Date of Award
Winter 1-10-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology (PhD)
Department
Clinical Psychology
First Advisor/Committee Member
Thane Erickson, PhD
Second Advisor/Committee Member
Amy Mezulis, PhD
Third Advisor/Committee Member
Thomas Carpenter, PhD
Abstract
Anxiety and depression can be represented on a dimensional spectrum of negative affect, broadly termed psychological distress. Research has identified several factors that maintain negative emotion, but have neglected the possibility that individuals’ interpretations of moral issues in the larger macro-system affects their level of distress. Thus, the current study investigated the role of perceptions of moral transgressions, or cognitive interpretations of stimuli (“transgressions”) that violate beliefs about right and wrong, as a predictor of psychological distress. Furthermore, this study tested how perceptions of moral transgressions vary as a function of individuals’ own moral intuitions, or moral foundations. Participants (N = 418) completed a one-time online-survey composed of two parts – correlational and experimental phases. In the correlational phase, participants rated their perception of moral transgressions (others-toward-others) in the socio-political climate over the past two weeks. The experimental phase examined momentary distress ratings elicited after random assignment to morally valanced news articles, compared to a control condition. Each portion investigated moral transgressions predicting distress while controlling for risk factors of distress. Moral foundations in domains of harm, fairness, in-group, authority, and purity were expected to moderate (amplify) this pathway. As hypothesized, moderated regression analysis and multi-level modeling (MLM) demonstrated that perceptions of moral transgressions uniquely predicted distress, above and beyond risk factors of distress. Moreover, in line with moderation hypotheses, high moral foundations amplified some effects (e.g., fairness PMT*MF; b = .23, p = .001). These findings elucidate the importance of conceptualizing distress through a comprehensive lens which incorporates clients’ moral systems and perceptions of events in the larger socio-political-cultural climate.
Recommended Citation
Reas, Hannah, "The Missing Moral Dimension: Perceptions of Transgressions and the Moderating Role of Moral Foundations on Psychological Distress" (2020). Clinical Psychology Dissertations. 50.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/cpy_etd/50
Copyright Status
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Mental Disorders Commons, Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons, Public Affairs Commons, Social Psychology Commons
