The relationship between normative convictions, sexual behaviour and personality. In order to fill the gap of knowledge regarding sexuality in South Africa, the sexual attitudes and behaviour of 95 Afrikaans-speaking undergraduate psychology students were investigated by means of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, the Mosher Sex-Guilt subscale and a combined biographical and attitude questionnaire. The study concentrated on the relationship between normative convictions, personality factors and sexual behaviour. Most respondents reported a fair degree of intimacy in their relationships, while one third had already had premarital sexual experience. Although respondents expressed predominantly negative sexual attitudes, they expected men to be more promiscuous than women. No difference in males•and females• experience of intimacy in relationships and sexual experience could be indicated. Although the respondents were predominantly religious, the female respondents were more religiously inclined than the male respondents. The religious convictions of the respondents were strong enough to influence their sexual attitudes. On the behavioural level sexually inexperienced respondents were more involved with church activities and those with fewer sex partners also expressed strong religious convictions. No connection between the personality factor extraversion and any form of pro-sexuality could be indicated. Socially undesirable personality factors were, however, identified as predictors of positive sexual attitudes. Elements in Ajzen•s theory of reasoned behaviour correlated positively with sexual attitudes. This model was also found to be suitable for the prediction of sexual attitudes. The opinion of the father and members of the peer group, as well as the expectation of positive consequences, among others, was identified as predictors of positive attitudes while the opinion of the parson, grandparents and lecturers was rejected, Respondents with many sex partners not only expected positive consequences, but because of social sanctions they valued the reverend's opinion highly and expressed negative emotional set towards sexuality. Although Ajzen•s model often explained a high proportion of the variance in the dependent variables. it is clear that variables other than those included in this model, like sexual guilt, greatly contribute to the explanation of variance in both sexual attitudes and behaviour. / MA, PU vir CHO, 1992

Moral outrage is an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral response to moral violations, resulting in a desire to punish the transgressor. Previous research has examined moral outrage toward transgressive behaviors, but no studies have examined the potential for moral outrage to be roused by another’s beliefs alone. Do people experience moral outrage at one another’s thoughts? If so, how do they punish someone who has roused their outrage but has “done nothing wrong”? In Study 1 (n = 209), I examined moral outrage reactions at people’s unacceptable beliefs on three topics (pedophilia, sexual assault, fraud) by comparing moral outrage elicited by people holding an indefensible belief (e.g., “sexual assault is no big deal”) but doing absolutely nothing to express or further that belief, versus people acting on these beliefs to various degrees (e.g., talking about it on social media, or assaulting someone themselves). Results indicated that people can become morally outraged at outrageous beliefs alone, and to a similar degree as at actual outrageous behaviors. In Study 2 (n = 327), I investigated whether the pattern would generalize from extreme beliefs most people would find outrageous to ideologically divided issues. Specifically, I examined the consequences of experiencing moral outrage when the target’s beliefs violated participants’ own moral convictions about abortion rights. Study 2 also investigated how participants punished the transgressor in a workplace setting, which is consequential and relevant to the fraught current political climate. Participants read a hypothetical male co-worker’s controversial and outrageous Facebook post, rated their feelings of moral outrage at the co-worker, and finally indicated how likely they would be to punish the co-worker directly (e.g., confrontation), indirectly (e.g., exclusion), or by avoiding him. Transgressive beliefs not only elicited more moral outrage when compared to control conditions, but transgressive beliefs elicited moral outrage to a similar degree as transgressive behaviors. Further, moral outrage at both beliefs and actions encouraged people to be more punitive toward the transgressor in direct ways (as seen in previous research), but also in indirect ways (such as social exclusion) or just by avoiding the transgressor. Finally, across both studies, I also found that participants’ intellectual humility (i.e., the degree to which a person recognizes that their beliefs and attitudes might be incorrect) predicted the intensity of their moral outrage: the intellectually humble reported overall lower levels of moral outrage than the intellectually arrogant. Implications for these findings for workplace discrimination and the study of moral outrage are discussed.

