What Is Moral Psychology?

Moral psychology refers to the discipline that studies the psychological structure of human morality and the laws of its activities. The structure of moral psychology refers to the way of interaction between morality and psychology, including the psychological foundation of the generation, formation and development of morality, the psychological mechanism, psychological process and psychological state of moral activity and moral behavior, and the role of morality in psychological activity. It focuses on studying the law of psychological response caused by moral consciousness and moral activities, and revealing the socio-psychological factors of morality. The content includes: the adjustment and overcoming of moral imbalances, obstacles and deviations by people; the psychological factors and processes of moral education and moral cultivation; the psychological driving of moral behavior; and the methods of eliminating psychological obstacles to moral resistance. Research on moral psychology To correctly analyze and explain various moral phenomena, correctly understand and understand the rules of the generation and development of moral consciousness, moral emotion and moral will, scientifically master the methods of moral education and moral cultivation, and consciously cultivate noble morals Quality has important significance. ^[1]

For example, psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg was asked by boys and young people about their thought processes when they faced a

Lester pointed out that the morality of the individual is rooted in the social environment. Because social life is a characteristic of human life, people need both coordination and cooperation in the interaction, and also need to try to avoid contradictions and conflicts. Morality in this respect has taken on a similar role of restraint and regulation as etiquette, custom, and law. At the same time, individual morality is rooted in its own development. Because research on prosocial behavior, group psychology, personality development, and anthropology shows that the germ of moral development can be found in the early stages of individual development. Individuals have a tendency to attach importance to establishing good interpersonal relationships. Individuals generally have a moral character. Desire of integrity.

However, in contrast, in the study of individual moral phenomena in psychology, cognitive development scientists mainly study from the cognitive aspect, psychological analysts deliberately investigate from the emotional aspect, and social learning theorists focus on the behavior acquisition aspect. This undoubtedly ignores the characteristics of individual morality that originates from both individuals and society and belongs to an individual's social values. In fact, Lester believes that there is no cognition that completely excludes the influence of emotions, it is impossible to have emotions that are not affected by any cognition, and there is no behavior that is not affected by cognition and emotions at all. This is individual morality. Obvious characteristics of the phenomenon.

According to this, Rest believes that the psychological phenomenon of individual morality should be explored from the question: How does the individual's moral action arise? That is, what psychological processes will individuals undergo in the form of moral actions face specific situations? Lester's answer is that, logically speaking, this must go through at least four basic psychological processes, which is to follow his four models of moral psychology. Lester discusses the four processes of his model and related research as follows:

Process one, explain the situation. Faced with a specific situation, individuals must first try to understand, explain to themselves what is happening, and then estimate what actions may be taken, and what impact and consequences they have on themselves and others.

It should be pointed out that when social situations are explained, individuals will also have strong emotional arousal, that is, people may already have positive or negative emotions about events or characters while understanding the situations. This does not mean that emotions can be independent of cognition, but that it shows that impulsive emotions can be produced suddenly with the initial cognition. This arousal of emotion often does not transfer according to the subjective will of the individual, and it will make the individual highlight or obliterate the situation. Therefore, it plays a certain role in the formation of motivation, and it has become a researcher's attention. Hot Issues. Psychological research related to process one and its results are mainly: the study of bystanders' response to emergencies, and the results in this area indicate that many individuals have difficulties even explaining relatively simple situations; research on helping behaviors The results in this regard indicate whether understanding and how to understand the relevant clues in the context are closely related to whether to implement helping behavior or whether there is a conscious and continuous helping behavior. The above two aspects of research show that we cannot underestimate the difficulties faced by some individuals in interpreting social situations, let alone mistakenly interpret them as the result of individual psychological defense mechanisms. The individual's understanding and interpretation of the moral meaning of the situation is a complex psychological process. Social cognitive research points out that it contains clue retrieval, information integration, making assumptions, inferring, etc., and they are all related to the development of individual cognitive ability.

