and overrides other utility-based motivational factors. Accordingly, Study 1 showed that intentions of social distancing were higher if it was perceived as more value-consistent. The higher value consistency, the less self-interest inconsistency, and the perceived efficacy of social distancing mattered for intentions. On the other hand, Study 2 failed to induce value consistency experimentally. However, correlative results show a moderation pattern similar to Study 1 regarding social distancing intentions, policy support, and devaluation of transgressors. In Study 3, higher value consistency of vaccination reduced the experimental effect of prosocial efficacy but not the effect of self-interest efficacy of the vaccine. The findings are discussed regarding theoretical implications for the interplay of values and utility in motivation. In addition, implications for the potentially ambivalent effects of appealing to values to increase compliance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces frame-specific randomization devices to vary the situational context of an online lying experiment. Participants are asked to report outcomes of random draws from two different sources of uncertainty—decimals of the value of a stock index or a neutrally framed random number generator. The findings show that the frame-specific randomization device is not prone to the social norm effects documented in the literature. Because different environments can evoke different norms, I replicate the experiment in the more constrained setting of a traditional physical laboratory revealing no systematic differences in behavior. Furthermore, I am not able to show that participants who take longer to report are more honest and this is specific to the physical laboratory environment. Finally, the findings reveal gender differences in honesty depending on the environment—males are more honest when they participate in the laboratory as opposed to online.

Introduction: This study was conducted to predict moral behavior based on moral intelligence and personality traits with the mediating role of the structure self-transcendence. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study included all students of BuAli Sina University, Hamadan in the academic year of 2020-2021. The total sample size included 285 in this study and filled out Moral Behavior Scale, Moral intelligence Scale and The HEXACO Personality Traits Scale. To analyze the data, path analysis with LISREL software were used. Results: The results indicated that the proposed model fitted the experimental data (GFI=0.94, IFI= 0.93, CFI= 0.95). Results of regression coefficient analysis in structural equation modeling indicated that the effects of moral intelligence (β= 0.41, P< 0.01), honesty-humility (β= 0.27, P< 0.01), conscientiousness (β= 0.30, P< 0.01), and Openness to experience (β= 0.24, P< 0.01) on self-transcendence, and the effects of moral intelligence (β= 0.49, P< 0.01), honesty-humility (β= 0.25, P< 0.01), conscientiousness(β= 0.23, P< 0.01), and openness to experience (β= 0.21, P< 0.01), and self-transcendence (β= 0.43, P< 0.01) on moral behavior were positive and significant. The results of Sobel’s test (z) indicated that Self-transcendence variable have a significant mediating role in the relationship between moral intelligence (Z= 7.30, P< 0.01), honesty-humility (Z= 5.29, P< 0.01), conscientiousness (Z= 4.61, P< 0.01), openness to experience (Z= 4.16, P< 0.01) with moral behavior. Conclusion: It seems that self-transcendence have a mediating role in the relationship between moral intelligence and personality traits with moral behavior. In general, the results of the present study provide new implications in field of moral behavior in different situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University students (n = 758) from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, and Portugal were given a list of morally relevant behaviors (MRB), the Schwartz Value Survey (PVQ40) and Tangney's TOSCA, measuring empathic guilt, guilt over norm-breaking, and shame. A factor analysis of MRB yielded 4 dimensions: prosocial behaviors, interpersonal transgressions, antisocial behaviors and secret transgressions. Prosocial behaviors were predicted by self-transcendence–self-enhancement (SET) value contrast only while the three transgression categories were associated with both SET and openness to change–conservation (hedonism–conformity) contrast. Norm-breaking guilt was more strongly associated with behaviors than were empathic guilt and shame. However, shame was (positively) associated with secret transgressions in three countries, after controlling for values. The associations were strongest in Bulgaria and Estonia while fewer associations were found in Finland and Portugal. The implications of the findings for the cross-cultural psychology of morality are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research reveals the nature of moral philosophy in the human universe based on retrospective analysis and synthesis of the positions of modern sciences related to the problem of scientific searching practices and offers the author's concept. In the process of achieving the pursued goal, the raised problem is actualized through the prism of a view on the activities of the relevant scientific communities, in particular, AME, APNME, ESMP -- associations of moral education and moral philosophy, which study various aspects of moral development and highlight the results in the journals founded by them: Journal of Moral Education, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Philosophical News, Moral Capital. Based on the retrospective study of moral philosophy in the human universe, it is proven that for many centuries, philosophers-moralists have been trying to clarify the specifics of the world of human freedom, their confession of moral norms, and rules accepted in society. Based on the analysis of modern paradigms of moral philosophy and moral psychology, which are related to each other, it is established that the universe contributes to