Social cognitive theory of morality

About: Social cognitive theory of morality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5842 publications have been published within this topic receiving 250337 citations.

Developmental changes and individual differences in young children's moral judgments.

Abstract: Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle-income 2½- to 4-year olds’ moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punishment. Children’s understanding of moral transgressions as wrong independent of authority grew over time. Greater surgency and effortful control were both associated with a better understanding of moral generalizability. Children higher in effortful control also grew more slowly in understanding that moral rules are not alterable and that moral transgressions are wrong independent of rules. Girls demonstrated sharper increases across time than boys in understanding the nonalterability of moral rules.

Personal, Moral, and Structural Commitment to Relationships

Abstract: If I were inclined to frivolity, I might have entitled this chapter “Just Say No to Global Commitment” The core idea of the commitment framework that I have developed over the last 30 years (Johnson, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1991, 1995a) is that there are three distinct experiences of “commitment” (personal, moral, and structural), and that the global concept of commitment therefore misrepresents the nature of commitment phenomena When I began work on a comparison of the commitments of cohabiting and married couples in 1966, it seemed to me that the concept of commitment was being used by social scientists to refer to at least two distinct phenomena On the one hand, Howard Becker (1960), for example, was writing about the ways that the social context in which a line of action (say, a relationship) is embedded may produce constraints that virtually force one to continue that line of action whether one wants to or not On the other hand, when Dean and Spanier (1974) wrote about commitment, they clearly were writing about a personal dedication to the continuation of a relationship even if the social context seemed to be working against it Dean and Spanier used the term to refer to strong feelings of wanting to continue a relationship; Becker used the term to refer to strong feelings that one had to continue a relationship And to make matters worse, many authors often drift from one meaning of the term to the other, without seeming to notice this important distinction (eg, Rosenblatt, 1977)

Toward interventions to address moral distress Navigating structure and agency

Abstract: Background:The concept of moral distress has been the subject of nursing research for the past 30 years. Recently, there has been a call to move from developing an understanding of the concept to developing interventions to help ameliorate the experience. At the same time, the use of the term moral distress has been critiqued for a lack of clarity about the concepts that underpin the experience.Discussion:Some researchers suggest that a closer examination of how socio-political structures influence healthcare delivery will move moral distress from being seen as located in the individual to an experience that is also located in broader healthcare structures. Informed by new thinking in relational ethics, we draw on research findings from neuroscience and attachment literature to examine the reciprocal relationship between structures and agents and frame the experience of moral distress.Conclusion:We posit moral distress as a form of relational trauma and subsequently point to the need to better understand ...

Automatic ethics: the effects of implicit assumptions and contextual cues on moral behavior.

Abstract: We empirically examine the reflexive or automatic aspects of moral decision making. To begin, we develop and validate a measure of an individual's implicit assumption regarding the inherent morality of business. Then, using an in-basket exercise, we demonstrate that an implicit assumption that business is inherently moral impacts day-to-day business decisions and interacts with contextual cues to shape moral behavior. Ultimately, we offer evidence supporting a characterization of employees as reflexive interactionists: moral agents whose automatic decision-making processes interact with the environment to shape their moral behavior.

Divergence in Moral Reasoning About Sport and Everyday Life

Abstract: The observation that sport represents a unique context has been widely discussed, but social scientists have done little to empirically examine the moral adaptations of sport participants. In the present study, the divergence between levels of moral reasoning used to discuss hypothetical dilemmas set in sport and in everyday life contexts was investigated among 120 high school and collegiate basketball players, swimmers, and nonathletes. Protocols were scored according to Haan’s interactional model of moral development. It was found that levels of moral reasoning used to discuss sport dilemmas were lower than levels characterizing reasoning about issues within an everyday life context. Findings were discussed in terms of the specific social and moral context of sport experience.