Priming moral self-ambivalence heightens deliberative behaviour in self-ambivalent individuals

Background: Recent work on cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive-compulsive disorder has focused on the roles played by various aspects of self-perception. In particular, moral self-ambivalence has been found to be associated with obsessive-compulsive phenomena. Aims: In this study we used an experimental task to investigate whether artificially priming moral self-ambivalence would increase participants' deliberation on ethical problems, an index that might be analogous to obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Method: Non-clinical participants completed two online tasks designed to prime either moral self-ambivalence, general uncertainty, or neither. All participants then completed a task requiring them to consider solutions to moral dilemmas. We recorded the time participants took to respond to the dilemmas and the length of their responses; we then combined these variables to create a measure of deliberation. Results: Priming moral self-ambivalence led to increases in deliberation, but this was only significant among those participants who scored highly on a baseline measure of moral self-ambivalence. Priming general uncertainty had no significant effect upon deliberation. Conclusions: The results suggest that moral self-ambivalence may play a role in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive behaviour. We propose that individuals who are morally self-ambivalent might respond to situations in which this ambivalence is made salient by exhibiting behaviour with obsessive-compulsive characteristics. These findings have implications for the incorporation of ideas about self-concept into theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

O efeito do stresse no julgamento moral: um estudo experimental

Dissertação de Mestrado, Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Liberdade e individualismo no pensamento de J. S. Mill

A presente dissertação constitui uma investigação no campo da filosofia moral moderna, acerca do surgimento de um traço constitutivo das principais teorias morais modernas: o individualismo. Esse conceito é examinado, principalmente, à luz da filosofia prática de John Stuart Mill. A investigação inicia-se com a análise da emergência da moderna tradição dos direitos naturais, surgida com o escopo de equacionar os dilemas morais advindos de um contexto histórico-cultural particular. Em seguida, investiga-se o surgimento da tradição moral utilitarista e sua crítica ao moderno jusnaturalismo. A seguir, analisa-se como o próprio utilitarismo, contudo, torna-se objeto de críticas que incidem sobre o que seria a) a sua incapacidade de elaborar uma concepção de vida humana qualitativamente distinta da vida de outros animais; e b) sobre a insuficiente consideração do utilitarismo pelas liberdades individuais. A dissertação investiga, pois, os esforços de Mill para fazer frente a tais críticas e, assim, "redescrever" a tradição utilitarista. As tentativas de Mill de responder às críticas feitas ao utilitarismo o afastam da formulação clássica dessa escola de pensamento. Mill torna-se, assim, um utilitarista sui generis. A presente dissertação sugere que Mill, ao objetivar resguardar o utilitarismo das críticas que esta tradição recebera, elabora uma das mais influentes teorias morais individualistas da contemporaneidade.

Authority dependence and judgments of utilitarian harm

Three studies tested the conditions under which people judge utilitarian harm to be authority dependent (i.e., whether its right or wrongness depends on the ruling of an authority). In Study 1, participants judged the right or wrongness of physical abuse when used as an interrogation method anticipated to yield useful information for preventing future terrorist attacks. The ruling of the military authority towards the harm was manipulated (prohibited vs. prescribed) and found to significantly influence judgments of the right or wrongness of inflicting harm. Study 2 established a boundary condition with regards to the influence of authority, which was eliminated when the utility of the harm was definitely obtained rather than forecasted. Finally, Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1-2 in a completely different context—an expert committee’s ruling about the harming of chimpanzees for biomedical research. These results are discussed as they inform ongoing debates regarding the role of authority in moderating judgments of complex and simple harm. 2013 Elsevier B.V. © All rights reserved.