the identification of moral values and their acceptance in the internal plan of human actions. The scientific research results made it possible to outline the author's concept of the studied phenomenon and determine its main components. It is established that the basis of the universe in its significance for man provides an interaction process that is directly reflected in the formation of moral consciousness, the basis of which is moral philosophy with a system of moral values. In turn, this affects the formation of man's moral self-consciousness, which contains such constructs as moral intuition, moral judgments, and moral behavior. In conclusion, it is postulated that man as a part of the single whole world acts as a builder of their own moral being, creating their moral "I" and producing their universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key source of support for the view that challenging people's beliefs about free will may undermine moral behavior is two classic studies by Vohs and Schooler (2008). These authors reported that exposure to certain prompts suggesting that free will is an illusion increased cheating behavior. In the present paper, we report several attempts to replicate this influential and widely cited work. Over a series of five studies (sample sizes of N = 162, N = 283, N = 268, N = 804, N = 982) (four preregistered) we tested the relationship between (1) anti-free-will prompts and free will beliefs and (2) free will beliefs and immoral behavior. Our primary task was to closely replicate the findings from Vohs and Schooler (2008) using the same or highly similar manipulations and measurements as the ones used in their original studies. Our efforts were largely unsuccessful. We suggest that manipulating free will beliefs in a robust way is more difficult than has been implied by prior work, and that the proposed link with immoral behavior may not be as consistent as previous work suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a nudge-based approach to promoting honest behavior. Specifically, we introduce the moral barrier hypothesis, which posits that moral violations can be inhibited by the introduction of spatial boundaries, including ones that do not physically impede the act of transgressing. We found that, as compared to a no barrier condition, children cheated significantly less often when a barrier was strategically placed to divide the space where children were seated from a place that was associated with cheating. This effect was seen both when the barrier took a physical form and when it was purely symbolic. However, the mere presence of a barrier did not reduce cheating: if it failed to separate children from a space that was associated with cheating, children cheated as much as when there was no barrier at all. Taken together, these findings support the moral barrier hypothesis and show that even seemingly unremarkable features of children’s environments can nudge them to act honestly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IUG Journal of Educational & Psychological Studies is the property of Islamic University of Gaza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When morality is important and central to individuals' identities (moral identity), it may heighten their sense of responsibility to behave in moral ways. Although research has linked moral identity to various moral actions, research has yet to demonstrate the association between moral identity and individuals' consistent moral choices, despite situational sanctions (i.e., peer group approval) to behave immorally. The purpose of this study was to examine if prioritizing morality in the self is associated with individuals' consistent moral responses in four situations encouraging the expression of immoral behavior. After reading about situations in which peers approved of and encouraged immoral behavior (i.e., stealing a laptop, drunk driving, cheating on an exam, keeping someone else's money), 185 participants reported the degree to which they disagreed or agreed that: (1) each situation was immoral; (2) they would resist the 'temptation' to behave immorally; and (3) they would attempt to convince their peers of the 'right thing' to do. Results revealed that, despite being encouraged to behave immorally, heightened moral identity predicted individuals' moral responses in three (of the four) situations. When morality is important and central to individuals' identities, moral choices tend to emerge despite opportunities to behave immorally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review empirical research on (social) psychology of morality to identify which issues and relations are well documented by existing data and which areas of inquiry are in need of further empirical evidence. An electronic literature search yielded a total of 1,278 relevant research articles published from 1940 through 2017. These were subjected to expert content analysis and standardized bibliometric analysis to classify research questions and relate these to (trends in) empirical approaches that characterize research on morality. We categorize the research questions addressed in this literature into five different themes and consider how empirical approaches within each of these themes have addressed psychological antecedents and implications of moral behavior. We conclude that some key features of theoretical questions relating to human morality are not systematically captured in empirical research and are in need of further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to assess the impact of mini-laptop computers (Opon Imo) distributed to public schools' students on their academic performance in Osun State secondary schools. The quasi-experimental research of the descriptive survey type was the design of the study while the population of the study was made up of 24975 2431 and 22750 students who sat for the WASCE examinations in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively in Osun State secondary schools. A census sampling technique was used in making use of the