Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:58:43.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acknowledging and managing deep constraints on moral agency and the self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2018

Laura Niemi  and
Jesse Graham
Laura Niemi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. [email protected]
Jesse Graham
Affiliation:
Department of Management, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Doris proposes that the exercise of morally responsible agency unfolds as a collaborative dialogue among selves expressing their values while being subject to ever-present constraints. We assess the fit of Doris's account with recent data from psychology and neuroscience related to how people make judgments about moral agency (responsibility, blame), and how they understand the self after traumatic events.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blake, D. D., Weathers, F. W., Nagy, L. M., Kaloupek, D. G., Gusman, F. D., Charney, D. S. & Keane, T. M. (1995) The development of a clinician-administered PTSD scale. Journal of Traumatic Stress 8:75–90.Google Scholar
Clifford, S., Jewell, R. M. & Waggoner, P. D. (2015) Are samples drawn from Mechanical Turk valid for research on political ideology? Research and Politics 2(4). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168015622072.Google Scholar
Crockett, M. J., Clark, L., Hauser, M. D. & Robbins, T. W. (2010) Serotonin selectively influences moral judgment and behavior through effects on harm aversion. PNAS 107(40):17433–38.Google Scholar
Doris, J. M. (2015b). Talking to our selves: Reflection, ignorance, and agency. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ehlers, A. & Clark, D. M. (2000) A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 38:319–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foa, E. B., Ehlers, A., Clark, D. M., Tolin, D. F. & Orsillo, S. M. (1999) The posttraumatic cognitions inventory (PTCI): Development and validation. Psychological Assessment 11(3):303–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, G. P. (2015) Moral character in person perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science 24:38–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, J., Haidt, J. & Nosek, B. A. (2009) Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96:1029–46.Google Scholar
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 101:366–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M. & Cohen, J. D. (2001) An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science 293:2105–108.Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2007) The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science 316(5827):998–1002.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33:61–135.Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E., Hughes, M. & Nelson, C. B. (1995) Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 52:1048–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M. & Damasio, A. (2007) Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements. Nature 446(7138):908–11.Google Scholar
Miller, R. M., Hannikainen, I. A. & Cushman, F. A. (2014) Bad actions or bad outcomes? Differentiating affective contributions to the moral condemnation of harm. Emotion 14(3):573–87.Google Scholar
Niemi, L. & Young, L. (2016) When and why we see victims as responsible: The impact of ideology on attitudes toward victims. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 42(9):1227–42.Google Scholar
Nizzi, M-C., Demertzi, A., Gosseries, O., Bruno, M-A., Jouen, F. & Laureys, S. (2012) From armchair to wheelchair: How patients with a locked-in syndrome integrate bodily changes in experienced identity. Consciousness and Cognition 21:431–37.Google Scholar
Nizzi, M-C. & Niemi, L. (in preparation) The sense of self predicts suicidal thoughts and behaviors in survivors of sexual assault.Google Scholar
Park, G., Kappes, A., Rho, Y. & Van Bavel, J. J. (2016) At the heart of morality lies neuro-visceral integration: Lower cardiac vagal tone predicts utilitarian moral judgment. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 11(10):1588–96.Google Scholar
Perkins, A. M., Leonard, A. M., Weaver, K., Dalton, J. A., Mehta, M. A., Kumari, V., Williams, S. C. R. & Ettinger, U. (2013) A dose of ruthlessness: Interpersonal moral judgment is hardened by the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 142(3):612–20.Google Scholar
Yehuda, R., Hoge, C. W., McFarlane, A. C., Vermetten, E., Ruth, A. Lanius, R. A., Nievergelt, C. M., Hobfoll, S. E., Koenen, K. C., Thomas, C. Neylan, T. C. & Hyman, S. E. (2015) Post-traumatic stress disorder. Nature Reviews 1:1–21.Google ScholarPubMed