Deontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions founded on conditional logic (Wason,1968). The inclusion of a social valence to deontic rules leads to increased rule violation identification in both adults (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996), suggesting an evolutionary advantage for a specific class of reasoning known as “cheater-detection” (Fiddick, 2004). The current investigation is the first attempt to understand the cognitive and social variables that account for children’s logical reasoning advantage in social violation situations. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015 / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study investigated isiZulu-speakers' conceptions of morality. The relationship between concepts of the self and morality was also explored, as were influences of gender, family and community on moral reasoning. Fifty-two participants of both genders were interviewed. The sample was drawn from urban, peri-urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The participants were invited to tell a story involving a moral dilemma they had experienced in their lives. The resulting narratives were analyzed using an adapted version of the Relational Method, an analytic procedure developed by Gilligan and her colleagues (e.g. Brown & Gilligan, 1991) to analyze narratives of real life conflict. Respondents considered morality to be a state of connection or equilibrium between the person, other people, and his or her social milieu. Connection is characterized by caring, just and respectful relationships among people and everything to which they stand in relation. Immorality, which is characterized by relationships devoid of care, justice and respect, results from a breakdown in social and communal relationships. Conceptions of morality were found to be dependent on respondents' understanding of the self. The view that morality is characterised by connection was associated mainly with the communal or familial self. However, tensions were also noted between competing concepts of the self within the person, namely the communal and independent selves. These tensions complicated respondents' choices in the face of moral conflict. Gender was also found to influence moral reasoning: in the face of moral dilemmas involving gender, men were concerned with the preservation of their masculine identities, while women found themselves positioned powerlessly by culturally defined narratives of femininity. These results are discussed with reference to traditional African philosophical frameworks and dialogical theory. The implications of the study to psychological theory, social science research ethics and health-related intervention policies are highlighted. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

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The subjective experience of agency is a dimension of inner life that has consequences for motivation and moral judgment. Cognitive psychologists have studied the processes that underlie conscious will and metacognition of agency while social psychologists have examined how comparable constructs, such as autonomy and self-efficacy, relate to human needs and wellbeing. However, the consequences of the transient feeling state that accompanies agential experiences have received less attention. This dissertation examines the consequences of agency for motivation and moral judgment across seven experiments that manipulated feelings of agency via motor control games, episodic simulations, and autobiographical recollections. In its entirety, this work suggests that people seek experiences that confer high feelings of agency while both high- and low-agency experiences influence how we judge others’ actions. Chapter I reviews prior literature on agency and related constructs and introduces the conceptual and theoretical framework. Chapters II – IV discuss how feelings of agency manipulated via proximal, action-oriented cues and distal, outcome-oriented cues affect task preference. Findings suggest that people generally like experiences of high agency, and that motivation is more sensitive to proximal rather than distal disturbances. People tend to make choices to increase their likelihood of experiencing high agency via retention of action control, even at the expense of desired outcomes. Chapters V – VIII explore the relationship between agential experiences and moral judgments of others’ behavior. Results reveal a novel effect such that both high- and low-agency experiences lead to more intense judgments. In addition, people who are most sensitive to factors that influence their sense of agency also tend to deliver the harshest judgments. The findings suggest a two-process model of attributive projection and compensatory control mechanisms. They also imply a self-amplifying effect of extreme agency states such that both experiences of high and low agency may enhance activation of self-related schema, which in turn influence moral judgments. Chapters IX and X summarize the experiments and discuss the broader significance of this work for research on motivation and moral psychology.

