Age differences in moral judgment: Older adults are more deontological than younger adults

In 2 studies, an older and a younger age group morally evaluated dilemmas contrasting a deontological judgment (do not harm others) against a utilitarian judgment (do what is best for the majority). Previous research suggests that deontological moral judgments are often underpinned by affective reactions and utilitarian moral judgments by deliberative thinking. Separately, research on the psychology of aging has shown that affect plays a more prominent role in the judgments and decision making of older (vs. younger) adults. Yet age remains a largely overlooked factor in moral judgment research. Here, we therefore investigated whether older adults would make more deontological judgments on the basis of experiencing different affective reactions to moral dilemmas as compared with younger adults. Results from 2 experiments indicated that older adults made significantly more deontological moral judgments. Mediation analyses revealed that the relationship between age and making more deontological moral judgments is partly explained by older adults exhibiting significantly more negative affective reactions and having more morally idealistic beliefs as compared with younger adults

The right to be left alone v. the crime against nature: An analysis of Bowers v. Hardwick

This qualitative case study analyzed the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), and the historical and legal background leading up to the case. Often characterized as a decision representing an emotional rejection of homosexuality rather than a reasoned application of constitutional privacy precedent, this inquiry sought to identify and document the determinants of the outcome in Bowers, in which a slim majority of the Court ruled that the constitutional right of privacy did not prohibit states from regulating homosexual sodomy. The study demonstrated that although homophobia certainly played a part in the Bowers decision, that the opinion was not necessarily inconsistent with previous privacy decisions such as Griswold v. Connecticut , 381 U.S. 479 (1965), and Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). The author concluded that the dominant insight gleaned from Bowers is that there is no such thing as a constitutionally protected right of privacy, at least not in the way that privacy is conventionally understood. The Bowers opinion illuminates that the Court's privacy jurisprudence has been more about the privileging of certain relationships (such as that between husband and wife or doctor and patient) than it has been about personal privacy. Such relationships serve an important limiting principle. The author concluded that the outcome in Bowers was not the insufficiency of the claim of a right to privacy, but the insufficiency of any limiting principle. The research documented and analyzed history of the two bodies of law most relevant to the Bowers opinion: state law which criminalized sodomy; and constitutional protection of individual privacy

Über Potentillenkulturen und Exsiccaten des Herrn H. Siegfried

Dr. Torge

Festuca gigantea x rubra n. hybr. (F. Haussknechtii m.)

Dr. Torge

Calamagrostis arundinacea x villosa n. hybr. : C. indagata Torges & Hskn.

Dr. Torge

Epilobium hirsutum X roseum (E. Schmalhausenianum M. Schulze.)

Dr. Torge

Achieving ego integrity: Personality development in late midlife.

As people progress through the lifespan and attempt to come to terms with the lives they have led and the people they have become, they confront the tension between ego integrity versus despair. According to Erik Erikson and his colleagues, this developmental stage becomes focal in old age; however, to some degree, people can be engaged in balancing and processing its tensions much earlier. This study explored precursors and correlates of ego integrity versus despair in a sample of women in late midlife---as the issues associated with this developmental stage started shifting to their central developmental concern. For this study, an implicit measure of ego integrity was developed, and all data were analyzed using this new implicit measure, as well as Ryff and Heincke's (1983) self-report measure. In cross-sectional analyses, both implicit and self-reported ego integrity correlated positively with life satisfaction. Self-reported ego integrity also correlated positively with psychological well-being and zest, and negatively with envy, whereas implicit ego integrity correlated positively with physical well-being. All relationships with self-reported ego integrity remained significant after controlling for social desirability (assessed fifteen years earlier). Furthermore, the more women had resolved their regrets earlier in midlife, the higher their self-reported ego integrity in later midlife; this relationship held within time as well. Finally, consistent with Erikson's developmental theory, women who had achieved higher levels of generativity earlier in midlife also attained higher levels of integrity in late midlife. Continuing to study the processes and outcomes associated with ego integrity versus despair, throughout the life cycle, could provide meaningful information about how people find peace within themselves that can be extended to improving society at large.Ph.D.Developmental psychologyPersonality psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125907/2/3224768.pd