Toward a Greater Understanding of the Moral Context of Interactions and Decision Making

Abstract

The book uses social psychology concepts as the context to discuss the origins of morality and how people define their morals to make judgments and decisions in everyday life.The contributions in this volume were first brought together in a series of personality and social psychology lectures in Israel known as the Herzliya Conference, and then were expanded into chapters that covered a broad range of topics related to moral behavior. Mikulincer and Shaver organize the 22 chapters into five parts: individuals' moral development, the psychological processes involved in maintaining morals, personality and clinical perspectives on morality, implications for society, and an overarching commentary of the chapters. Overall, the order of the chapters has a logical and cohesive progression. Ideas from previous chapters are alluded to in later ones for continuity; however, the concepts would still be understandable to someone only reading excerpts of the book. Each chapter is a unique but complementary contribution to the research on moral attributions, and is accessible readings for students and practitioners alike.Throughout the volume, theories and discussions of morality utilize empirical research conducted by psychologists. For example, Eyal and Liberman in Chapter 10 draw from empirical research studies extensively to demonstrate the power of situational constraints on moral intentions. Haslam, Bastian, Laham, and Loughman also blend social psychology with neuroscience in Chapter 11 to explain the consequences of dehumanizing others when making judgments on 429