Michael L. Penn Franklin & Marshall College Eranda Jayawickreme & Pavel Atanasov

1. Morality & Mental Health: The Role of Moral Emotions in Mental Health and Character Development A Cross-Cultural, Empirical Analysis of the Problem of Akrasia Michael L. Penn Franklin & Marshall College Eranda Jayawickreme & Pavel Atanasov University of Pennsylvania

2. Rúhíyyih Khánum was once asked: what is hell – she replied simply that hell is “regret.”

3. Theories of Happiness & Well-Being Through the Ages • Classical view: Eudaimonistic tradition • Happiness = Good [Moral] Life • The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with excellence and virtue…Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy (Aristotle, Ethics) • The Big Question: How ought I to live? (If I live as I ought, such living will lead to happiness.)

4. The Great Learning “The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the empire, first ordered well their own States. Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.” –Confucius

5. End (Issue) 3 Goals of Development To Illustrate Illustrious Virtue Tranquility & Happiness To Rest in the Highest Excellence 3 Requisites of Development Knowledge of the Highest Good Renovation of the People Origin (Root) Investigation of Things Model of the Analects of Confucius

6. Moral Emotions and Well-Being From the perspective of the world’s spiritual traditions, the condition of remoteness from God – or remoteness from that which is ultimately good, beautiful, and true – can be understood as "hell." Thus, heaven and hell are not literally places, but descriptions of one's nearness to and progress toward that which is good.

7. Akrasia: Weakness of Will • From the Greek ἀκρασία, meaning“lacking command (over oneself)” • Refers to a situation in which an individual knowingly acts against his/her own values … • A case of doing what you don’t want to do… Our research question: What sort of psychological effects might result from akratic behavior?

8. Moral Conflict and Mental Health “There has been increased interest in psychology and philosophy in the moral emotions, defined as those complex emotions that reflect or arise in response to thoughts and actions that are ordinarily thought of as touching on concerns of right and wrong, or that can influence or motivate actions that touch on moral concerns. Gabrielle Taylor (1985) has referred to this family of emotions as self-assessments, because self-reflective judgments are hypothesized to be at the core of moral emotions. Emotions most commonly included in this group are guilt, shame, regret and remorse.” – Kroll et al. 2004, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 192, p. 682.

9. Akrasia: Weakness of Will or Lack of Knowledge? “An agent’s will is weak if he acts, and acts intentionally, counter to his own best judgment; in such cases, we sometimes say he lacks the willpower to do what he knows, or at any rate believes, would, everything considered, be better.” From “Intention and Action”, Chapter 2, p. 21 -or, alternatively- We can understand the point of any action by understanding the actor’s belief that the action would bring him happiness. Thus, wrong doing is always due to ignorance. We do wrong because we lack knowledge of what is good and best for us. Thus do we explain akrasia.

10. Akrasia as Captured in Ovid’s Metamorphoses “I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.” Knowledge can be rendered inert by some other non-rational motivation – some desire that has its roots in the ego or in a more primitive aspect of one’s self.

11. The third element of the utterance under discussion is, ‘opposes his passions’…This is the very foundation of every laudable human quality…For desire is a flame that has reduced to ashes uncounted lifetime harvests of the learned, a devouring fire that even the vast sea of their accumulated knowledge could never quench. How often has it happened that an individual who was graced with every attribute of humanity and wore the jewel of true understanding, nevertheless followed after his passions until his excellent qualities passed beyond moderation and he was forced into excess. His pure intentions changed to evil ones, his attributes were no longer put to uses worthy of them, and the power of his desires turned him into ways that were dangerous and dark. A good character is…the most excellent and praiseworthy of all things, but always on condition that its center of emanation should be reason and knowledge and its base should be true moderation. –’Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization

12. Moral emotions, such as guilt, regret and remorse, reveal that the essential nature and aspiration of the actor is good and that her actions were the result of moral incontinence...

13. Milo on Aristotle’s Concept of“Weakness of Will” The morally weak man adopts the proper prudential of moral principles and resolves to follow them. But though his intentions are good, he fails to live up to them. Both the morally weak man and the wicked man do what is bad; but the wicked man thinks that he should do what he does, while the morally weak man does not think this…Thus, the wicked man does what is bad because he chooses to do so, while the morally weak man acts ‘not by choice but contrary to his choice and judgment’ (1966, p. 68).

14. Low Conflict Low Conflict High Conflict *See: Elena Mustakova-Possardt (2003; 2004)

15. Exploratory Hypotheses • People generally have moral aspirations that are important to them; • When we act in ways that are contrary to our moral aspirations and values (akrasia) we experience a form of self-induced stress or trauma. • The stress associated with acting in ways that are inconsistent with one’s values may serve as a diathesis (or risk factor) in the development of mental and somatic illness. • The deleterious impact of akrasia is not culture specific...

