On properly characterizing moral agency

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaine J. Fowers ◽  
Austen R. Anderson ◽  
Samantha F. Lang
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Situational Influences

AbstractDoris (2015b) develops a theory of moral agency to avoid a skeptical challenge arising from psychology studies indicating that (im)moral behavior is caused by trivial situational factors. His theory is flawed in attending only to situational influences on behavior and neglecting individual differences such as moral identity and virtue. A focus on individual differences in resilience to influence from trivial situational factors defangs the skeptical challenge and offers a better account of moral agency.

Exploring Occasion Specificity in the Assessment of DSM-5 Maladaptive Personality Traits

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Zimmermann ◽  
Axel Mayer ◽  
Daniel Leising ◽  
Tobias Krieger ◽  
Martin grosse Holtforth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Disorders ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Situational Influences ◽  
Dsm 5 ◽  
Specific Trait

Abstract. The alternative classification system for personality disorders in DSM-5 features a hierarchical model of maladaptive personality traits. This trait model comprises five broad trait domains and 25 specific trait facets that can be reliably assessed using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Although there is a steadily growing literature on the validity of the PID-5, issues of temporal stability and situational influences on test scores are currently unexplored. We addressed these issues using a sample of 611 research participants who completed the PID-5 three times, with time intervals of 2 months. Latent state-trait (LST) analyses for each of the 25 PID-5 trait facets showed that, on average, 79.5% of the variance was due to stable traits (i.e., consistency), and 7.7% of the variance was due to situational factors (i.e., occasion specificity). Our findings suggest that the PID-5 trait facets predominantly capture individual differences that are stable across time.

Beyond Moral Reasoning: A Review of Moral Identity Research and Its Implications for Business Ethics

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruodan Shao ◽  
Karl Aquino ◽  
Dan Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences

Moral identity has been touted as a foundation for understanding moral agency in organizations. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of knowledge regarding moral identity and highlight several promising avenues for advancing current understandings of moral actions in organizational contexts. The article begins with a brief overview of two distinct conceptual perspectives on moral identity—the character perspective and the social-cognitive perspective—that dominate extant literature. It then discusses varying approaches that have been taken in attempting to measure moral identity. The final two sections of the article review empirical findings regarding the antecedents and consequences of moral identity, respectively. Mechanisms and situational factors that are pertinent to moral agency in organizations are emphasized in both sections.

Defending Virtuous Motivation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua May
Keyword(s):  
Framing Effects ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Moral Hypocrisy ◽  
Debunking Arguments ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Mood Effects ◽  
The Right

This chapter considers remaining empirical challenges to the idea that we’re commonly motivated to do what’s right for the right reasons. Two key factors threaten to defeat claims to virtuous motivation, self-interest (egoism) and arbitrary situational factors (situationism). Both threats aim to identify defective influences on moral behavior that reveal us to be commonly motivated by the wrong reasons. However, there are limits to such wide-ranging skeptical arguments. Ultimately, like debunking arguments, defeater challenges succumb to a Defeater’s Dilemma: one can identify influences on many of our morally relevant behaviors that are either substantial or arbitrary, but not both. The science suggests a familiar trade-off in which substantial influences on many morally relevant actions are rarely defective. Arriving at this conclusion requires carefully scrutinizing a range of studies, including those on framing effects, dishonesty, implicit bias, mood effects, and moral hypocrisy (vs. integrity).

scholarly journals Brokering Orientations and Social Capital: Influencing Others’ Relationships Shapes Status and Trust

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Halevy ◽  
Eliran Halali ◽  
Taya R. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Network Ties ◽  
Multidimensional Measure ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
Conciliatory Behavior

Individuals often influence others’ relationships, for better or worse. We conceptualize social influence processes that impact others’ social networks as brokering, and advance a multifaceted model that explains how brokering behaviors can create, terminate, reinforce, and modify others’ network ties. To empirically study brokering, we introduce and validate the Brokering Orientations Scale (BOS), a multidimensional measure that captures individuals’ behavioral tendencies to act as intermediaries, conciliators, and dividers. Six studies (N=1,723) explored the psychometric properties of the BOS (Studies 1a-1c) and investigated the effects of distinct forms of brokering on brokers’ social capital (Studies 2-4). The intermediary, conciliatory and divisive brokering orientations related differently to extraversion, agreeableness, perspective-taking, moral identity and Machiavellianism, among other individual differences. The effects of brokering on social capital varied as a function of the brokering orientation and the aspect of social capital. Intermediary behavior garnered status; conciliatory behavior promoted trust and prestige; and divisive behavior fueled brokers’ perceived dominance. Overall, the current paper elucidates the concept of brokering orientations, introduces a novel measure of brokering orientations, and explains how brokering behavior shapes brokers’ social capital.