Este estudo pretende entender sob que aspectos a crítica que Wittgenstein realiza nas Investigações Filosóficas aponta problemas relevantes na determinação de definições unívocas em ética. A questão norteadora desta pesquisa se põe da seguinte forma: é possível encontrar sentido no discurso ético rejeitando a pretensão de universalidade que foi fundamento das investigações filosóficas clássicas da ética? Ocupa papel de destaque nesta pesquisa a temática em torno da ética em sua relação com a linguagem e, assim sendo, procura-se analisar a relação entre estas dimensões do conhecimento do humano. Visamos compreender, de modo geral, que pressupostos, nesse contexto, sustentam a noção de universalidade e como estes estão relacionados com os conceitos fundamentais da ética. Neste contexto, uma análise da linguagem é tomada como fundamental na consideração dos problemas filosóficos, visto que tais problemas são indicados por Wittgenstein como resultantes de um uso inadequado da linguagem. Para tanto, é realizada uma análise breve do Tratado Lógico-Filosófico de modo auxiliar na compreensão do conteúdo presente nas Investigações Filosóficas. Diante dos paradoxos contemporâneos a respeito da necessidade da reflexão ética, dos impasses filosóficos gerados com o desenvolvimento da filosofia da linguagem e dos constantes questionamentos a respeito dos limites da filosofia, se mostra relevante compreender quais argumentos embasam um ou outro ponto. Assim, pode-se esclarecer se tais críticas indicam um relativismo contextual inevitável, uma confusão na apreensão de conceitos ou ainda uma mera rebeldia para romper com a tradição. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2016-10-20T12:27:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Laina Jessica de Almeida Brambatti.pdf: 1188904 bytes, checksum: 6b31e2cb72c197bb3ecdeea873ee093e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-20T12:27:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Laina Jessica de Almeida Brambatti.pdf: 1188904 bytes, checksum: 6b31e2cb72c197bb3ecdeea873ee093e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-10-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES / This study aims to understand in what ways the criticism that Wittgenstein held in Philosophical Investigations points relevant problems in determining unambiguous definitions in ethics. The main question of this research is put as follows: is it possible to find meaning in ethical discourse rejecting the claim of universality which was the basis of the classical philosophical investigations of ethics? It occupies a prominent role in this research theme around ethics in its relationship to language and, therefore, seeks to analyze the relationship between these dimensions of human knowledge. We aim to understand, in general, that assumptions in this context, support the notion of universality and how these are related to the basic concepts of ethics. Therefore, it is held a brief analysis of Tractatus Logico-Philosophical so assist in the understanding of this content in Philosophical Investigations. In the face of contemporary paradoxes about the need for ethical reflection , philosophical impasses generated with the development of philosophy of language and the constant questioning about the philosophy of limits , shown important to understand what arguments underlie one or another point. Thus, one can say whether such criticisms indicate an inevitable contextual relativism, confusion in the apprehension of concepts or merely a rebellion to break with traditional.

Este estudo pretende entender sob que aspectos a crítica que Wittgenstein realiza nas Investigações Filosóficas aponta problemas relevantes na determinação de definições unívocas em ética. A questão norteadora desta pesquisa se põe da seguinte forma: é possível encontrar sentido no discurso ético rejeitando a pretensão de universalidade que foi fundamento das investigações filosóficas clássicas da ética? Ocupa papel de destaque nesta pesquisa a temática em torno da ética em sua relação com a linguagem e, assim sendo, procura-se analisar a relação entre estas dimensões do conhecimento do humano. Visamos compreender, de modo geral, que pressupostos, nesse contexto, sustentam a noção de universalidade e como estes estão relacionados com os conceitos fundamentais da ética. Neste contexto, uma análise da linguagem é tomada como fundamental na consideração dos problemas filosóficos, visto que tais problemas são indicados por Wittgenstein como resultantes de um uso inadequado da linguagem. Para tanto, é realizada uma análise breve do Tratado Lógico-Filosófico de modo auxiliar na compreensão do conteúdo presente nas Investigações Filosóficas. Diante dos paradoxos contemporâneos a respeito da necessidade da reflexão ética, dos impasses filosóficos gerados com o desenvolvimento da filosofia da linguagem e dos constantes questionamentos a respeito dos limites da filosofia, se mostra relevante compreender quais argumentos embasam um ou outro ponto. Assim, pode-se esclarecer se tais críticas indicam um relativismo contextual inevitável, uma confusão na apreensão de conceitos ou ainda uma mera rebeldia para romper com a tradição. / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES / This study aims to understand in what ways the criticism that Wittgenstein held in Philosophical Investigations points relevant problems in determining unambiguous definitions in ethics. The main question of this research is put as follows: is it possible to find meaning in ethical discourse rejecting the claim of universality which was the basis of the classical philosophical investigations of ethics? It occupies a prominent role in this research theme around ethics in its relationship to language and, therefore, seeks to analyze the relationship between these dimensions of human knowledge. We aim to understand, in general, that assumptions in this context, support the notion of universality and how these are related to the basic concepts of ethics. Therefore, it is held a brief analysis of Tractatus Logico-Philosophical so assist in the understanding of this content in Philosophical Investigations. In the face of contemporary paradoxes about the need for ethical reflection , philosophical impasses generated with the development of philosophy of language and the constant questioning about the philosophy of limits , shown important to understand what arguments underlie one or another point. Thus, one can say whether such criticisms indicate an inevitable contextual relativism, confusion in the apprehension of concepts or merely a rebellion to break with traditional.

