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Related Experiment Video

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The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

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What We Do When We Define Morality (And Why We Need to Do It).

¹University of California, Santa Cruz.

Psychological Inquiry

|March 11, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Defining morality is crucial for psychological research. This study proposes a new technical, psychological, and empirical definition to clarify research and advance moral psychology.

Keywords:

definitions meta-theory moral philosophy moral psychology

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Moral Psychology

Background:

Psychological research on morality lacks clear, consistent definitions.
Divergent, unstated definitions hinder theoretical progress and create intractable disagreements.

Purpose of the Study:

To highlight the importance of defining morality in psychological research.
To critically examine existing definitions (linguistic, functionalist, evaluating, normative).
To propose a novel, workable definition for moral psychology.

Main Methods:

Review and critique of four common approaches to defining morality.
Proposal of a new definition: obligatory concerns with others' welfare, rights, fairness, and justice, encompassing related psychological processes.

Main Results:

Existing definitions (linguistic, functionalist, evaluating, normative) face significant challenges.
A proposed technical, psychological, empirical, and distinctive definition offers a path forward.

Conclusions:

Clear definitions are essential for effective communication and collaboration in moral psychology.
A precise definition facilitates distinguishing definitional issues from empirical ones.
Adopting a shared definition can accelerate advancements in the field of moral psychology.