Ethic of Care versus Ethic of Justice? The Gender- Corruption Nexus: Testing the New Conventional Wisdom

Ce papier utilise des données empiriques sur le Ghana afin d’examiner comment, le genre, en tant que système social, génère des dilemmes moraux dans le secteur public. Les hommes et les femmes se sentent obligées de choisir des conditions privées de moralité dans le secteur de l’éthique publique. Ce papier démontre que les références qui délimitent les personnalités comportementales sexuées et qui sont utilisées pour justifier le plus haut degré de standard éthique des femmes peut aussi être potentiellement source de corruption, si les femmes essaient de respecter les attentes en matière de genre dans la conduite des obligations publiques. Fondamentalement, le papier argumente que l’éthique sexuée- supposant la division entre éthique de la compassion et éthique de la justice- pourrait perpétuer des comportements qui nient l’éthique du secteur public, mais se conforme à l’éthique sociale. En utilisant les travaux de Carol Gilligan (1982) sur la théorie du développement moral, il conclut, inter alia, que le recrutement des femmes dans le secteur public devrait être promu en tant que droit plutôt qu’à partir de leur probité morale présumée supérieure. Promouvoir les femmes dans le services publics sur la base de leur éthique supérieure pourrait s’avérer contre-productif si les espoirs étaient déçus.

An fMRI Study of Emotional engagement in decicion-making

It has been suggested that decision making depends on sensitive feelings associated with cognitive processing rather than cognitive processing alone. From human lesions, we know the medial anterior inferior-ventral prefrontal cortex processes the sensitivity associated with cognitive processing, it being essentially responsible for decision making. In this fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Image) study 15 subjects were analyzed using moral dilemmas as probes to investigate the neural basis for painful-emotional sensitivity associated with decision making. We found that a network comprising the posterior and anterior cingulate and the medial anterior prefrontal cortex was significantly and specifically activated by painful moral dilemmas, but not by non-painful dilemmas. These findings provide new evidence that the cingulate and medial anterior prefrontal are involved in processing painful emotional sensibility, in particular, when decision making takes place. We speculate that decision making has a cognitive component processed by cognitive brain areas and a sensitivity component processed by emotional brain areas. The structures activated suggest that decision making depends on painful emotional feeling processing rather than cognitive processing when painful feeling processing happens

Researching from within: external and internal ethical engagement

This article examines the superficial and deep ethical and moral dilemmas confronting ‘insider’ researchers which we term external and internal ethical engagement. External ethical engagement refers to the traditional, easily identifiable ethical issues that insider researchers attend to by submitting their application for ethical approval to their institution’s internal review board. Internal ethical engagement relates to the deeper level ethical and moral dilemmas that insider researchers have to deal with once ‘in the field’ linked to on-going personal and professional relationships with participants, insider knowledge, conflicting professional and researcher roles, and anonymity. By reviewing the literature in this area and drawing on the authors’ experiences of undertaking interpretive studies at institutions where they were members of staff, we explore these concepts and examine the implications for insider researchers. Keywords: insider research; ethics; professional relationships; anonymity; access

Understanding virtue ethics

After presenting a broad overview of the history of virtue ethics, this work explores virtues in the context of contemporary moral theory to analyse how many intractable moral dilemmas might be overcome by responsible, virtuous agents.

Confidentiality and disclosure : assessment and intervention issues

This portfolio addresses the moral, ethical and legal issues that impact upon decisions to maintain or disclose confidential communications. The tensions and moral dilemmas that are created when a conflict between these aspects arises are considered. Risk assessment procedures that inform decisions to maintain or disclose confidential information are discussed, as are issues related to the practical implementation of planned interventions. The topic is addressed by firstly reviewing professional codes of conduct and legal requirements to maintain confidentiality. The limits of confidentiality and privileged communication are then reviewed together with legal requirements of “duty to warn” or “duty of care”. These requirements are then related to risk assessment procedures and relevant interventions. Four case studies that illustrate the practical application of assessment techniques in the decision process and planned interventions are presented. They cover such diverse topics as disclosure and suicidal intent, threat of harm to a third party, risk of transmission of the AIDS virus and “duty to warn” and maintenance of a minor’s confidential communications. The ways in which these issues were addressed and the outcome is presented. NOTE: All names and details that have the potential to identify the people whose cases are presented here have been changed to protect their anonymity.

