Moral Characteristics Research Articles

Loyalty from a personal point of view: A cross-cultural prototype study of loyalty.

Loyalty is considered central to people's moral life, yet little is known about how people think about what it means to be loyal. We used a prototype approach to understand how loyalty is represented in Colombia and the United States and how these representations mediate attributions of loyalty and moral judgments of loyalty violations. Across seven studies (N = 1,984), we found cross-cultural similarities in the associative meaning of loyalty (Study 1) but found differences in the centrality of features associated with loyalty (Study 2) and the latent structure of loyalty representations (Study 3). Colombians represent loyalty in terms of more general moral characteristics, while U.S. participants represent loyalty in terms of interpersonal commitment, both in contrast with current approaches to loyalty. By comparing representations of loyalty and honesty, we establish that differences in loyalty conceptualizations reflect a different way of thinking about loyalty rather than morality more generally (Study 4). Further, Colombians attributed greater loyalty to individuals with general moral characteristics compared to participants from the U.S. sample (Study 5) and were more likely to classify nonloyal values as loyalty-related (Study 6). While the centrality of prototypical features predicts categorizing norm violations as loyalty-related, differences in prototypical structure account for differences in the severity of moral judgment for such violations (Study 7), which suggests that loyalty representations have similar functions, even though these representations differ in structural characteristics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining of Social-Emotional and Moral Characteristics of a Child with Williams Syndrome and a Typically Developing Peer

Introduction: This paper compared the social-emotional and moral developmental characteristics of a boy with Williams syndrome and a typically developing girl. Method: The sample consisted of two eighth graders and their mothers. Participants were recruited using purposive criterion sampling. This qualitative study adopted a holistic multiple-case design because it compared the interrelated social-emotional and moral developmental characteristics of two different profiles of children. Findings: Data were collected using the Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale (SECDS), semi-structured interview questions, spontaneous conversations, and observations. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, while the qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The results show that the boy with Williams syndrome is more successful than his typically developing peer in making plans and helping others, but less successful in making eye contact, making friends, and following rules in the absence of authority. The typically developing girl has better internal control in following rules, behaving politely and respectfully, and exhibiting moral behaviors because she wants to. The findings show that both children have relatively developed social-emotional and moral characteristics. Discussion: The fact that the boy with Williams syndrome was more successful in expressing his wants and needs, planning and organizing, helping, maintaining communication with strangers, and choosing positive behaviors compared to his typically developing peer; behaving according to people's opinions, having approval anxiety, making decisions, self-regulation, following rules in the absence of authority, peer relations, adaptation, understanding people's feelings, and having difficulty in distinguishing good and bad intentions were in line with the literature. The fact that the typically developing girl exhibited more extreme social actions such as initiating communication; making eye contact for a long time; apologizing for misbehaviors; following rules with internal control and exhibiting positive behaviors provided different information from the literature. These results provide a new and different perspective to the results that children with Williams syndrome exhibit more social behaviors than their typically developing peers.

Determining general and specific subject matters of proving in cases on establishing child’s place of residence

The scientific article is focused on studying the topical issue of determining the general and specific subject matters of proving in cases on establishing child’s place of residence. It has been noted that the number of family disputes on establishing children’s place of residence has increased due to the ongoing armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The author of the article has proved that the correct definition of the subject matter of proving in cases on establishing child’s place of residence has important practical and theoretical significance. The author of the work supports the position of scholars (Ya. M. Sadykov and others) regarding the possibility of distinguishing the general subject matter of proving within a specific category of civil cases and the specific subject matter of proving depending on the circumstances of a certain civil case. Determining the general subject matter of proving in cases on establishing child’s place of residence it is necessary to ensure the best interests of a child (preamble to the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Childhood”). The author of the article has supported the conclusion (V.O. Kucher) about the possibility of distinguishing the following general subject matter of proving in cases on establishing child’s place of residence: the circumstances characterizing the parties in the case (personal and moral characteristics of a mother and a father, availability of permanent income, proper living conditions, etc.). Characteristics that can negatively affect the upbringing of a child, as well as establishment of his / her place of residence, can be: abuse of alcoholic beverages, narcotic substances, being under dispensary supervision, being brought to criminal or administrative liability, immoral behavior, bad habits; relations between parents and a child (fulfilment by parents of duties defined by law; mutual understanding between each parent and a child; the possibility of creating proper and safe conditions for a child’s life, upbringing, development and education); circumstances related to a child (age of a child, his / her health status, special needs of a child, consent of a child to live with one of the parents, personal loyalty of a child to each of the parents); other circumstances that are important for the case. The author of the work has concluded that the specific subject matter of proving depends on the circumstances of a certain civil case.

