Moral identity

Perceived social support and prosocial behavior in medical students: Mediating effect of empathy and moderating role of moral identity

BACKGROUND

Prosocial behavior is essential for effective patient communication and building a positive doctor-patient relationship in medical students. Research on the factors influencing prosocial behavior in medical students is limited. This research aims to examine how perceived social support influences prosocial behavior among medical students, focusing on the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of moral identity.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included 2425 medical students from central and southern Jiangsu province. Participants were assessed using the Prosocial Behavior Scale, Interpersonal Response Index Scale, Moral Identity Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale, with data collected through via an online questionnaire. SPSS PROCESS macro model 4.1 was used to examine the mediating effect and the moderating effect.

RESULTS

Perceived social support showed a significant positive correlation with prosocial behavior among medical students. The indirect effects of perceived social support on prosocial behavior through perspective taking (βindirect = 0.11, 95% Boot CI [0.09, 0.13]) and empathic concern (βindirect = 0.08, 95% Boot CI [0.06, 0.10]) confirmed the mediating roles of these variables, accounting for 32.05% and 23.82% of the total effect, respectively. However, personal distress did not mediate this relationship (βindirect = -0.004, 95% Boot CI [-0.01, 0.005]). Moral identity significantly moderated the effect of perceived social support on perspective taking (β = 0.05, p < 0.01) and the relationship between perspective taking and prosocial behavior (β = 0.12, p < 0.001). Additionally, moral identity also moderated the relationships between perceived social support and empathic concern (β = -0.05, p < 0.01) and between empathic concern and prosocial behavior (β = 0.08, p < 0.001). While the interaction between perceived social support and moral identity predicted personal distress (β = 0.04, p < 0.05), moral identity did not moderate the relationship between personal distress and prosocial behavior (β = 0.03, p = 0.12).

CONCLUSION

This study underscores the link between perceived social support and prosocial behavior, highlighting the significant roles of perspective taking, empathic concern, and moral identity in this relationship. These findings underscore the potential of cultivating these psychological mechanisms to foster caring and prosocial behaviors among medical students, providing important references for future educational interventions and policy formulation.

Family caregivers and the ethical relevance of moral identity

Many people want to spend the last stages of their lives at home, in familiar surroundings, and possibly with people they know. However, this increasing desire on the part of older, ill, or even dying people also makes support from other people unavoidable, which in many cases involves family members, loved ones, or even friends. These family caregivers care for the person concerned, even though they lack the professional skills of nursing staff, for example, and have usually not been prepared for this task. This article focuses on the ethical significance of the moral identity of family caregivers. While the effects of this care constellation on the caregivers have often been discussed in the scientific literature, ethical considerations regarding moral identity have so far been neglected. In the first step, the question of what is actually meant by the term moral identity is examined. The second step shifts attention to those people who have taken on the care of a loved one. The relevance of this previously discussed identity is emphasized by using study results and work in this context, and placed in relation to family caregivers. The third step shows that (1) moral identity must be understood as a necessary prerequisite for adequate and humane care, (2) this identity can be enhanced through the caregiving relationship, and (3) the activities undertaken by family caregivers reveal their moral identity. These considerations are finally summarized, provided with ethical aspects, and awareness of this important work of family caregivers is raised.

Moral Improvement of Self, Social Relations, and Society

There is always room for moral improvement. However, very few prior reviews have focused on the phenomenon of moral improvement of self, social relations, or society. We first consider prevailing notions of the self-concept by highlighting the niche of theory and research that identifies an improving self as a possible identity and basis of motivation to act better and to be better. Second, we discuss moral improvement in the context of social relations, especially the close interpersonal relations that should most facilitate moral improvement. Third, we examine the moral improvement of society, focusing on the factors that facilitate or inhibit caring about potential immorality despite the fact that issues such as inequality, discrimination, and the climate crisis seem to be morally distant and impersonal. Finally, we discuss future directions for theory, research, and application.

Linking Judging Moral to Acting Moral: A Relational Motivations Approach to Judging and Practicing Covid-19 Behaviors

Building on the Relational Motivation Theory, the present research argues that relational motivations (RM) underlie both the regulation and the moral judgment of socially (un)responsive Covid-19 behaviors (e.g., physical distancing) and links these two via moral identity. We hypothesize that different types of socially unresponsive behaviors are judged morally wrong through perceptions of RM violations and that a stronger concern for unity predicts the extent to which individuals self-report to perform socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, the role of moral identity as an individual-level moderator variable linking perceptions about RM violation to the practice of Covid-19 responsible behaviors is explored. The results support the predictions with data collected from participants living in Turkey and the USA. In both cultures, socially unresponsive Covid-19 behaviors of others were judged morally wrong through RMs, plus individuals' general concern for unity predicted their self-reported socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, for the sample from Turkey, results revealed that the general concern for unity was positively associated with self-reported tendencies to perform Covid-19 socially responsive behaviors only among individuals with a low or moderate moral identity, but not when moral identity was high.

