Moral Competence and Foundations of Moral Judgment. An Empirical Exploration of Concepts and New Possibilities for Understanding
PDF

Keywords

moral competence
moral judgment
moral intuitions
moral orientations
axiology

How to Cite

Popoveniuc, B. (2021). Moral Competence and Foundations of Moral Judgment. An Empirical Exploration of Concepts and New Possibilities for Understanding. ETHICS IN PROGRESS, 12(1), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.14746/eip.2021.1.4

Abstract

The present study examines the relation between the moral intuitions proposed by the ‘Moral Foundations Theory’ according to J. Haidt and the moral orientations in relation with moral competence, as described by the ‘Dual-Aspect Model of Moral Behaviour’ according to G. Lind.
It is an empirical exploration of the relation between the five foundational domains (and/or the corresponding two higher-order clusters) and the moral orientations, as this results from the theoretical assumptions of both theories, and the influence on and of the moral competence on these aforementioned relations. The shared affective and, at the same time, habitual characteristics of moral intuitions and moral orientations, although based on different theories (intuitionism, respectively, cognitivism) should converge in a dynamic relationship.
The basic motivation is the need to overcome the affective-cognitive disjunction in the study of moral judgment, which is artificial. The human (moral) reasoning is always a situated and situating one, in a symbolic narrative universe, in which the cognitive-affective dichotomy forms a dynamic unity. This overstated dichotomy is only a methodological necessity, but unfortunately hypostasized in an explanatory mechanism that leads to the impermissible simplification of the phenomenon that it seeks to understand.
The empirical results confirm the limits of both cognitive and intuitions paradigms and advocates for a more nuanced and dynamic approach in understanding the moral judgment within a more comprehensive conception on human personality. Finally, the implications for the contemporary psychology’ paradigm are discussed.

https://doi.org/10.14746/eip.2021.1.4
PDF

References

Bataglia P. U. R., de Morais A., & Lepre R. M. 2010. “A teoria de Kohlberg sobre o desenvolvimento do raciocínio moral e os instrumentos de avaliação de juízo e competência moral em uso no Brasil” [Kohlberg’s theory about moral judgment development and the instruments used for evaluation of moral judgment and moral competence in Brazil,] Estudos de Psicologia 15(1):25–32.

Bucciarelli M., Khemlani S., & Johnson-Laird P. N. 2008. “The Psychology of Moral reasoning,” Judgment and Decision Making 3(2):121–139.

Candee D. 1976. “Structure and Choice in Moral Reasoning,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34:1293–1301.

Greene J. D., Nystrom L. E., Engell A. D., Darley J. M., & Cohen J. D. 2004. “The Neural Bases of Cognitive Conflict and Control in Moral Judgment,” Neuron 44(2):389–400.

Dellantonio S. & Job R. 2010. “Morality According to a Cognitive Interpretation: A Semantic Model for Moral Behavior,” in L. Magnani, W. Carnielli, & C. Pizzi (Eds.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 314. Springer: Berlin – Heidelberg.

Dellantonio S. & Job R. 2012. “Moral Intuitions vs. Moral Reasoning. A Philosophical Analysis of the Explanatory Models Intuitionism Relies On,” in L Magnani & L. Ping (Eds.), Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Western & Eastern Studies (pp. 239–262). Springer.

Diessner R., Mayton D., & Dolen M. A. 1993. “Values Hierarchies and Moral Reasoning,” The Journal of Social Psychology 133(6):869–871.

Dubljević V. & Racine E. 2014. “The ADC of Moral Judgment: Opening the Black Box of Moral Intuitions with Heuristics About Agents, Deeds, and Consequences,” AJOB Neuroscience 5(4):3–20.

Emler N. 2002. “Morality and Political Orientations: An Analysis of Their Relationship,” European Review of Social Psychology 13:259–291.

Ellemers N., van der Toorn J., Paunov Y., & van Leeuwen T. 2019. “The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published from 1940 through 2017,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 23(4):332–366.