Antagonistic but holier than thou: Antagonistic people think they are (way) better-than-average on moral character.

Although clinical psychologists have long speculated that antagonistic individuals may lack insight into their moral deficits, some evidence has shown that more (vs. less) antagonistic people view moral traits as somewhat desirable and rate themselves as lower on moral characteristics (suggestive of some insight). But, we suggest that antagonistic people's struggles with insight can be detected as part of a basic social-cognitive bias that entails believing the self is better-than-average on socially desirable characteristics (i.e., the "better-than-average effect" [BTAE]). Specifically, although antagonistic people may rate themselves lower on moral characteristics than less antagonistic people, they may still believe that their relative standing on moral characteristics compares favorably to others. Participants (N = 515) completed indicators of the Dark Tetrad (D4) constructs (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and rated themselves in relation to others on moral and immoral character traits. Overall, participants exhibited very large BTAEs (i.e., rated the self as "better-than-average" on moral character traits); only psychopathy and sadism consistently related negatively to BTAEs, but people with elevations in each D4 construct (or any D4 facet) still exhibited large-to-very-large BTAEs. Such antagonistic participants viewed themselves as possessing substantially greater amounts of moral than immoral character traits but viewed average others as possessing an equal mix of these traits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

PUNISHMENT AS A SOCIO-CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL-MORAL PHENOMENON

Purpose. The article is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of punishment as a complex phenomenon of reality, which combines the most important postulates of the development and improvement of personality, society and the state, based on cultural values and norms. It acts as an important regulator of the external and internal components of human behavior in society, bearing moral guidelines – the dignity of personality, humanism, justice, mercy. Tasks. The author has to identify socio-cultural and spiritual and moral features in the phenomenon of punishment by understanding the value-normative component of society when applying negative sanctions to the violator (mutual transition from social to cultural, the use of the Talion principle and the Golden Rule of Morality). Methodology. The basis of the presented research is formed by comparative, phenomenological, cultural and philosophical research methods that allow us to reveal the essence and features of the interdisciplinary nature of the phenomenon of punishment in the diversity and multidimensional nature of its underlying values and norms. Results. The results of the work are that the author comes to the conclusion that the phenomenon of punishment contains spiritual, moral and socio-cultural elements. At the interdisciplinary level, it is possible to address the deep foundations of the external and internal behavioral act of a person manifested in society. The scope of the results. The results of the study can be applied in the field of socio-political design and forecasting.

ДЕВИАЦИИ ОБЛИКА НАЧАЛЬСТВУЮЩЕГО СОСТАВА РККА (ВТОРАЯ ПОЛОВИНА 1920-Х ГГ.)

The article examines the suicides of the commanding officers of the Red Army in the second half of the 1920s as a very specific and painful symptom of the breakdown of the old and the formation of a new society in general and the folding of its military-corporate structure in particular. This problem is one of the characteristic and poorly studied indicators of the social and moral characteristics and attitudes of military personnel in the conditions of post-war psychological trauma, radical social transformations, political struggle, new economic policy and the consequences of the "military reform of the USSR". The causes, motives and specifics of the official, material, everyday, value, emotional and even medical conditions of the Red Army servicemen have been identified, systematized and analyzed. Special attention is paid to the commanding staff, including former officers as bearers of military traditions and shortcomings of the old Russian army during the formation of continuity with the Red Army. His office and home psychological microclimate during the period under study was characterized by serious lability and deviations, which adversely affected both the purely military sphere and the general socio-political well-being. The bulk of the sources used are represented by archival documents, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Legal basis for the use of covert means

