Vindicating Virtue: A Critical Analysis of the Situationist Challenge Against Aristotelian Moral Psychology

Croom, Adam

doi:10.1007/s12124-013-9249-8

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Virtue is related to, yet distinct from character strengths: it primarily refers to a set of singular attributes that are indicative of moral excellence ( Jeong and Han, 2013;Richardson, 2012;Sisti and Baum-Baicker, 2012). Character-based theories have been subject to devastating criticism by the situationist challenge in moral psychology, yet the connection between dispositions and human behavior underlying the status of moral virtues is well grounded on a interactional approach that is in a position to reconcile competing views on dispositions and situations as concurrently contributing to shaping moral behavior (Alzola, 2008;Arjoon, 2008;Croom, 2014). In this respect, the situationist arguments remain rather unconvincing, insofar as virtues transcend behavioral dispositions, and cannot be inferred from overt behavior (Alzola, 2012).…”

Section: Virtue Theory and Organizations: A Diversity Of Research Streams And Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtue theory and organizational behavior: an integrative framework

Gotsis

Grimani

2015

Journal of Management Development

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a functional framework encapsulating a wide range of contributions to the ongoing debate on virtue as a critical dimension of contemporary organizations. In so doing, the authors elaborate and develop an encompassing framework that is in a position to capture the diversity of research in this very field. Design/methodology/approach – Extant literature on virtue in organizational settings is properly categorized through a taxonomy articulated around the potential foci, as well as loci of virtuous behavior. Virtuousness denotes an ethical attribute of managers, leaders or employees and as such, it may be situated at the micro-individual, meso-organizational or macro-societal level, respectively. Findings – Based on the potential foci and loci of virtuous behavior, the paper differentiates between virtuous managerial, leaders’ and employees’ attitudes on one hand, and virtuous management and leadership development, as well as virtuous employee training on the other. Furthermore, ethically grounded managerial initiatives and leaders’ responsibilities to further the common good are entwined with endeavors to transform employees into virtuous corporate citizens affirming organizational ethicality. Practical implications – By identifying both targeted group and level of analysis, organizations can effectively design and implement interventions promoting virtuousness as a valued end in itself. Originality/value – The paper introduces a framework that can help integrate varying trends on organizational virtuousness that substantially differ in terms of both scope and perspective. In addition, the taxonomy will facilitate both researchers and practitioners to better navigate into the dispersed, and ultimately fragmented streams of literature on the role of virtue in business environments.

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Section: Virtue Theory and Organizations: A Diversity Of Research Streams And Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtue theory and organizational behavior: an integrative framework

Gotsis

Grimani

2015

Journal of Management Development

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“…However, while drawing attention to the extent and ways situations can influence individuals, to think these studies provide evidence against the existence of virtues, conceived of as a type of stable and robust disposition, is to infer too much. As Croom ( 2014 ) and others (e.g., Alzola, 2008 ) have recently pointed out, thinking these studies provide evidence against the existence of virtues results from: oversimplifying an Aristotelian conception of virtues as perfectly stable and robust dispositions; and/or drawing unwarranted conclusions from these studies.…”

Section: Virtues and Situational Studies: Questions Of Stability And mentioning

confidence: 89%

Virtues, ecological momentary assessment/intervention and smartphone technology

Runyan

Steinke

2015

Front. Psychol.

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Virtues, broadly understood as stable and robust dispositions for certain responses across morally relevant situations, have been a growing topic of interest in psychology. A central topic of discussion has been whether studies showing that situations can strongly influence our responses provide evidence against the existence of virtues (as a kind of stable and robust disposition). In this review, we examine reasons for thinking that the prevailing methods for examining situational influences are limited in their ability to test dispositional stability and robustness; or, then, whether virtues exist. We make the case that these limitations can be addressed by aggregating repeated, cross-situational assessments of environmental, psychological and physiological variables within everyday life—a form of assessment often called ecological momentary assessment (EMA, or experience sampling). We, then, examine how advances in smartphone application (app) technology, and their mass adoption, make these mobile devices an unprecedented vehicle for EMA and, thus, the psychological study of virtue. We, additionally, examine how smartphones might be used for virtue development by promoting changes in thought and behavior within daily life; a technique often called ecological momentary intervention (EMI). While EMA/I have become widely employed since the 1980s for the purposes of understanding and promoting change amongst clinical populations, few EMA/I studies have been devoted to understanding or promoting virtues within non-clinical populations. Further, most EMA/I studies have relied on journaling, PDAs, phone calls and/or text messaging systems. We explore how smartphone app technology provides a means of making EMA a more robust psychological method, EMI a more robust way of promoting positive change, and, as a result, opens up new possibilities for studying and promoting virtues.

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“…Instead, philosophical situationism surged and attacked virtue ethics ( Dorris, 1998 ; Harman, 1999 ). Then, there was a significant methodological debate between philosophical situationists and defenders of virtue ethics ( Miller, 2003 , 2021 ; Kametekar, 2004 ; Screenivan, 2008 ; Croom, 2014 ).…”

Section: Collaborative Research Between Political Philosophy and Psyc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Examination of Political Philosophies: Interrelationship Among Citizenship, Justice, and Well-Being in Japan

Kobayashi

2022

Front. Psychol.

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This paper examines assumptions concerning the relationship between citizenship, justice, and well-being, based on representative political philosophies, including egoism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, liberalism, and communitarianism. A previous paper raised the possibility of an inter-disciplinary framework for collaboration between psychology and political philosophy. This study picks up that thread and attempts to actualize a collaborative research effort based on a framework grounded in positive political psychology. The first part of this study reflects on the methodology situated between empirical psychology and philosophy in reference to the debates caused by psychological and philosophical situationism. In response to its criticism against virtue ethics, the possibility of reconstructing it on empirical psychology has paradoxically emerged. Similarly, this study validates assumptions on political philosophies employing the psychological method concerning well-being. Accordingly, the central part examines the plausibility of the assumptions by empirical evidence obtained from two internet surveys (2020, N = 5000; 2021, N = 6885) in Japan. The relationships between citizenship, justice, and well-being are the most substantial in the communitarian assumption. The exploratory factor analysis of the two surveys illuminates that the correlations between citizenship, justice, and well-being (or political well-being) are substantial. This relationship denies the egoism assumption. Moreover, almost all correlations between the three are higher based on virtue-related indicators than hedonic ones. These findings are not in tune with the utilitarian assumption and are most congruent to the communitarian assumption. In addition, citizenship and justice correlate more with political well-being than overall well-being. As these are more directly associated with political well-being in the communitarian assumption, this result aligns with the assumption. Furthermore, the positive relationship between disparity elimination and well-being fits the liberal rather than the libertarian assumption. Nevertheless, the substantial correlation between ethical justice and well-being is higher by virtue-related indicators than hedonic indicators, suggesting distributive justice is associated with the ethical dimension. Again, this fits the communitarian assumption rather than the liberal assumption. Thus, philosophical psychology empirically verifies the interdependence of the three conceptions and the relative plausibility of the communitarian assumption. Moreover, as the relationship between the three is essential for political philosophies, the result increases the reliability of communitarianism.

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Vindicating Virtue: A Critical Analysis of the Situationist Challenge Against Aristotelian Moral Psychology

Cited by 9 publications

References 57 publications

Virtue theory and organizational behavior: an integrative framework

Virtue theory and organizational behavior: an integrative framework

Virtues, ecological momentary assessment/intervention and smartphone technology

Psychological Examination of Political Philosophies: Interrelationship Among Citizenship, Justice, and Well-Being in Japan

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