Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities
Moral agency is manifested in both the power to refrain from behaving inhumanely and the proactive power to behave humanely.
Moral agency is embedded in a broader sociocognitive self theory encompassing self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective, and self-regulatory mechanisms rooted in personal standards linked to self-sanctions.
The self-regulatory mechanisms governing moral conduct do not come into play unless they are activated, and there are many psychosocial maneuvers by which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged from inhumane conduct.
The moral disengagement may center on the cognitive restructuring of inhumane conduct into a benign or worthy one by moral justification, sanitizing language, and advantageous comparison; disavowal of a sense of personal agency by diffusion or displacement of responsibility; disregarding or minimizing the injurious effects of one 's actions; and attribution of blame to, and dehumanization of those who are victimized.
Many inhumanities operate through a supportive network of legitimate enterprises run by otherwise considerate people who contribute to destructive activities by disconnected subdivision of functions and diffusion of responsibility.
Given the many mechanisms for disengaging moral control, civilized life requires, in addition to humane personal standards, safeguards built into social systems that uphold compassionate behavior and renounce cruelty.
References
Bandura, Albert (1999) Moral disengagement in the perpetration of
inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review 3(3): 193–20
2 comments:
Kakak, as much as this is interesting, my head sekarang sangat lembab (read: malas) nak digest such a complicated article.
I should use my brain more.
So, from what I gathered (which might be wrong), people can lose their humaneness if they're influenced by their society/environment?
>>>Amalina-san!
Yep, it's pretty much that way.
Well, I find this Bandura article really intriguing & interesting because it's impressive to know just what a human can do when he or she loses the ability to properly control himself/herself and the fact that how the person can slowly lose morality when he/she is surrounded in "bad" environment and/or ill-mannered society.
Aaah..you can never know what a person is capable of doing. Human being is unpredictable after all.
p/s: I'm just having one of my obsession moment with psychological theories, so let's not let this post pushes your brain to work hard or anything of the sort, Amalina-san. :P
Post a Comment