The study of moral sensitivity is also related to process one. Studies in this area have found that there are large differences between individuals in their sensitivity to the needs and interests of others. Some individuals will consider every move, activity, and expression of others as full of moral significance, and some individuals will not realize that they are facing moral issues until they see the blood. An individual's moral sensitivity generally develops with age and experience. Currently, there are two active researchers in this field. They are M. Bebo and J. Hulk, both of whom have been graduate students of Lester. Bebe's research was conducted at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Huo Erke's research has changed the method in terms of methods, mainly using the psychological counseling situation as a stimulus material, and made a videotape. They are all committed to developing a measurement scoring system in this regard.

Process two, make a judgment. On the basis of explaining the situation, the individual decides which of the various possible actions is morally correct, which is the process of making a moral judgment. Ethical cognitive development scholars represented by Piaget and Kohlberg have already done a lot of research and results in this area. They present the situation of moral issues directly to individuals, and require that they make a choice judgment and state their reasons in order to understand the basis of their moral reasoning and the framework of moral thinking. From this, they discovered the schema and development stages of individual moral judgments, and the concept of justice (sensation) is the core issue of schemas and development stages. It helps individuals to make moral judgments about social situations.

The "Determination of Questions (DIT)" conducted by Lester himself since the mid-1970s is also related to this "process two". The quiz is still based on the stages of moral development revealed by Kohlberg, and uses dilemma as the material. However, the test is simple, easy to learn, and easy to use, which made it widely used in the early 1980s. "Determining the problem test" or "DIT" is a breakthrough progress in the method and technology of contemporary understanding of individual moral judgment. Process three: moral choice. On the basis of moral judgment, the moral value given to an action that an individual considers to be morally right exceeds the value of other ideas, so that a decision can be made to put knowledge and judgment into action. This is a decision-making process involving moral action, which depends on the individual's moral values being relatively superior to other values in their value system.

