Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his or her sense of self around moral concerns (e.g....

Moral psychology and naturalistic moral philosophers should strive to understand howmoral and non-moral norms differ. Using Patricia Churchland’s recent book Braintrust as an example, I describe the pitfalls of failing to take this issue seriously, and I introduce a new research program about the delineation of the moral domain. Which norms and normative judgments belong to the moral domain, an...

background and purpose: considering the obstacles against the implementation of ethical decisions by nurses, experiencing moral distress is one of the major issues in this profession. moral distress could have negative effects on the physical and mental health of nurses, quality of patient care and performance of health organizations. given the importance of addressing moral distress in working...

Recent research in moral psychology highlights the role of emotion and intuition in moral judgment. In the wake of these findings, the role and significance of moral reasoning remain uncertain. In this article, we distinguish among different kinds of moral reasoning and review evidence suggesting that at least some kinds of moral reasoning play significant roles in moral judgment, including rol...

Recent studies indicate that emotional processes, mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), are of great importance for moral judgment. Neurological patients with VMPC dysfunction have been shown to generate increased utilitarian moral judgments, i.e. are more likely to endorse emotionally aversive actions in order to maximize aggregate welfare, when faced with emotionally salient ...

When making moral judgments, people are typically guided by a plurality of moral rules. These rules owe their existence to human emotions but are not simply equivalent to those emotions. And people’s moral judgments ought to be guided by a plurality of emotion-based rules. The view just stated combines three positions on moral judgment: [1] moral sentimentalism, which holds that sentiments play...

Why do moral people so often fail to act morally? Standard scientific answers point to poor moral judgment (based on deficient character development, reason, or intuition) or to situational pressure. I consider a third possibility: a relative lack of truly moral motivation and emotion. What has been taken for moral motivation is often instead a subtle form of egoism. Recent research provides co...

Background: Considering the religious and legal structures in Iran, the occurrence of euthanasia seems to be impossible; however, the attitude of nurses towards euthanasia and its related factors may also affect creating moral distress conditions for nurses. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate of the moral distress and attitude of Adult and Neonatal Intensive Care Units (AICU/ NICU) nurs...

Moral rationalization is an individual’s ability to reinterpret his or her immoral actions as, in fact, moral. It arises out of a conflict of motivations and a need to see the self as moral. This article presents a model of evil behavior demonstrating how situational factors that obscure moral relevance can interact with moral rationalization and lead to a violation of moral principles. Concept...