Essays
-
Moral Identity - Hardy, Sam A.
This essay reviews theory and research on moral identity. The construct emerged roughly three decades ago in moral psychology as a possible motivational factor that could link moral judgments to moral actions. Moral identity is, generally speaking, the extent to which being a moral person is important to a person's identity. However, it has been conceptualized and measured in various ways. In this essay, conceptualizations of moral identity, as well as foundational empirical research on moral identity development and links between moral identity and behavior, are reviewed. Little is known about moral identity development, but moral identity has fairly consistently been found predictive of moral action using a variety of research methods. In addition, cutting‐edge research on new areas of theory is highlighted, and promising directions for future research are outlined. Cutting‐edge work deals with new ways to conceptualize and measure moral identity, mechanisms of influence, links to broader outcomes, situational variation in moral identity, and implicit aspects of moral identity. Promising future directions are expanding on these emerging directions, as well as looking at developmental processes, cultural variability, and the role of relationships. -
The Roots of Moral Reasoning and Behavior in Infants - Kiley Hamlin, J.
Recent findings suggest that toddlers and infants engage in prosocial behaviors and evaluate potential social partners based on their morally relevant social acts. Together, this evidence suggests that some foundational aspects of human morality may stem from universal and unlearned features of the human mind. That is, despite the clear role of learning processes in much of moral development, basic motivations to cooperate with and help others, as well as an ability to judge third parties based on their prosocial and antisocial acts, may underlie and constrain those processes. Here, we review the current state of the literature on these topics and point to important remaining issues and future directions. -
Understanding the Adaptive Functions of Morality from a Cognitive Psychological Perspective - Dungan, James
What are the possible functions of moral cognition? Addressing this question has proved difficult, leading to disagreement among moral psychologist. Researchers claiming that morality is composed of many distinct domains have posited multiple functions, whereas researchers focusing on the features that are unique to and common across all moral judgments have suggested a unified evolutionary function. In this review, we suggest that the limitations of these accounts can be overcome by systematically investigating the cognitive mechanisms that support moral judgments across descriptively distinct domains. As a case study, we focus on the contrast between harm and purity morals, and we argue for a novel functional difference on the basis of differences in the underlying psychological processes. Understanding the psychology behind distinct morals will pave the way for understanding the distinct functions of moral cognition.