Feldman G. 2020. “Personal Values and Moral Foundations: Examining Relations and Joint Prediction of Moral Variables.” (Unpublished manuscript, available at https://osf.io/6qs5g/, lact accessed on April 10, 2021).

Fishkin J., Keniston K., & McKinnon C. 1973. “Moral Reasoning and Political Ideology,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 27(1):109–119.

Gay J., Vitacco M., Hackney A., Beussink C., & Lilienfeld S. 2018. “Relations among Psychopathy, Moral Competence, and Moral Intuitions in Student and Community Samples,” Legal and Criminological Psychology 23:117–134.

Graham J., Haidt J., Koleva S., Motyl M., Iyer R., Wojcik S., & Ditto P. H. 2013. “Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 47:55–130.

Graham J., Haidt J., & Nosek B. A. 2009. “Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Dets of Moral Foundations,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96(5):1029–1046.

Graham J., Nosek B. A., Haidt J., Iyer R., Koleva S., & Ditto P. H. 2011. “Mapping the Moral Domain,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101:366–385.

Greene J. D., Nystrom L. E., Engell A. D., Darley J. M., & Cohen J. D. 2004. “The Neural Bases of Cognitive Conflict and Control in Moral Judgment,” Neuron 44(2):389–400

Gross M. L. 1996. “Moral Reasoning and Ideological Affiliation: A Cross-national Study,” Political Psychology 17(2):317–338.

Haidt J. 2001. “The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment,” Psychological Review 108(4):814–834.

Haidt J. 2012. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Pantheon Books: New York.

Haidt J. 2013. “Moral Psychology for the Twenty-first Century,” Journal of Moral Education 42(3):281–297.

Haidt J. & Graham J. 2007. “When Morality Opposes Justice: Conservatives Have Moral Intuitions that Liberals May Not Recognize,” Social Justice Research 20:98–116.

Helkama K. 1982. “The Development of Moral Reasoning and Moral Values,” Acta Psychologica Fennica 9:99–111.

Ishida C. 2006. “How do Scores of DIT and MJT Differ? A Critical Assessment of the Use of Alternative Moral Development Scales in Studies of Business Ethics,” Journal of Business Ethics 67(1):63–74.

Iurino K. & Saucier G. 2020. “Testing Measurement Invariance of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire Across 27 Countries,” Assessment 27(2):365–372.

Jussim L. 1986. “Self-fulfilling Prophecies. A Theoretical and Integrative Review,” Psychological Review 93(4):429–445.

Kohlberg L. 1964. “Development of Moral Character and Moral Ideology,” in M. L. Hoffman & L. W. Hoffman (Eds.), Review of Child Development Research. Vol. I (pp. 381–431). New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation.

Kohlberg L. 1981. Essays in Moral Development. Vol. I, The Philosophy of Moral Development. New York: Harper & Row.

Kohlberg L. 1984. Essays in Moral Development. Vol. II, The Psychology of Moral Development. New York: Harper & Row.

Lan G., Gowing M., McMahon S., Fritz R., & Norman K. 2008. “A Study of the Relationship between Personal Values and Moral Reasoning of Undergraduate Business Students,” Journal of Business Ethics 78(1-2):121–139.

Lan G., Gowing M., Rieger F., McMahon S., & King N. 2010. “Values, Value Types and Moral Reasoning of MBA Students,” Business Ethics: A European Review 19(2):183–198.

Lind G. 2016. How to Teach Moral Competence. 1st Ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag.

Lind G., Sandberger J. U., & Bargel T. 1985. “Moral Competence and Democratic Personality,” in G. Lind, H. A. Hartmann, & R. Wakenhut (Eds.), Moral Development and the Social Environment (pp. 55–78). New Jersey: Precedent Publishers.

Maxwell B. & Beaulac G. 2013. “The Concept of the Moral Domain in Moral Foundations Theory and Cognitive Developmental Theory: Horses for Courses?” Journal of Moral Education 42(3):360–382.

McAdams D. P. & Pals J. L. 2006. “A New Big Five. Fundamental Principles for an Integrative Science of Personality,” American Psychologist 61(3):204–217.

