The Psychology of Morality

4 Credits

We begin with the Big Questions: Are human beings intrinsically good? How potent is our intrinsic capacity for goodness? What does it mean to be “good” or “moral”? How can we answer these questions? Next, we examine a variety of motives, capacities, and emotions that can promote our “good” behavior. Some examples include empathy, compassion (and other moral emotions), the justice motive, the norm enforcement motive, moral intuitions, social bonds, and perhaps even our general capacity for reason. Prerequisites: PSYC 121 Attribute/Distribution: CC, SS, W