Aim: The use of covert means is any information gathering intelligence operation (secret police activity) in which the authorised authorities of the State seek to obtain new knowledge in the course of administrative and criminal proceedings without the knowledge of the holder of the information, by limiting the right of self-determination. In dictatorships, this form of exercise of state power is also dominated by arbitrariness. Constitutional states place the use of secret means on a public law basis. This study aims to demonstrate that it is possible to regulate acts of public authority that are at the heart of secrecy by means of legal instruments whose core is publicity. Methodology: The objective outlined above can only be achieved if the dogmatic and moral characteristics of the legislation are harmonised with the specific characteristics of the secret police. The task is not easy. Legislation is always about the future and is always based on abstract prognosis; covert intelligence aims to discover the past, the present and the future, and the knowledge to be acquired is always unique and concrete. Finidings: The abstract nature of the regulation and the uniqueness of the intelligence operation resolve the contradiction between publicity and secrecy. What is public is the rule, what is secret is the application of the rule to a specific situation. However, legislation can become fully formalised when it no longer imposes limits on the operation of state power, but merely authorises it, opening the way to free discretion. In such a case, the guise of legality conceals an untrammelled power. Value: Law that serves humanity is an effective means of preserving social order. Secret data-collection requires a limitation of rights, yet it is indispensable to combat violations (principle of necessity), provided that it does not cause more serious harm than the threat against which it is used (principle of proportionality).

Legal basis for the use of covert means

Aim: The use of covert means is any information gathering intelligence operation (secret police activity) in which the authorised authorities of the State seek to obtain new knowledge in the course of administrative and criminal proceedings without the knowledge of the holder of the information, by limiting the right of self-determination. In dictatorships, this form of exercise of state power is also dominated by arbitrariness. Constitutional states place the use of secret means on a public law basis. This study aims to demonstrate that it is possible to regulate acts of public authority that are at the heart of secrecy by means of legal instruments whose core is publicity. Methodology: The objective outlined above can only be achieved if the dogmatic and moral characteristics of the legislation are harmonised with the specific characteristics of the secret police. The task is not easy. Legislation is always about the future and is always based on abstract prognosis; covert intelligence aims to discover the past, the present and the future, and the knowledge to be acquired is always unique and concrete. Finidings: The abstract nature of the regulation and the uniqueness of the intelligence operation resolve the contradiction between publicity and secrecy. What is public is the rule, what is secret is the application of the rule to a specific situation. However, legislation can become fully formalised when it no longer imposes limits on the operation of state power, but merely authorises it, opening the way to free discretion. In such a case, the guise of legality conceals an untrammelled power. Value: Law that serves humanity is an effective means of preserving social order. Secret data-collection requires a limitation of rights, yet it is indispensable to combat violations (principle of necessity), provided that it does not cause more serious harm than the threat against which it is used (principle of proportionality).

Toward an Ethics of AI Belief

In this paper we, an epistemologist and a machine learning scientist, argue that we need to pursue a novel area of philosophical research in AI – the ethics of belief for AI. Here we take the ethics of belief to refer to a field at the intersection of epistemology and ethics concerned with possible moral, practical, and other non-truth-related dimensions of belief. In this paper we will primarily be concerned with the normative question within the ethics of belief regarding what agents – both human and artificial – ought to believe, rather than with questions concerning whether beliefs meet certain evaluative standards such as being true, being justified, constituting knowledge, etc. We suggest four topics in extant work in the ethics of (human) belief that can be applied to an ethics of AI belief: doxastic wronging by AI (morally wronging someone in virtue of beliefs held about them); morally owed beliefs (beliefs that agents are morally obligated to hold); pragmatic and moral encroachment (cases where the practical or moral features of a belief is relevant to its epistemic status, and in our case specifically to whether an agent ought to hold the belief); and moral responsibility for AI beliefs. We also indicate two relatively nascent areas of philosophical research that haven’t yet been generally recognized as ethics of AI belief research, but that do fall within this field of research in virtue of investigating various moral and practical dimensions of belief: the epistemic and ethical decolonization of AI; and epistemic injustice in AI.