This study deals with the problem of moral development discontinuity prevalent in today's multicultural societies. Black adolescents are confronted by many obstacles in their situatedness in the home, school and society. It has been revealed that the black adolescent in the multicultural situation is exploited, dehumanised and exposed to impersonal situations when he should be offered moral guidance and challenging moral dilemmas in order to develop his moral sense, however he is consequently reduced to an object that is tossed to and fro by his fellow human beings. The black adolescent, it has been shown, needs his fellow human beings, as transmitters of moral values to help him to achieve a moral-self. This study examines the three multicultural situations, the home, the school and the society and shows that morals are not inherited but acquired through mutual contact. The acquisition of morals manifests itself under conditions characterised by respect, modelling, imitation, indoctrination, reward and punishment, conformity, loyalty, communication, exemplification, socialisation, experience and learning as determined by the home, school and society. It was also found that in their acquisition of morals in a multicultural society, black adolescents experience confusion brought about by the cultural differences of their society. \\!hat they previously regarded as the right thing to do in their cultural background receives negative responses in the multicultural situation. It was further found that black adolescents in a multicultural situation are not provided with sufficient opportunities to participate meaningfully in moulding their new moral environment. The multicultural environment is cold and unfriendly, as a result black adolescents are barred from expanding and anchoring themselves in their new situation to face the challenges confronting them with confidence. The empirical research revealed that in the home parents are too busy with their professional upgrading and the positions they hold at work to bother about the moral upbringing of their children. In school teachers emphasise scholastic achievement above moral development. The society does not provide black adolescents with moral role models to imitate. Society has become to technocratic, with devices such as the TV, radio, Internet and video games, to guide black adolescents in their moral intemalisation. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Moral formation is a crucial aspect of the training that young Christian leaders have to be exposed to during their education. A holistic focus was adopted to analyse the nuances of the moral self and give moral formation the focus it requires. Three major areas of the moral self namely knowledge, emotion and socialization have been investigated. The study was exploratory in nature and made use of a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed with a constructivist framework using content analysis. Findings mainly related to the three areas under focus with the impact of emotions being the most prominent. The influence of the Holy Spirit was also a key finding as charismatic emerging adults depended on his guidance during moral decision making. The data also reflected the significant interaction and overlap of the three areas exercising an influence on emerging adults’ moral decision making. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

Moral formation is a crucial aspect of the training that young Christian leaders have to be exposed to during their education. A holistic focus was adopted to analyse the nuances of the moral self and give moral formation the focus it requires. Three major areas of the moral self namely knowledge, emotion and socialization have been investigated. The study was exploratory in nature and made use of a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed with a constructivist framework using content analysis. Findings mainly related to the three areas under focus with the impact of emotions being the most prominent. The influence of the Holy Spirit was also a key finding as charismatic emerging adults depended on his guidance during moral decision making. The data also reflected the significant interaction and overlap of the three areas exercising an influence on emerging adults’ moral decision making. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

This study deals with the problem of moral development discontinuity prevalent in today's multicultural societies. Black adolescents are confronted by many obstacles in their situatedness in the home, school and society. It has been revealed that the black adolescent in the multicultural situation is exploited, dehumanised and exposed to impersonal situations when he should be offered moral guidance and challenging moral dilemmas in order to develop his moral sense, however he is consequently reduced to an object that is tossed to and fro by his fellow human beings. The black adolescent, it has been shown, needs his fellow human beings, as transmitters of moral values to help him to achieve a moral-self. This study examines the three multicultural situations, the home, the school and the society and shows that morals are not inherited but acquired through mutual contact. The acquisition of morals manifests itself under conditions characterised by respect, modelling, imitation, indoctrination, reward and punishment, conformity, loyalty, communication, exemplification, socialisation, experience and learning as determined by the home, school and society. It was also found that in their acquisition of morals in a multicultural society, black adolescents experience confusion brought about by the cultural differences of their society. \\!hat they previously regarded as the right thing to do in their cultural background receives negative responses in the multicultural situation. It was further found that black adolescents in a multicultural situation are not provided with sufficient opportunities to participate meaningfully in moulding their new moral environment. The multicultural environment is cold and unfriendly, as a result black adolescents are barred from expanding and anchoring themselves in their new situation to face the challenges confronting them with confidence. The empirical research revealed that in the home parents are too busy with their professional upgrading and the positions they hold at work to bother about the moral upbringing of their children. In school teachers emphasise scholastic achievement above moral development. The society does not provide black adolescents with moral role models to imitate. Society has become to technocratic, with devices such as the TV, radio, Internet and video games, to guide black adolescents in their moral intemalisation. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)