results of all the students who sat for the examination in the core subjects of the three years. In those years, candidates were stratified into Arts, Commercials and Science subjects. Students' examination scores and grades in WASCE in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as a self-designed proforma, were used as instruments in the study. Frequency counts and percentage scores were used in analyzing the data collected. Findings indicated that personal computer (open IMO) usage was not improving students' academic performance in Osun State secondary schools. In the study, it was recommended that the government in Osun State should endeavor to always involve the teachers in formulating policies that will affect their job performance in the schools. Teachers in Osun State secondary schools should be trained to be computer literate and should be given a laptop each, as it was given to students. Seminars and workshops should be organized from time to time for the teachers to improve their skills and update their knowledge in the manipulation of ICT equipment in schools amongst others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the relation between ethical reflection and moral behavior? Does professional reflection on ethical issues positively impact moral behaviors? To address these questions, Schwitzgebel and Rust empirically investigated if philosophy professors engaged with ethics on a professional basis behave any morally better or, at least, more consistently with their expressed values than do non-ethicist professors. Findings from their original US-based sample indicated that neither is the case, suggesting that there is no positive influence of ethical reflection on moral action. In the study at hand, we attempted to cross-validate this pattern of results in the German-speaking countries and surveyed 417 professors using a replication-extension research design. Our results indicate a successful replication of the original effect that ethicists do not behave any morally better compared to other academics across the vast majority of normative issues. Yet, unlike the original study, we found mixed results on normative attitudes generally. On some issues, ethicists and philosophers even expressed more lenient attitudes. However, one issue on which ethicists not only held stronger normative attitudes but also reported better corresponding moral behaviors was vegetarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most investigated form of moral hypocrisy is pragmatic hypocrisy in which people fake moral commitment for their own advantage. Yet there is also a different form of hypocrisy in which people take a moral stance with regard to norms they endorse without thereby also expressing a commitment to act morally. Rather they do it in order to feel good. We call this hedonic moral hypocrisy. In our research, we posit that this kind of hypocrisy comes about when people’s overarching goals are shifted in a hedonic direction, that is, in the direction of focusing on the way one feels, rather than on moral obligation. Hedonic shifts come about by cues in the environment. People are sometimes sincere when expressing a moral stance (i.e. they mean it and also act on it), and sometimes, when they are subject to a hedonic shift, they express a moral stance just to make them feel good. This also implies that they then decline to do things that make them feel bad, such as behaving morally when it takes unrewarded effort to do so. In two experimental studies, we find that there is such a thing as hedonic moral hypocrisy and that it is indeed brought about by hedonic shifts from cues in the environment. This seriously undermines the meaning of a normative consensus for norm conformity. Seemingly, for norm conformity without close social control, it is not enough that people endorse the same norms, they also have to be exposed to situational cues that counteract hedonic shifts. In the discussion, it is suggested that societal arrangements that foster the focus on the way one feels and nurture a chronic wish to make oneself feel better (for example, in the fun direction through advertisements and entertainment opportunities, or in the fear direction by populist politicians, social media, economic uncertainties, crises, or wars and displacements) are likely to increase hedonic hypocrisy in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a historical investigation of the normalization of behaviors and atti-tudes required from teachers in their teaching practice in Brazil from the Colonial Period to the early years of the Republic. It was based on the behavior guidelines drafted from the Pombalian reforms in 1759, which created state public education in the Portuguese America of the time to the 1927 educational reform promoted by Francisco Campos in the state of Minas Gerais. The goal was to discuss the development of the content of the appeal to the teachers’ morality in a broad historical dimension and the social tensions produced by the expectation of compliance with the prescribed behaviors. The study hypothesis was that the teachers’ good moral behavior was at the core of the teacher professionalization process at the same time that it was a source of conflicts in the teachers’ relations with students, relatives and education administrators, as well as in the social process of acceptance of teaching as a profession. This study was based on Norbert Elias’ civilizing process theoretical framework, on documental investigation, specifically of legislations, reports and government official communications, and the analysis of the conceptions of education and moral education in classical authors such as Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith and Émile Durkheim. These authors emphasize the importance of education in the socialization and moralization of individuals and point out its role in the moral education process of new generations in the historical context of development and consolidation of the view of civilized behavior as a reference of behavior in western societies.