According to Lester, this process is a necessary link between judgment and action, knowledge and behavior. Moral values based on moral judgments are often not individual values. Non-moral values are often tempting and make individuals unable to follow moral judgments to make corresponding moral choices. For example, in Damon's research, the subjects were first asked to say that a certain amount of candy was distributed to children who had made it by themselves, and then they considered it to be a fair distribution plan. Try to deviate from the original plan and leave yourself more copies. This shows that the participants' original cognition compromised with another more important motivation. What exactly drives individuals to place moral values above other values, and what makes individuals transition from the recognition of moral judgments to the choice of moral behavior? Lester pointed out that the process of this moral decision is not well studied, but the answer can be found from the existing psychological theory. In this regard, Lester listed eight theoretical views and their representative figures, which are: 1. The reason why individual behavior can be moral is that evolution has made altruism a human genetic gene. Such as Wilson. 2. Conscience makes everyone behave according to the rules. It is shyness, guilt, and fear that make individuals moral. Such as Allen Fried, Eysenck and so on. 3. The morality of the individual is only due to the opportunity to strengthen and imitate his reaction. It can also be said that the individual "learned" social behavior. Such as Bentura, Gold Diamond and so on. 4. It is necessary to establish an ideal society. Such a society cannot be separated from social cooperation. Individuals are one of them, and this recognition is the motivation of individual morality. Such as Dewey, Piaget and so on. 5. Moral motivation comes from the awe or self-compliance of things greater than the self, such as the country, God, God, religion, etc. Such as Dirkheim, Erikson and so on. 6. Empathy is the foundation of altruism and individual moral behavior. Such as Huffman. 7. Living in an environment where a fair and caring relationship is established will result in individuals bearing moral obligations. Such as Rawls, Kohlberg and so on. 8. Concern for self-improvement and self-identity are the motivations for moral behavior. Such as Blacie, Damon and so on. Lester suggested that the study of the process of ethical decision-making may start with the following: which one or the other of the above-mentioned viewpoints plays a role and how much, for a particular situation. Process Four: Implement the behavior. On the basis of moral choice, individuals have to further translate moral intentions into moral actions. This process of externalizing or materializing into action requires not only that the individual has the corresponding physical abilities and skills, but also that the individual can clearly define the specific steps for action, overcome possible obstacles, overcome fatigue and frustration, and eliminate distractions and interference. Lester points out several important psychological studies that have cited important factors affecting this process. For example, when Krebs researched deceptive behaviors, he classified subjects not only according to their level of moral cognition, but also according to "self-power" and "self-management", and found that the latter is also an important factor for deceptive behaviors. For another example, after researching the effects of related cognitive transformation technologies on behavior, Mitchell pointed out that mastering and using such technologies will enable individuals to improve their ability to control themselves in the process of striving for their own goals and resist the great Situational stress. For another example, the research by Masters and Santrock suggests that a positive emotional state triggered by a certain kind of cognition is closely related to insisting on productive work. An individual's expectations of behavioral nature and effectiveness will determine whether he How much effort to engage in an activity, to overcome difficulties and to overcome negative experiences, and persist. As another example, interviews in London show that social affirmation is also a factor influencing behavior. The model of Lester's four processes described above outlines the psychological process of an individual from facing a moral situation to forming a moral action. These four processes do not refer to the basic characteristics of an individual, nor to the four virtues that an ideal moral person should possess. Each process in the Rice mineral model has its own function. A person is capable of dealing with one process, but not necessarily capable of handling another process. If people who can make complex judgments and inferences may not implement the course of action, those who take action and persevere may be based on fairly simple judgments and inferences. Lester's model points to a logical development process that produces moral behavior, but this is not to say that the four processes that make up the model are necessarily linear processes over time. For example, when a person determines what is morally correct, that is, when making a moral judgment (process 2), it may in turn affect the person's new or further understanding and interpretation of the situation (process 1). There are also interactions and influences between the four processes of the Lester model. There have been empirical studies in this regard. The more prominent ones are the research by Dali and Batterson, and two studies by Schwartz. The former found that the behavior of the current situation (belonging to process 4) will affect the sensitivity to new factors in the situation and cognitive processing (belonging to process 1). A person's focus on a certain process will make him respond to other stimuli or processes Become sluggish. The latter found that individuals would make defensive evaluations to deny or reduce their sense of moral responsibility. For example, after process two and process three, the moral meaning of appearance and the cost of individual moral action became clear, and individuals would defensively Re-annotate the situation, or make a lower assessment of the victim's big debate (process 1), in order to pay less without condemnation. Although the four processes of the Lester model are related to moral knowledge, emotion, will, and behavior, they are no longer a single element of moral character. For example, when process one explains the situation, there will always be corresponding emotional arousal. When process two makes a judgment, it is also affected by the emotional state and emotional experience formed by process one. . In short, Lester's moral psychological model negates the practice of various moral development theories expressed by a single variable or psychological component, and can comprehensively consider various psychological activities of knowledge, affection, intention, and behavior. The model empirically points out the logical psychological processes of individuals from facing the situation to generating action, and analyzes the psychological activities and interactions in these processes vertically. This kind of dynamic, closer to the real life research provides an analytical framework to understand how individuals have "morality" and can more truly reflect the overall picture of the formation of individual moral qualities. This model also has implications for moral education. Although moral education can focus on the psychological components of moral quality, it can also start from the perception of the environment to the various aspects of the whole vertical process. Judging from the research dynamics of the model, the research depth of the four processes that make up the model is in order: process two, that is, moral judgment is the most extensive and in-depth, followed by process one, which explains the situation, and then starts with all aspects of the process. From the research dynamics of the model, the research depth of the four processes that make up the model is in order: process two, that is, moral judgment is the most extensive and deep, followed by process one, which explains the situation, process four, which is the implementation behavior, and process three, which is the last. That is moral choice, so there is still much work to be done to improve and enrich the model. ^[3]