MORAL NORMS OF THE ARISTOCRATIC ENVIRONMENT OF THE BABUR ERA

The main purpose of the article is to identify the moral features of the religious environment of Babur’s era and its influence on the formation and further development of the spiritual world of the young people. Studying a rich national culture as well as deeply study of the history of the spiritual life of the Uzbek and the Central Asian people as a whole which will allow us to use that valuable and the best expertise which has been accumulated in the culture of the past.

Moral underpinnings of accounting for nature in the global North

PurposeEnvironmental philosophies have guided cultures throughout history and continue to do so. This paper uses a framework of environmental philosophies drawn from history and the present, to analyse contemporary corporate environmental reporting. The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the philosophical underpinnings of corporate reporting allows for a nuanced understanding of the relationship between corporate activities and nature, and in so doing demonstrates the moral practices of accounting for nature.Design/methodology/approachThree themes are extracted from a historical review of western environmental philosophy: dualism, transcendence and interconnectivity. These themes are applied to a sample of corporate environmental reports through discourse analysis, enabling the illustration of otherwise obscured moral characteristics of the corporate relationship with the natural environment.FindingsThis paper uses environmental philosophies to better understand some of the implicit messaging of corporate environmental reporting. Evidence of each of the three themes is found in a sample of environmental reports, predominantly dualism and interconnectivity.Research limitations/implicationsUnderstanding that accounting is not just a technical, but also a social and moral practice expands the way the authors can interpret the outcomes of accounting. By presenting an exemplar of how accounting practice such as the corporate sustainability report can be analysed through a moral lens, this paper offers new insights intentioned to inform a more meaningful approach to environmental reporting.Originality/valueA novel framework to explore the corporate sector’s relationship with the natural environment is presented. In light of current and predicted environmental changes, much of which has been attributed to the impact of corporate activities, the importance of a detailed explication of this relationship – such as the one proposed here – becomes imperative.

Evolving belief and being human: The emergence of religion in science and theology

Every human society as well as almost all human life is infused with ethics. There is common acknowledgement that morality and ethics are indispensable in addressing the serious global challenges humanity is faced with today. However, we seemed to have lost our grip on what morality is. How do we best understand human morality and ethics? This research argues that responsible ethics rests on a credible understanding of what it means to be human. The following exploration of the emergence of religion within the science and religion discourse formed part of a series of three seminars that have as their main objective to address a giant void regarding ethical and moral reflection within our society. This research was part of the discourse of the first seminar with the following main research question: What do we learn from the empirical study of morality (in the evolutionary sciences, the neurosciences, cultural anthropology, sociology, and moral psychology) about the sources, functions and characteristics of morality, and its relation to religion? This study offers an exploration of our capacity for religious awareness and belief against the background of niche construction theory. The capacity for imagination seems to have contributed to human evolutionary success and consequently our religious disposition. This transdisciplinary study combines perspectives of some of the most prominent interlocutors in the contemporary discourse on the emergence of religious awareness. By integrating the numerous perspectives evident in this study, this research explores how evolutionary thought can be constructively appropriated to interdisciplinary theology and ethics.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article explores the origin of religious awareness and belief as part of a larger discourse on morality in history. The interdisciplinary conversation covers the fields of evolutionary anthropology and theology within the contemporary science-theology discourses.

