Schedule and Readings
Week 1: Doing Morality: The First Person Perspective
Day 1: Introduction (Monday, 7/20)
9:00 - 12:00: You Are Here. In this first morning session the instructors will introduce themselves and their trajectory to give some context for the course. Then they will present a historical survey of moral psychology, from the Kohlbergian decades to today, with an emphasis on the 2001 turning point when social psychology really started embracing the study of morality. You are expected to have read closely the Haidt Psychological Review, as well as our paper in Review of General Psychology, and come ready to discuss both.
Readings:
- Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834.
- Monin, B., Pizarro, D., & Beer, J. (2007). Deciding vs. reacting: Conceptions of moral judgment and the reason-affect debate. Review of General Psychology, 11(2), 99-111.
1:30 - 3:00: Getting to know your peers. The first afternoon session will give you a chance to introduce yourself to the the rest of the class and to learn a bit about them in turn. You don’t need to prepare anything, but expect to say a few brief words about your research interests and trajectory.
Day 2 (Tuesday, 7/21)
9:30 - 12:00: Feeling Moral: Moral Character and Self-Image
Readings:
- Mazar, N., Amir, O., and Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance, Journal of Marketing Research, 45, 633-644.
- Batson, C. D. (2011). What’s wrong with morality? Emotion Review, 3(3), 230-236.
- Monin, B., & Jordan, A.H.(2009). The dynamic moral self: A social psychological perspective. Chapter 15 (pp.341-354) in D. Narvaez & D.K. Lapsley (Eds), Personality, Identity, and Character: Explorations in Moral Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press. [We are asking you to read this to place the social psych approach within the context of other possible approaches to moral identity.]
- Sherman, D.K., & Cohen, G.L. (2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. In M.P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 183-242). New York: Academic Press. [esp. pp. 183-189 , 201-202, 213-229]
1:00 - 3:00: Teaching (Business) Ethics - In the evening, the Summer School is putting together a panel on the job market. Related to this, we thought it would be valuable to discuss with this group our experiences teaching ethics as psychologists at the undergraduate, PhD, and professional level (as well as to older adults), and discuss the implications for the study of morality. The broader question is to define the questions we are trying to answer and to discuss the best research strategies to be able to give practical recommendations. What can moral psych contribute to the teaching of ethics? How much of moral life is best explained by moral psych (as opposed to more general processes)?
Day 3 (Wednesday, 7/22)
9:30 - 12:00: Acting Moral: Following Goals and Values / Moral Regulation
Readings:
- Fishbach A, Zhang Y, Koo M. 2009. The dynamics of self-regulation. European Review of Social Psychology. 20: 315-44
- Janoff-Bulman, R., Sheikh, S., & Hepp, S. (2009). Proscriptive vs. prescriptive morality: Two faces of moral regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(3), 521-537.
- Merritt, A., Effron, D., & Monin, B. (2010). Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4/5, 344-357.
Note: We have added the Annual Review paper on Licensing vs. Consistency (Mullen & Monin) in additional readings.
1:00 - 3:00: Hanging out with philosophers. Moral psychology is unique in its potential engagement with colleagues from philosophy who may have very different disciplinary backgrounds, evidentiary rules, and goals. In this session we will discuss engaging philosophers, teaching with philosophers, reading philosophical works, and for one of us at least, running a podcast with a philosopher. What are the promises and limits of these exchanges? What can moral psych contribute to philosophical ethics and vice versa?
Day 4 (Thursday, 7/23)
9:30 - 12:00: In-class activity.
Readings:
Kiatpongsan, S. & Norton, M. Spreading the Health: Americans’ Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)
1:00 - 3:00: Guest - Mike Norton, Harvard Business School. He will visit with us to discuss recent work. Our goal is to make this an informal exchange rather than a formal talk, so we will distribute a recent paper or draft to jump-start our discussion.
Week II: Judging Others: Character, Blame, and Responsibility
Day 5 (Monday, 7/27)
9:30 - 12:00: Character, Blame, and Responsibility
Readings:
- Malle, B. F., Guglielmo, S., & Monroe, A. E. (2014). A theory of blame. Psychological Inquiry, 25(2), 147-186.
- Uhlmann, E. L., Pizarro, D. A., & Diermeier, D. (2015). A Person-Centered Approach to Moral Judgment. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 72-81.
- Uhlmann, E.L., Zhu, L., & Tannenbaum, D. (2013). When it takes a bad person to do the right thing. Cognition, 126, 326-334.
1:30 - 4:00: Group project meeting (1)
Day 6 (Tuesday, 7/28)
9:30 - 12:00: Character in Person Perception, Personal Identity, and Legal Blame
Readings:
- Strohminger, N., & Nichols, S. (2014). The essential moral self. Cognition, 131, 159-171.
- Nadler, J. (2012). Blaming as a Social Process: The Influence of Character and Moral Emotion on Blame. Law and Contemporary Problems, 75(2), 1-31.
- Goodwin, G. P., Piazza, J., & Rozin, P. (2014). Moral character predominates in person perception and evaluation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 106(1), 148.
1:30 - 4:00: Group project meeting (2)
Day 7 (Wednesday, 7/29)
9:30 - 12:00: Harm, Purity, and Intentionality
Readings:
- Chakroff, A., Young, L. (in press). How the Mind Matters for Morality. American Journal of Bioethics: Neuroscience. 6, 41–46.
- Chakroff, A., & Young, L. (2015). Harmful situations, impure people: An attribution asymmetry across moral domains. Cognition, 136, 30-37.
1:30 - 4:00: Guest : Liane Young, Psychology, Boston College. Liane is a rising star in moral psychology who uses a range of methods to cast light on issues at the core of moral phenomenon.
Day 8 (Thursday, 7/30)
9:30 - 11:00: Moral Judgment in Everyday Life
Readings:
Hofmann, W., Wisneski, D. C., Brandt, M. J., & Skitka, L. J. (2014). Morality in everyday life. Science, 345(6202), 1340-1343.
11:00-12:00 Group Prep
1:30 - 4:00: Group Presentations Pt. 1