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JulianTheApostate 
Junior
Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 308
Gender: 
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 Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:33 am Post subject: Psychology of moral behavior
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The To what extent is moral behavior situational? thread is focusing on philosophical issues, which is fine. In this thread, let's discuss the psychological issues, which interest me more and which I found most thought-provoking when reading the book.
First, let me clarify what I mean by situational moral behavior. Most people would have different answers to the questions "Is it acceptable to attack someone who's minding their own business?" and "Is it acceptable to attack someone who's trying to kill you?" That's not what I'm talking about here. Instead, consider cases, such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and Abu Ghraib, in which participants did stuff that they would previously have considered immoral, even when told the context.
What does it say about moral behavior when, over the course of a few days, actions like those performed by the SPE guards can emerge? |
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seeker
I can enter The Chamber
Joined: 16 Oct 2007
Posts: 57
Gender: 
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:47 pm Post subject:
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JTA wrote:
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| What does it say about moral behavior when, over the course of a few days, actions like those performed by the SPE guards can emerge? |
While I no longer ascribe to the "blank slate" paradigm, this book certainly dramatizes the power of our institutions and their resultant situations in eliciting extreme behavior. It would appear that aggression is just beneath the surface of civilized behavior, waiting for anonymity, or permission of authority, or even submersion in a group, to emerge. While I don't find this intuitively obvious, the evidence seems compelling. Is our culture's preoccupation with heroes and villains blinding us to the communal sources and solutions to social ills? |
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Mr. Pessimistic
Assistant Professor
Silver Contributor
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 3480
Gender:
Location: NJ - www.myspace.com/mrpessimistic
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:05 pm Post subject:
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| seeker wrote: |
| ..would appear that aggression is just beneath the surface of civilized behavior, waiting for anonymity, or permission of authority, or even submersion in a group, to emerge. While I don't find this intuitively obvious, the evidence seems compelling. Is our culture's preoccupation with heroes and villains blinding us to the communal sources and solutions to social ills? |
Man...I find this intuitively obvious!! We are all capable of bad and good. Good wins mostly (and not consistantly throughout our history) because of a system/situation...that is civilization/moral codes we have developed!
Mr. P. |
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