Singapore nurses’ perception of professional identity

Introduction: Nurses’ professional identity is important for their career orientation and clinical practice. This study explored Singaporean nurses’ perceptions of professional identity. The results provide an understanding of how guided learning and reflection could help nurses in their professional identity formation and development. Methods: Using an exploratory descriptive qualitative research study and purposive sampling by researchers teaching in the programme, 64 Registered Nurses with a diploma qualification pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Nursing programme in Singapore were invited to participate. They responded to open ended survey questions online, which were analysed using a thematic analysis. Ethical approval was obtained. Results: All 64 first year students were invited to participate at the start of the module and upon the completion. The response rates were 94% and 81% respectively. Two overarching themes – “nurses as professionals with knowledge and moral character” and “the construction of professional identity” - emerged from the data. Conclusion: The nurses perceived their professional nursing identity as a construct comprised of knowledge and moral characteristics, which is consistent with international literature. A professional nursing identity, relationships with other healthcare professionals, patients and confidence in practice were all interrelated. Guided reflection and discussion on clinical experiences and social interactions helped students become aware of their professional identity and responsibilities. Such purposive educational effort needs to be started early and supported through the students’ educational journey into clinical practice. Keywords: Professional Identity of Nursing, Singapore Nurses, Image of Nursing, Social Perception of Nursing in Singapore, Nurse Education

Detecting Moral Features in TV Series with a Transformer Architecture through Dictionary-Based Word Embedding

Moral features are essential components of TV series, helping the audience to engage with the story, exploring themes beyond sheer entertainment, reflecting current social issues, and leaving a long-lasting impact on the viewers. Their presence shows through the language employed in the plot description. Their detection helps regarding understanding the series writers’ underlying message. In this paper, we propose an approach to detect moral features in TV series. We rely on the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) framework to classify moral features and use the associated MFT dictionary to identify the words expressing those features. Our approach combines that dictionary with word embedding and similarity analysis through a deep learning SBERT (Sentence-Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) architecture to quantify the comparative prominence of moral features. We validate the approach by applying it to the definition of the MFT moral feature labels as appearing in general authoritative dictionaries. We apply our technique to the summaries of a selection of TV series representative of several genres and relate the results to the actual content of each series, showing the consistency of results.

Morality in Moderation: Profiles of Moral Self and Behavioral Problems Among Children

ABSTRACT Middle childhood marks an important phase for moral and social-emotional development, yet little research has focused on a combined focus within this age range. A person-centered research approach could capture the complex co-development of the moral self and behavior problems. We thus sought to determine exploratively what emergent subgroups/profiles exist when examining combinations of moral self, emotional, conduct and peer problems in middle childhood. For the study, we recruited 369 children aged five to eleven (M age = 8.19, SD age = 1.30) in Germany. Children completed a questionnaire to assess their moral self (i.e. ascribed importance of moral characteristics), and their parents/caregivers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Using cluster analytic strategies, three profiles were identified. Profile 1 (high moral/high problems) comprised children exhibiting high moral self, emotional problems, peer problems, and average conduct problems (24.12%). Profile 2 (low moral/high problems) included children with low moral self and high emotional, peer, and conduct problems (14.91%). Profile 3 (moderate moral/low problems) encompassed children with average moral self and lower emotional, peer, and conduct problems (60.98%). We discuss the findings and note that future research should strive for a comprehensive understanding of children’s social-emotional and moral development, considering the intricate interplay between moral self and behavior problems.

The Problem with Preparing to Kill in Self‐Defense

ABSTRACTIn a society marked by liberal gun ownership laws, and an increasingly militarized police force, how should we think about cases where a homeowner shoots a person who has mistakenly knocked on the wrong door, or where a police officer shoots someone who is unarmed? The general tendency – by shooters, courts, and many observers – is to use the framework of self‐defense. However, as I will argue, relying on the framework of self‐defense is inappropriate in these cases, because theories of self‐defensive killing are built up around a very specific type of case, namely, a random, sudden, one‐off encounter between roughly equally matched strangers. When a person who acts in self‐defense has undertaken certain preparations to kill in self‐defense – such as buying a gun, or undergoing certain kinds of training – they transform what would have been defensive violence into offensive violence. But because the self‐defense framework distinguishes only between defensive and aggressive violence, it cannot easily register the unique moral features of offensive violence. Relying on the self‐defense framework, then, produces judgments that are overly permissive of killings by gun owners and police, masking them as self‐defensive when in fact they are much more morally fraught.