Ethical decision-making of accounting students : evidence from an Australian setting

This study investigates accounting students’ ethical decision-making judgments and behavioral intentions. The Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) was used to measure the extent to which a hypothetical behavior was consistent with three moral criteria (Moral Equity, Relativism and Contractualism). The study specifically tests the differences in ethical decision-making between students who have been exposed to a dedicated ethics unit of study compared with students who have not studied ethics. The influences of culture and gender on students’ ethical decision-making are also addressed in the study. Ethical decision-making was assessed via three case studies describing moral dilemmas that an individual, business or professional person might face. The results provide support for the MES and the value added from incorporating a dedicated ethical decision-making unit in the accounting curriculum. The results also support prior evidence of gender bias and the impact of cultural differences on ethical decision-making.

Critically impaired infants and end of life decision making : resource allocation and difficult decisions

Decisions to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment are contentious, and offer difficult moral dilemmas to both medical practitioners and the judiciary. This issue is exacerbated when the patient is unable to exercise autonomy and is entirely dependent on the will of others.This book focuses on the legal and ethical complexities surrounding end of life decisions for critically impaired and extremely premature infants. Neera Bhatia explores decisions to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment from critically impaired infants and addresses the controversial question, which lives are too expensive to treat? Bringing to bear such key issues as clinical guidance, public awareness, and resource allocation, the book provides a rational approach to end of life decision making, where decisions to withdraw or withhold treatment may trump other competing interests.The book will be of great interest and use to scholars and students of bioethics, medical law, and medical practitioners.

Education in the age of uncertainty: an eagle's eye-view

 How are we to educate young people of, and for, these times in a way which takes into account the existential and moral dilemmas of our age? We argue that the current education system fails to address the full implications of historical change in relation to ethics and equity. In what follows, we offer some ways of describing and theorising contemporary life in an age of uncertainty. We offer it as a knowledge base from which teachers, principals and policy makers might draw in creating new morally and ethically sound policy discourses. We follow with some new frameworks for helping students to deal with the altered context of moral and political life.

Processo argumentativo na (re)significação de concepções ético/morais

This study analysed the relationship between the production of argumentative discourses and the development and (re)signification of ethical/moral concepts, conceptions and reasoning. It focused on ethical-argumentative reasoning concerning other people and their different points of view. The specific aims of this research were: (1) to investigate the considering alternative positions on adolescents previous views on a specific topic; (2) to verify whether the ability to generate counterarguments was associated with higher levels of moral reasoning, according to Kohlberg theory, and (3) to have a better comprehension of a possible relationship between adolescents abilities to use cognitive and verbal-argumentative strategies and the (re) signification of concepts/beliefs of an ethical/moral nature, and also the solution of conflicts of the same nature. The participants in this study were seventh grade students of private and public schools. Four empirical tasks were used in order to evaluate argumentative and moral reasoning. These tasks focused on: the evaluation of moral dilemmas (DIT); the evaluation of moral dilemmas with the presentation of a written justification for subjects responses; the production of arguments and the reaction to counterarguments. There was also a group-debate situation in which both argumentation and the discussion ethical/moral issues were observed. The moral dilemmas tasks aimed to evaluate the level of moral reasoning of the participants. The argumentation tasks investigated whether the adolescents generated and justified a point of view and how they dealt with counterarguments or alternative information which could lead the participants to modify their initial positions on the topic under discussion in a monological situation as well as in a group-debate setting. The results showed that, in a monological situation, most of the adolescents produced only a partial developed argumentative discourse, whereas in a more social-verbal interaction situation their discourse appeared to be more elaborated. As a general result, it was observed that the confrontation with the other s views, or dealing with counterarguments allow the adolescents to re-evaluate and re-elaborate their own views on a debatable topic. Regarding the relationship between counterargumentation and moral reasoning, it was verified that there was a subtle tendency associating the two processes. However, other factors, such as, social, emotional and cultural aspects might also influence the development of moral reasoning

Conhecimentos e juízos morais de crianças e de adolescentes sobre o meio ambiente: considerações acerca da educação ambiental

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ética, justiça e democracia em sala de aula: o desenvolvimento e a experiência de um novo método de discussão de dilemas morais para a educação

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)