In this article, we present a pragmatic approach to neuroethics, referring back to John Dewey and his articulation of the “common good” and its discovery through systematic methods. Pragmatic neuroethics bridges philosophy and social sciences and, at a very basic level, considers that ethics is not dissociable from lived experiences and everyday moral choices. We reflect on the integration between empirical methods and normative questions, using as our platform recent bioethical and neuropsychological research into moral cognition, action, and experience. Finally, we present the protocol of a study concerning teenagers’ morality in everyday life, discussing our epistemological choices as an example of a pragmatic approach in empirical ethics. We hope that this article conveys that even though the scope of neuroethics is broad, it is important not to move too far from the real life encounters that give rise to moral questions in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies showed that physical cleansing affects moral judgments and that even the activation of cleanliness-related cognitions is sufficient to produce such effects. We investigated whether hand cleansing (Study 1, n = 119) or a cleanliness visualization task (Study 2, n = 683) affect the self-assessed likelihood of committing morally good and bad actions in the future. We included participants’ gender and subjective vitality as covariates in the analyses. We found that hand cleansing reduced the likelihood of committing morally bad actions (Study 1), whereas in Study 2 the effect of the cleanliness treatment showed a significant but small interaction with participants’ involvement in the cleanliness treatment. The effects indicate a context-dependent tendency for behavioral consistency or moral licensing. Moreover, we found evidence for mediation processes in Study 1, but not in Study 2: The reported likelihood of committing morally bad actions in the future mediated the effect of the cleanliness treatment on one’s self-assessed moral character. Overall, the present results support a functional link between physical purity and moral behavior but also highlight specific functional constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question will be raised whether oxytocin can serve as an effective moral enhancer. Different types of moral enhancement will be addressed, one of them being compulsory moral enhancement. It will be argued that oxytocin cannot serve as an effective moral enhancer if its use is being made compulsory. Hence, compulsory administration of oxytocin does not result in genuine moral enhancement. In order to demonstrate this, a stipulation of the main potentially beneficial outcomes of using oxytocin as a moral enhancer will be offered, as well as a discussion of objections to the notion that oxytocin can be an effective moral enhancer. It will be concluded that mandatory administration of oxytocin is ineffective because of a combination of two reasons: (1) mandatory administration of oxytocin renders moral reflection practically superfluous; (2) without moral reflection the beneficial outcomes of the use of oxytocin do not outweigh its drawbacks to the degree that we could speak of effective moral enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although apparently irrational, people with seemingly high moral standards routinely make immoral decisions or engage in morally questionable behavior. It appears as if under certain circumstances, people become in some enigmatic way blind to the immoral aspects of what they are doing or consequences of their immoral actions. This article focuses and reports on a psychoanalytic inquiry into the role of emotions and the unconscious management of unwanted emotions in promoting moral blindness. Emotions are essential to the conscience, self-sanctioning, and advancement of moral behavior. Notwithstanding moral ideations, a sufficiently strong counterwill may create incongruence between moral intentions and actual desires or behavior. The unwelcome experience of acute moral emotions such as guilt and anxiety is likely to activate a range of psychological defense mechanisms and unconscious processes to manage these emotions. It is argued that the management of these emotions through undue avoidance, inappropriate regulation, or lack of regulation, can bypass self-sanctioning. As result, the condition of moral blindness can develop or be sustained. The psychoanalytic explanations offered contribute to the understanding as to how emotions in combination with the unconscious mind can cause moral blindness in any person, notwithstanding high moral standards and good intentions. Improved understanding of moral blindness represents an important scientific step in improved understanding of our moral and immoral selves, with all its complexities, conflicts, and contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE MORAL issue and language-use were under serious and hot debate among academicians in Indonesia, particularly, in Bali. Native speakers of Balinese used their ancestor language for different purposes. This study on Balinese and moral behavior was mainly concerned with language use. The objectives of the study had been to explore the use of Balinese to indicate the moral behavior of the speakers and to describe how native speakers of Balinese morality are represented in their language. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research was not designed for experiment; it was a qualitative design with qualitative data collected by means of recording, interview in depth, observation, and documentation. Subjects of the research were native speakers of Balinese consisting of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, teachers, and village elders. Further, the researcher being native speaker had also been the resource of data in this research. The focus of the research was on language-use and moral behavior. Findings: Upon analysis and interpretation of data we found out that language-use in Balinese was culturally bound. Balinese in speaking their language was governed by social rules; a speaker’s moral behavior was easily recognized by the language he/she used. Research Limitations/Implications: The research had been concerned mainly with the use of Balinese expression to indicate speaker’s moral behavior. No other aspect of language-use was considered in the research. Practical Implications/Values: Findings of this research will be of assistance for language teachers and learners in developing and designing their teaching materials for classroom activities. Originality/Value: This article has never been sent to any publishers and appeared in any publications. Upon reflection, readers will learn that morality and language are inseparable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]