Characteristics of the subject of official forgery: based on the analysis of law enforcement practice

The article examines the views of various scholars on the definition of the subject of a criminal offense in general and the elements of forgery in particular. The author analyzes the report of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine for 2019-2022 on the commission of a criminal offense under Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author examines, among other things, socio-demographic, socio­role, moral, psychological and criminal law features of the personality structure of a criminal committing forgery. An attempt is made to identify the main features inherent in the subject of this criminal offense. The main attention is paid to the construction of his criminological portrait and determination of the functional relevance of such information.
 In the study of the characteristic features inherent in the subject of criminal forgery, an important place is given to the personality structure of the offender who commits this crime. This structure is a set of his/her socially significant qualities that have developed in the process of various interactions with other people. The analysis of the characteristic features of such a person also involves the maximum consideration of psychological characteristics and biologically determined qualities, which in turn determine human behavior, including criminal behavior. Therefore, it should be taken into account that these qualities have a significant impact on criminal behavior. Thus, the subject of forgery is characterized by a system of signs, properties, qualities that define him/her as a person who has committed a criminal offense.
 The author provides a criminological and socio-psychological characterization of the subject of forgery, analyzes the demographic, moral and social characteristics of such a person, as well as his/ her anti-social criminal behavior, and provides a substantiation of the socio-psychological portrait of a criminal who commits a criminal offense under Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Such a person is also characterized by a certain system of moral and psychological beliefs, properties, attitudes, intellectual, emotional and volitional qualities. Given the above, the characterization of an official as part of this criminal offense has specific features that are determined by the peculiar official status of such a person and significantly distinguish it from the general characterization of the subject of the criminal offense.

Istinbath Method in Strengthening Ultra Qui Judicial Principles in Judicial Decisions

<em><span>the method of Istinbath is necessary to support the principle of Ultra Qui Judicat, enabling judges to possess moral characteristics in considering not only knowledge and reason but also Islamic law when making legal decisions. Overall, the significance of the Istinbath method in supporting the principle of Ultra Qui Judicat is paramount, especially in addressing contemporary and empirical issues not governed by legislative regulations. The aim of this research are : explain the concept of Istinbath and Ultra Qui Judicat influence the judge's decisions and the application of the Istinbath method used to reinforce the principle of Ultra Qui Judicat to judicial decisions. The result shows that The method of Istinbath is closely related to the principle of Ultra Qui Judicat since both share the same objective of achieving justice. In practice, judges can use the method of Istinbath to interpret the law and apply the principle of Ultra Qui Judicat in criminal cases. The principle of Ultra Qui Judicat and the method of Istinbath are essential instruments for judges in the criminal justice system to achieve justice in decision-making</span></em>

Методическое сопровождение детей с ОВЗ. Планировщик «Хранитель времени»

In this article the author presents the development of the planner "Time Keeper", aimed at the formation of children (including children with disabilities with visual impairment) the skill of effective planning. She notes the need to teach preschool children the basics of planning in order to form integrative qualities, moral characteristics of personality, the ability to learn, readiness for selfchange, self-development, self-education. The uniqueness of this manual is that all kinds of systems are involved: visual, auditory, kinesthetic. The purpose of the article is to present the originality of the development to the pedagogical community, as well as to confirm its modernity and relevance at the scientific level.

DEONTOLOGY OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF A SOCIAL WORKER

The article defines social deontology as the science about the professional duty, moral and ethical features of a specialist in the social area. Deontological preparedness acts as a comprehensive qualitative feature of the general professional preparedness of a social worker. The author reveals the content of the deontological preparedness of a social worker, including not only knowledge, abilities, skills, competence, but also the developed personal qualities that ensure proper professional activities.