Reading prosocial content in books and adolescents’ prosocial behavior: A moderated mediation model with evidence from China

Drawing upon the General Learning Model, the present study developed a moderated mediation model to provide an in-depth understanding of whether and how adolescents’ reading prosocial content in books predicts their prosocial behavior. The target population in this study is Chinese adolescents, and we adopted a paper-based survey to collect data (N = 602). The age range of the sample was from 12 to 19 (M = 15.198, SD = 1.596). Among all participants, 49.3% were female, and 50.7% were male. PROCESS SPSS Macro was used to analyze the proposed moderated mediation model. The results showed that prosocial content reading was positively associated with adolescents’ prosocial behavior. The positive association included a direct relationship and an indirect relationship through the mediation of moral identity. Furthermore, this study revealed the moderation effect of age on the relationships among prosocial content reading, moral identity, and prosocial behavior. Specifically, as age increases, the effects of prosocial content reading on moral identity and prosocial behavior attenuate, and the mediation effect of moral identity also decreases. The study adds to the body of knowledge on the prosocial media effect by extending it to book reading.

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Punishment and Forgiveness in Organizational Contexts

Punishment and forgiveness are two very different responses to a moral transgression that both have been argued to restore perceptions of moral order within an organization. Unfortunately, it is currently unclear what motivates organizational actors to punish or forgive a norm transgressor. We build on social cognitive theory to argue that punishment and forgiveness of a transgressor are both rooted in self-regulatory processes. Specifically, we argue that organizational actors are more likely to respond to intentional transgressions with punishment, and to unintentional transgressions with forgiveness. However, these effects of transgressor intentionality should be found in particular among actors for whom moral identity is central (vs. peripheral). We find support for these predictions in a laboratory experiment and a field study among organizational leaders. By simultaneously studying punishment and forgiveness in organizational settings, we provide crucial insight in their shared motivational bases, as well as into important differences between the two.

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.

Prevention for oneself or others? Psychological and social factors that explain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Identifying the underlying psychological and social factors of social distancing is crucial to foster preventive behavior during a pandemic effectively. We investigated the relative contribution of self-focused factors (fear of infection, fear of punishment) and other-focused factors (moral judgment, moral identity, empathy for unspecific others, empathy for loved ones) in an online study in Germany (N = 246) while COVID-19 was climaxing. Importantly, other-oriented factors were related to social distancing behavior beyond self-oriented factors. Moral judgment and empathy for loved ones remained the dominant factors while controlling for all aspects. These findings underline the relevance of interpersonal considerations when engaging in preventive behavior.

The role of gratitude and moral elevation in moral identity development

Experiencing the moral emotions of gratitude and moral elevation are responses to witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Both emotions have been found to share similar features and behavioral consequences, including the stimulation of personal development. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions indicates that gratitude and elevation prompt the long-term development of lasting resources. Moral identity has been found to be a personal resource in the moral domain since it is associated with higher levels of moral functioning. Therefore, using a two-wave cross-lagged panel design, the current study investigated the causal role of trait gratitude and trait elevation as antecedents of short-term moral identity development. At two points of time (time interval 17 months), a heterogeneous sample of n = 129 adults with a broad range of age completed measures of trait gratitude, trait moral elevation (engagement with moral beauty), and moral identity (internalization and symbolization of the Aquino–Reed framework). In line with our hypotheses, trait moral elevation predicted increases in moral identity internalization. In contrast to our hypotheses, the development of trait gratitude was predicted by moral identity internalization, and not the other way around. Exploratory analyses showed that no cross-lagged effects could be found for the symbolization dimension. In addition, a multi-group analysis explored which of the cross-lagged effects could be generalized across age groups. The results are discussed in the context of the moral emotion research.

Moral Elevation and Moral Beauty: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Moral elevation is defined as the emotional response to witnessing acts of moral beauty. Studies have found that elevation entails pleasant feelings of warmth in the chest, feeling uplifted, moved, and optimistic about humanity. Elevation motivates affiliation with others as well as moral action tendencies. The main goal of this review was to gather and organize the empirical findings from the last 16 years of elevation research with regard to psychological and physiological characteristics, motivational tendencies, behavioral outcomes, neuronal mechanisms, moderators, and correlates of elevation. A secondary goal was to examine whether elevation is congruent with Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. It was concluded that there is strong evidence that elevation broadens the thought-action repertoire and relatively weak evidence that it builds lasting resources. Potential evolutionary functions, the forms of measurement of elevation, the process of how elevation is triggered, practical applications and directions for future research were also addressed.