The Moral Self? Psychologists on Obedience, Empathy and

Positive Thinking

Department of Social RelationsHarvard University

• Formed in 1946• Interdisciplinary: Social and Clinical

Psychology, Social Anthropology and Sociology

• Gordon Allport, (Social Psychology)• Henry Murray (Head of Harvard Psychological

Clinic)• Clyde Kluckhohn (social anthropologist)• Talcott Parsons (sociologist)

Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)

(1974)

• Remote Condition (heard but couldn’t see learner) 65 % compliance

• Voice Feedback Condition (vocal complaints ) 62.5 % compliance

• Proximity Condition (learner right next to teacher) 40% compliance

• Touch-Proximity Condition (teacher had to put learner’s hand on electric plate to shock) 30 % compliance

Milgram’s Experimental ConditionsObedience Studies of 1961

“The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: Often it is not so much the kind of person a m an is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.”

Milgram, as cited in Blass, p. 101

Ethics in Human Experimentation

• 1973, APA “Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants”

• 1975, Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare: new regulations on human subject research—mandatory review by an institutional review board (IRB), committee created to ensure well-being of subjects, and informed consent.

Learned Helplessness- Martin Seligman (1967)

Martin Seligman Director, Positive Psychology

Center, Prof. Psychology University of Pennsylvania

President of APA, 1998

Happiness:a) positive emotion or pleasureb) engagementc) meaning

Positive Psychology

• Seligman, Martin E. P. (1991). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.

• Seligman, Martin E. P. (1993). What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement.

• Seligman, Martin E. P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.

CSV: Character Strengths and Virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)

• Wisdom and Knowledge; creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, lover of learning, perspective

• Courage: authenticity, bravery, persistence, zest• Humanity: kindness, love, social intelligence• Justice: Fairness, leadership, teamwork• Temperance: forgiveness, modesty, patience,

self-regulation• Transcendence: appreciation of beauty,

excellence, gratitude, hope, humor religiousness.

January 17, 2005

Vittorio Gallese

Giacomo Rizzolatti

Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions Giacomo Rizzolatti , Luciano Fadiga, Vittorio Gallese and Leonardo FogassiIstituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy

Cognitive Brain ResearchVolume 3, Issue 2, March 1996, Pages 131-141

Iacoboni and Dapretto Redgrave Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 942–951 (December 2006)

Mirror Neurons• First described in inferior frontal cortex in monkey• Fire not only when the monkey is moving his hand or

its mouth, but also when he sees someone else performing the same action.

• These neurons ‘mirror’ the behavior of the other animal/human, as though the observer were performing the action.

• Important for understanding the actions of other people, learning new skills by imitation.

• Some argue they are the basis for understanding emotions, and may be the neuronal substrate of empathy.

• Function according to a “Perception-Action Theory.”With thanks toNouchine HadjikhaniMartinosSCAN 2007

Mirror Neurons - localization

STS - superior temporal sulcus

IPL - inferior parietal lobule

IFC - inferior frontal cortex

Nouchine HadjikhaniMartinosSCAN 2007

First Issue of new Journal, Social Neuroscience, March 2006

Textbooks like this one began appearing in 2004 & 2005

Psychology’s Moral Project?

“This project has been, first in philosophical terms, then increasingly in ‘scientific’ psychological terms, to supply a cultural authoritative foundation for conventional morality in a society which is constitutionally pluralistic in terms of religion and ideology.”

Graham Richards, 1995

Psychology’s Selves• The Reflective Self• The Phrenological Self • The Animal and Emotional Self• The Perceiving Self• The Otherworldly Self • The Hysterical Self • The Feebleminded Self • The Laboring Self • The Engineered Self • The Expressive Self • The Therapeutic Self • The Cognitive and Computational Self • The Social Self• The Moral Self?

THEMES in the History of Psychology

1) representations of mind 2) places where science is enacted or practiced3) methods, tools, technologies and techniques4) popular, literary, and visual understandings 5) practical domains of application

6) moral values and ideas of normality

Psychological Sciences as:

“techniques for the disciplining of human difference: individualizing humans through classifying then calibrating their capacities and conducts, inscribing and recording their attributes and deficiencies, managing and utilizing their individuality and variability.”

Nikolas Rose, Inventing Ourselves (1998) p. 105

“this is a psy-shaped space, a space that lies between the biological materiality of the body with its nerves and fluids and the moral complexity of human conduct with its dilemmas of right and wrong, good and evil. And from now on, all our recipes for styles of life, our ethical systems, our recipes for assuaging misery and for improving ourselves and our conduct, our judgments of others will have to take account of the influences of, and impacts upon, this psy shaped space.”

Nikolas Rose, Governing the Soul (1999)