(in Polish) From Love to Hate: The Bright and Dark Side of Moral Emotions in Psychology

obligatory courses

The course provides a captivating background for students of different disciplines who are interested in exploring human behaviours from prominent psychological points of view. Moral emotions such as guilt and shame are discussed, with particular emphasis put on their contribution to someone’s fulfilment, disgrace, or even a crime. In the society, moral behaviours, together with empathy, are in high demand. However, numerous violations are so often present as well. Therefore, narcissistic and psychopathic traits will be studied (the ‘Dark Triad’) to better understand why moral emotions can be linked to maladaptive and antisocial acts. The course offers a variety of opportunities of active involvement through mini-researching, discussion, and a search for examples of some of the phenomena studied in real life.

Blended learning

The course provides a captivating background for students of different disciplines who are interested in exploring human behaviours from prominent psychological points of view. Moral emotions such as guilt and shame are discussed, with particular emphasis put on their contribution to someone’s fulfilment, disgrace, or even a crime. In the society, moral behaviours, together with empathy, are in high demand. However, numerous violations are so often present as well. Therefore, narcissistic and psychopathic traits will be studied (the ‘Dark Triad’) to better understand why moral emotions can be linked to maladaptive and antisocial acts. The course offers a variety of opportunities of active involvement through mini-researching, discussion, and a search for examples of some of the phenomena studied in real life.

1. Within the brain. ‘Hot’ emotions versus ‘cool’ cognition: Where the emotions are born?

2. Understanding emotions in more depth: S. Schachter and J.E. Singer’s two-factor theory of emotions.

3. When love and hate gone unconscious: Guilt, pleasure, and shame in the view of S. Freud’s psychoanalytical works.

4. Ego-depletion and moral emotions in everyday life (a double class).

5. Amazed at self-love: Emotional functioning in narcissism.

6. No shame nor guilt: Psychopathy and crime in the light of moral emotions.

7. Test and the follow-up.

8. Credits and final notes.

Chosen major aspects of moral emotions proposed by the most influential classical and contemporary thinkers will be studied. Generally speaking, moral behaviours serve as the foundation of individual and social prosperity. Although such a standard, part of the universal laws, clearly indicates the most desirable ways of existing in a given culture, not everyone follows it, however. Therefore, the emotional and cognitive factors will be revealed to better understand the common causes of love and hate, transgression or failures in today's world.

Literature:

[1] LeDoux, J.E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 2000. 23:155–184.

LeDoux_2000_Emotioncircuitbrain.pdf

[2] Emotion – Psychology (wsu.edu)

[3a] Xu, H., et al. (2012) Too fatigued to care: Ego depletion, guilt, and prosocial behaviour, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.0

jespXU-Begue-Bushman.pdf

[3b] Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., Tice, D.M. (1998). Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, No. 5, 1252-1265.

psp74051252.tif (washington.edu)

[4] Lapsley, D. (2012). Id, Ego, and Superego. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-375000-6.00199-3. Appeared in V.S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, 2nd Ed. Elsevier.

Id_Ego_and_Superego (1).pdf

[5] Young, E. (2022). Understanding the bad character: Research into the Dark Triad, digested. British Psychological Society Research Digest.

Understanding bad character: Research into the Dark Triad, digested – Research Digest (bps.org.uk)

Further reading:

Clark, A. (2012). Working with guilt and shame. Advances in psychiatric treatment, 18, 137–143 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.110.00832.

working-with-guilt-and-shame.pdf (cambridge.org)

Thanks to the discussed phenomena, students will gain the informed view on the subject, especially in the field of personality and social psychology. Also, they will develop basic roadmap for identifying problematic forms of chosen emptions such as shame and guilt. They will be able to comment on various behaviours linked to moral emotions in light of their usefulness in scientific research and everyday life, the intercultural contexts including.

Individual and group work, a critical text analysis, reinterpretation of experiments cited in the reads, a mini-presentation, making references to real-life occurrence of the phenomena studied in class (movies, songs, art, literature, magazines, case studies).