Monin B., Pizarro D. A., & Beer J. S. 2007a. “Deciding Versus Reacting: Conceptions of Moral Judgment and the Reason-Affect Debate,” Review of General Psychology 11(2):99–111.

Monin B., Pizarro, D. A., & Beer, J. S. 2007b. “Emotion and Reason in Moral Judgment: Different Prototypes Lead to Different Theories,” in K. D. Vohs, R. F. Baumeister, & G. Loewenstein (Eds.), Do Emotions Help or Hurt

Decision Making?: A Hedgefoxian Perspective (pp. 219–244). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.

Nassi A. J., Abramowitz S. I., & Youmans J. E. 1983. “Moral Development and Politics a Decade Later: A Replication and Extension,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45(5):1127–1135.

Nisbett R. E. & Wilson T. D. 1977. “Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes,” Psychological Review 84(3):231–259.

Ostini R. & Ellerman D. 1997. “Clarifying the Relationship between Values and Moral Judgment,” Psychological Reports 81(2):691–702.

Pohling R., Bzdok D., Eigenstetter M., Stumpf S., & Strobel A. 2016. “What is Ethical Competence? The Role of Empathy, Personal Values, and the Five-factor Model of Personality in Ethical Decision-making,” Journal of Business Ethics 137(3):449–474.

Popoveniuc B. 2017. “Evoluția psihologiei și structura trinitară a personalității” [The evolution of psychology and the trinitarian structure of personality], in Filosofia și perspectiva umană. Chișinău: UnAȘM, Biotehdesign.

Raaijmakers Q. A. W., Verbogt T. M. A., & Volleberg W. A. M. 1998. “Moral Reasoning and Political Beliefs of Dutch Adolescent and Young Adults,” Journal of Social Issues 54(3):531–546.

Rest J. R. 1983. “Morality,” in P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Manual of Child Psychology. 4th Ed., Vol. 3 (pp. 495–555). New York: Wiley.

Rest J. R., Narvaez D., Thoma S. J., & Bebeau M. J. 1999. “DIT2: Devising and Testing a Revised instrument of Moral Judgment,” Journal of Educational Psychology 91(4):644–659.

Rokeach M. 1973. The Nature of Human Values. New York: The Free Press.

Sauer H. 2017. Moral Judgments as Educated Intuitions: A Rationalist Theory of Moral Judgment. MIT Press.

Sachdeva S., Singh P., & Medin D. 2011. “Culture and the Quest for Universal Principles in Moral Reasoning,” International Journal of Psychology 46(3):161–176.

Schwartz S. H., Cieciuch J., Vecchione M., Davidov E., Fischer R., Beierlein C., Ramos A., Verkasalo M., Lönnqvist J.-E., Demirutku K., Dirilen-Gumus O., & Konty M. 2012. “Refining the Theory of Basic Individual Values,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103:663–688.

Shweder R. A., Much N. C., Mahapatra M., & Park L. 1997. “The ‘Big Three’ of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the ‘Big Three’ Explanations of Suffering,” in A. M. Brandt & P. Rozin (Eds.), Morality and Health (pp. 119–169). Abingdom on Thames: Taylor & Frances/Routledge.

Simpson E. 1987. “The Development of Political Reasoning,” Human Development 30(5):268–281.

Stenning K. & van Lambalgen M. 2004. “A Little Logic Goes a Long Way: Basing Experiment on Semantic Theory in the Cognitive Science of Conditional Reasoning,” Cognitive Science 28(4):481–529.

Tamul D., Elson M., Ivory J., Hotter J., Lanier M., Wolf J., & Martínez-Carrillo N. 2020. „Moral Foundations’ Methodological Foundations: A Systematic Analysis of Reliability in Research Using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire” (in press). Available at https://psyarxiv.com/shcgv/ (Last accessed on April 21, 2021).

Trups-Kalne I. & Dimdins G. 2017. “Relation between Social Conservatism, Moral Competence, Moral Orientations, and the Importance of Moral Foundations,” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 8(6):81–90.