<p> In this thesis I attempt to clarify the nature and limits of the Socratic elenchus in order to determine whether or not it is capable of justifying moral knowledge as Socrates understood it. To this end, I first compare and contrast the elenchus with previous philosophical methods. I then argue that Socrates conceived of moral knowledge as expert knowledge of virtue by way of definition. Finally, I analyze the elenchus itself, and I argue: (i) that it is, in principle, capable of adequately justifying positive convictions about virtue, but only in those cases where Socrates makes no use of premises which are either logically unsecured with.in the demonstration or which lack justification from external, nonelenctic sources (ad hoc premises) ; and (ii) that since Socrates often proclaims elenctic success despite using ad hoc premises, I conclude that his lack of epistemological and logical interest led him to habitually overestimate the results of his arguments.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Studier har visat att mäns våld mot kvinnor upplevs som mer allvarligt och bedöms hårdare i jämförelse med kvinnligt våld. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka om gärningsmannens kön och bakgrund påverkade empatin för gärningsmannen och våldshandlingens allvarlighetsgrad. Undersökningen utfördes på en högskola i Mellansverige samt inom hemvården i samma kommun. Fyra fiktiva vinjetter användes där gärningsmannens kön och bakgrund (tidigare dom/ingen tidigare dom) skiljde dem åt. Antal respondenter var totalt 186 varav 49 män. Resultaten av enkäterna analyserades med hjälp av ANOVOR och t-test och visade att manliga gärningsmäns våldshandlingar bedömdes allvarligare samt att det upplevdes mindre empati för dem jämfört med kvinnliga gärningsmän. Gärningsmannens bakgrund hade inte någon effekt på vare sig empati eller allvarlighetsbedömning Studiens resultat överensstämmer med tidigare forskning och slutsatsen blev att manligt våld anses vara mer allvarligt än kvinnligt.

Research by Abelson (1986) suggests that people’s strong beliefs and convictions are like dear possessions, subsequently not easily abandoned and something the holder tends to fight for. This qualitative study aims at gaining increased understanding concerning conceptualization and psychological mechanisms related to strong beliefs and how the strong belief is manifested and expressed in the holder’s self-image and identity. Five holders of strong beliefs were interviewed, ensuing analyze following the principle of thematic framework. Six super ordinate themes were found to stand out as significantly important in the origin, conceptualization and preservation of a person’s strong belief: Belief; a legacy, Self-image and Identity, The Value-expressive function, In-group- and out-group-bias, Cognitive and emotional dissonance when acting against belief, Perceiving it as impossible to abandon a belief. The “Deliberative discussion” was presented as an important tool possibly empowering people with a less biased approach towards opposing information.

Abstract There is a general perception that women are victims and men are the perpetrators of sexual offense. Female perpetrators of sexual crimes have been neglected in the research literature, because female sex offenders do not live up to preconceptions of female as motherly and caring. Females tend to be responsible for a very small portion of all crimes and are estimated to account for 1-2% of all sexual offenses. Theories use to discuss female sex offending include neutralization of behavior, mental health and feminist theory. The aim of the present study was to describe female sex offenders and examine the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim by analyzing court judgments. Convictions ( N=22) from the Swedish district courts, where female convicted of sexual crimes in accordance with legislation on sexual crimes during the years 2008-2013 were examined. Significantly more females (82%) denied the offenses they were charged off. The majority of the perpetrators had a relationship with the victims and carried out their crimes with a male accomplice. Of the 27 sexual crimes perpetrated, 63% of the victims were under 18 years old and were primarily female. Most women in this study were given a sanction of a non-custodial nature. Female sex offenders are a relatively unexplored group of sexual offense perpetrators. They do exist and sexual offending causes a great deal of harm to victims and society, so it is worth studying. Keywords: Female perpetrator, female criminals, sexual crimes, convictions, female.

The death penalty has had many regulations placed since its first use in America to make the process more equitable, but people are still being wrongfully sentenced to die. Using a data set of 139 exonerations over a period from 1980 to 2021, the current study examined some prominent factors in wrongful death penalty convictions and how these factors have changed or endured over time. The major findings revealed that racial disparity still exists in the legal process, but it is declining. Exonerees are more likely to have three or more contributing factors (perjury or false accusation, official misconduct, false or misleading forensic evidence, et cetera) in their wrongful death penalty convictions. Official misconduct and perjury or false accusation are by far the most common reasons for a wrongful conviction. The current study also found that often, DNA is not available to test or is simply not being tested, and there is a downward trend overall in the amount of DNA testing being done. Recommendations for further improvements are discussed.