Social Comparison Before, During, and After the Competition

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Garcia ◽  
Zachary A. Reese ◽  
Avishalom Tor
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Competitive Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Comparison ◽  
Entry Decisions

This chapter provides an overview of the interplay between social comparison and competition before, during, and after the competition. Competition is defined broadly to include an act or process of competition, explicit or implicit, linked to basic social comparison processes. Before the competition, the authors consider the lessons of the social comparison literature on motives, individual differences, cultural and social norms, and competition entry decisions. The authors then review relevant findings on the role of individual factors (personal and relational) as well as situational factors that affect motivation and competitive behavior during the competition. Finally, the chapter examines the social comparison literature on downward comparison, upward comparison, and competition re-entry decisions after the competition.

It’s the Situation and Your Disposition: A Test of Two Honesty Hypotheses

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855061989897 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Markowitz ◽  
Timothy R. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Dark Triad ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Experimental Task ◽  
Personality Dimensions ◽  
Situational Influences ◽  
Public Data

Research has documented substantial individual differences in the proclivity for honesty or dishonesty and that personality traits meaningfully account for variations in honesty–dishonesty. Research also shows important situational variation related to deception, as situations can motivate or discourage dishonest behaviors. The current experiment examines personality and situational influences on honesty–dishonesty in tandem, arguing that their effects may not be additive. Participants ( N = 114) engaged in an experimental task providing the opportunity to cheat for tangible gain. The situation varied to encourage or discourage cheating. Participants completed the HEXACO-100 and the Dark Triad of Personality scales. Both situational variation and personality dimensions predicted honesty–dishonesty, but the effects of personality were not uniform across situations. These results were also supported using public data from an independent, multilab sample ( N = 5,757). We outline how these results inform our understanding of deception, situational influences, and the role of disposition in honesty.

Why is Life Stress Ignored in Studies of ‘Stress’ and Athletic Performance?

1992 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 800-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Felsten ◽  
Kathy Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sport Psychology ◽  
Athletic Performance ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Strong Relationships

Investigations of relationships between stress and athletic performance and stress and outcomes outside of sport psychology have a parallel evolution. Each area has advanced from early attempts to find simple, strong relationships to current strategies for evaluating the influences of individual differences and situational factors on more elusive relationships. However, the most common conceptualizations of stress are very different in research on sport psychology and stress, and most studies of stress and athletic performance do not involve the influences of stress outside athletics. We propose that the approaches used by sports psychologists and stress researchers could be combined to evaluate more fully the relationships between stress and athletic performance.

scholarly journals The Role of Individual Differences and Situational Factors in Perception of Verbal Irony

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Gucman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
The State ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
State Trait Anxiety Inventory ◽  
Verbal Irony ◽  
The Social ◽  
Polish Adaptation ◽  
Social Competences

Abstract A study was conducted to analyze the influence of situational and individual factors on verbal irony perception. Participants (N = 144) rated smartness, criticality, humorousness, and offensiveness of ironic utterances and their literal equivalents. The utterances were put in various contexts, differing in terms of the structure of the interlocutors’ social ranks and the responsibility of the addressee for the described event. Additionally, participants’ state and trait of anxiety were measured using the Polish adaptation of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Wrześniewski, Sosnowski, Jaworowska, & Fecenec, 2011) and their social competences were measured with the Social Competences Questionnaire (Matczak, 2007). Analyses showed that the structure of the interlocutors’ social ranks, the addressee’s responsibility, as well as the state and trait of anxiety can influence the perception of irony, although it does not always concern all of the variables rated herein. No link between social competences and irony perception was found.

Forensic Personality and Social Psychology

2018 ◽  
pp. 856-884
Author(s):  
Saul Kassin ◽  
Margaret Bull Kovera
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Forensic Psychology ◽  
Lie Detection ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Situational Influences ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
Different Types

Forensic psychology is a term used to describe a broad range of research topics and applications that address human behavior in the legal system. Personality and social psychologists are among those who have contributed to our understanding of individual differences in performance (e.g., among liars and lie detectors, crime suspects, witnesses, and jurors) and situational influences (e.g., effects of training on lie detection, the false evidence ploy on false confessions, police feedback on eyewitnesses, and inadmissible testimony on jurors) as well as the role that psychologists have played within the legal system. This chapter discusses how individual difference and situational variables contribute to the reliability of different types of evidence (e.g., confessions, eyewitnesses, alibis) introduced in court as well as how jurors make decisions about the evidence presented at trial.

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