The social psychology of conscience

Neil J. MacKinnon

Chapter 8 in The Social Psychology of Morality, 2025, pp 94-105 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter reviews Hitlin's social psychology of morality based on the umbrella concept of conscience, defined as a dynamic process of moral evaluation and judgment enabled by language, the reflexive nature of self, and the neurological complexity of the human brain. The theory views the self as a complex of role and social identities that become integrated into an emergent personal identity. Like social intuitionist theories (Chapters 6 and 7), the theory proposes a dual-process model of intuition and rational deliberation in moral judgments. The theory also emphasizes the cultural and social processes that provide the content of morality in the form of the “Bright Lights” of moral prescriptions and the “Bright Lines” of moral proscriptions. By locating morality at both the macro and micro levels of analysis, the theory bridges institutional and constitutive theories of social order and morality (Chapter 4).

Keywords: Morality; Moral judgment; Conscience; Intuition; Reason; Self (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035364732
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