Moral outrage is an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral response to moral violations, resulting in a desire to punish the transgressor. Previous literature on moral outrage was limited in its examination of cognitive components and in the consideration of potential sources of moral outrage beyond transgressive behaviors. Through two studies, I addressed (a) cognitions and judgements integral to moral outrage, and (b) how different sources of moral outrage impacted overall moral outrage, as well as its cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components. In Study 1, I examined a literature-derived list of 42 cognitions and judgements about the transgressor in response to a morally outrageous news story. Using EFA and SEM models, I narrowed down and supported four subscales of potential cognitions related to moral outrage: judgements that the transgressor was Villainous, Intentional, Uncaring, and Harmful. Each subscale was internally consistent, though only Villainous and Intentional subscales were found to be uniquely and consistently predictive of moral outrage. In Study 2, I manipulated the moral outrage source in several scenarios presented as fictional news article about a YouTube star and his involvement with a disturbing viral video, following a 4 (moral outrage source: action, belief, affiliation, control) X 3 (topic: physical assault, zoophilia, stealing tips) design. Results showed a complex relationship between the moral outrage source and the strength of moral outrage, as well as each of its components. Interaction effects of source x topic also impacted multiple variables, where the pattern between each source condition differed depending on which vignette topic the participant had read. Broadly speaking, there were mixed results as to whether moral outrage toward a transgressive belief was equally strong as that toward a transgressive action (as seen in my previous research), or somewhat weaker. There was also novel support for the presence of a moderate level of moral outrage toward a person for their affiliation to a transgressive entity, even if the person had no personal transgressive actions or beliefs. The patterns of emotions, cognitions, and behavioral reactions varied slightly from overall moral outrage in unique ways that encourage future study. This research has implications for political polarization, cancel culture, and recognizing the cognitive component of moral outrage, a construct thus far defined primarily through its emotional components.

No / Decision making in relation to admitting people to train as social workers is, either explicitly or implicitly, an ethical activity. This paper considers ethical and practical issues related to the processing of applicants to social work training in England who have criminal convictions. These issues are explored by focusing on policies that strengthen regulations that exclude ex-offenders from working with children and vulnerable adults. The admissions processes for social work education are analysed in terms of how they contribute to, or counteract, processes of social exclusion. The advice and guidance from the General Social Care Council of England (GSCC) is summarised and analysed. A case study of a social work education partnership grounds the ethical discussion by illustrating the complexities of engaging with combating social exclusion whilst seeking to ensure that the public is protected.

A continual problem in the adjudication of crime in the United States is the continued occurrence of erroneous convictions and acquittals. This problem impacts the victims of crimes as they endure emotional and mental distress of additional investigations and new trials. Defendants are impacted by errors in verdicts because of the loss of freedom while being factually innocent. These errors may occur because jurors may not be knowledgeable of their role, right and responsibilities. Without regard to the judge's minimum instruction, the jury is not provided direction on the purpose and limitations of their roles. Guided by the social cognitive theory, this correlational study examined the incorrect verdicts by jurors in 2 Georgia counties in order to evaluate whether pretrial training has an impact on the incidence of verdict error. An experimental design was used to evaluate the impact of juror training on the occurrence of erroneous convictions and acquittals. The study included 156 participants who were registered voters from Lowndes and Lanier County, Georgia. The variables training, verdict errors, and juror misconduct were analyzed using t test, Pearson correlation analysis, Levene's Test of Equality of Variances, and Chi square analysis. The findings indicated a significant inverse relationship between the administration of pre-trial training and the occurrence of verdict error. The results suggest a relationship between the occurrence of juror misconduct and erroneous convictions, which is consistent with impact of behavior on decision making as posited by SCT. The implications for positive social change include recommendations to Lowndes and Lanier County court administrators to consider routine pretrial training that includes information about the role of the juror in criminal trials.