16. Moral Conflict and Mental Health • Moral conflict = may give rise to a moral emotion • Moral emotion = arises in response to self-assessments and self-reflective judgments that center upon what one has done • or failed to do, or the kind of person one has become. • Examples of negative moral emotions: shame, guilt, regret, and remorse • Negative moral emotions appear to be critical to the healthy • Development of moral character…BUT, they may also play an • important role in the development of a range of psycho- • pathological states

17. Svend Brinkman’s “Moral Ecology” • Brinkman = there exists a moral ecology which is like the • natural ecology • We live in and interact with this ecosystem in the same way • we live in the natural world • The moral sphere thus exists independent of our beliefs. • Part of human development consists of learning about the • Moral ecology and adjusting our behavior to its requirements

19. We all have moral goals…When those moral aspirations are thwarted or threatened, we suffer; we become unhappy… The greatest threats to our moral aspirations come most often from ourselves…

20. What is the mental health impact of morally relevant behavior? Value Congruent Value Incongruent Act is Performed Act is Not Performed

21. Instruments • General Well-Being Scale • Goals and Mode Values Inventory • Symptom Checklist 90-R • Assessment of Past Trauma Scale

22. The Symptom Check List 90-R:A 90 item self-report symptom inventory. Yields nine primary symptom dimensions and three indices of distress. Higher scores indicate greater pathology or greater mental or physical anguish. The nine primary symptom dimensions include: 1) Somatization (SOM) 2) Obsessive Compulsive (O-C) 3) Interpersonal Sensitivity (I-S)4) Depression (DEP) 5) Anxiety (ANX) 6) Hostility (HOS) 7) Phobic Anxiety (PHOB) 8) Paranoid Ideation (PAR) 9) Psychoticism (PSY) The three global indices include: • Global Severity Index (GSI) • Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI) • Positive Symptom Total (PST)

23. The General Well-Being Schedule (GWB): The GWB schedule assesses self-representations of subjective well-being. Scale scores run from 14 (lowest well-being) to 134 (highest well-being).

24. Goal and Mode Values Inventories The GMVI assesses both personal and social value commitments and the congruence or incongruence between subjects’ values and behaviors.

25. GMVI-Part 4: Is the subject’s behavior consistent with his or her self-professed values? High Internal Conflict Low Internal Conflict

26. Subjects • Kenyans • Americans • East Indians

28. Subjects divided into two categories: 1) those with medium to high value incongruence (medium to high akrasia) (N=45, GMVI4 > 2); and those with low akrasia (N=101, GMVI4 < 3).

29. Correlations between the Goal and Mode Value Index, Part 4 and various dimensions of the Symptom Checklist-90-R for the US, India and Kenya samples combined. **p < .001

31. SAMPLE QUESTIONS FROM APTFAMILY TRAUMA This hasHow traumatic was it? happened to me 1=not at all, 2=a little 3=moderately, 4=very 5=extremely This has happened to me: Sexual molestation by a parent/stepparent Y or N 1 2 3 4 5 This has happened to me: Death of a parent by suicide Y or N 1 2 3 4 5 This has happened to me: Parent is an alcoholic or drug addicted Y or N 1 2 3 4 5

32. SAMPLE QUESTIONS FROM APT-SOCIOPOLITICAL TRAUMA This hasHow traumatic was it? happened to me 1=not at all, 2=a little 3=moderately, 4=very 5=extremely This has happened to me: Suffered the loss or destruction of a significant symbolic monument Y or N 1 2 3 4 5 This has happened to me: Required to defend your national, ethnic, racial, gender, or religious group from attack Y or N 1 2 3 4 5 This has happened to me: Witnessed genocide or torture in person Y or N 1 2 3 4 5

33. Perceived traumatic influence of various categories of trauma when ranked from highest to lowest according to the correlation between that category and the different dimensions of the SCL-90-R. **p<.001

34. What we have learned: • Acting in ways contrary to one’s own value system (akrasia) is experienced somatically and psychologically as stressful – perhaps even as traumatic. • The deleterious impact of akratic behavior is not culture specific. • Acts of akrasia may be distressing because they threaten the realization of highly valued “possible-selves”.

35. Some Further Considerations

36. How are we to understand weakness of will?

37. Patience Reflection Perception: Desire Passion Need Action

38. Temptation “When two goals are competing…the goal that is less essential to one’s long-term interests tends to become regarded as the temptation and the other maintains its identity as a goal” (Leander, Shah, & Chartrand, 2009, p. 854).

39. Attention “An agent’s balance of motivation at the time of action is influenced by the focus of his attention” (Mele, 1987, p. 87) • The yumminess of pie has more salience than the abstract notion of calories. • The akratic action has more salience than the value.

40. Habitus & the Moral Response Mauss defined habitus as those aspects of culture that are anchored in the body or daily practices of individuals, groups, societies, and nations. It includes the totality of learned habits, bodily skills, styles, tastes, and other non-discursive knowledges that might be said to "go without saying" for a specific group – in that way it can be said to operate beneath the level of rational ideology.

41. Identity and behavior are perceived as incongruent Identity/Beliefs about true self Behavior Guilt Thought: What I did is not consistent with who I am. Morally Weak Shame Identity and behavior are perceived as congruent Manifestation of Identity Behavior Thought: My behavior is an indication of who I am.

48. Akrasia & Limits to the Power of Human Will? “Just as the earth attracts everything to the centre of gravity, and every object thrown upward into space will come down, so also material ideas and worldly thoughts attract man to the centre of self. Anger, passion, ignorance, prejudice, greed, envy, covetousness, jealousy and suspicion prevent man from ascending…imprisoning him in the claws of self and the cage of egotism. The physical man, unassisted by the divine power, trying to escape from one of these invisible enemies, will unconsciously fall into the hands of another. No sooner does he attempt to soar upward than the density of the love of self, like the power of gravity, draws him to the center of the earth.”