No abstract

The scientific study of morality has blossomed in the past decade, yielding key insights into the psychological processes underlying moral judgments. This blossoming has generally taken place along two streams of research: one concerning cultural and individual differences in these processes, and one concerning their situational determinants. Although these two streams often examine the same factors (e.g., the role of contamination in moral judgment), they have not systematically built on each other's findings, and their empirical approaches remain distinct. In this article, we describe how these streams have begun to converge in recent empirical work, highlighting work on political ideology as one example. We then discuss the benefits an integrated research approach can have for moral psychology, especially in (a) delineating the links between moral judgment and moral behavior and (b) expanding the range of moral behaviors studied in order to more fully represent everyday moral life.

Although televisions are commonplace in many long-term care facilities for people with dementia, little research has been done on the possible effects of television viewing on residents' behaviors. The authors' study aims were to document observable behaviors and activities of residents before, during, and after viewing television programs and to determine whether programs had an observable effect on behaviors. The authors enrolled 22 residents in a residential dementia care facility (4 to 5 people in each of the five residential wings). Two raters completed systematic observations for 5 consecutive days at baseline, during the presentation of eight television programs, and for 30 minutes following the program. The authors found that "dozing" was the most common activity during program viewing. In addition, many participants remained in the television area, "watching" a blank television screen in the 30 minutes following the program viewing. Further investigation on television's effect on sleep or participation in other social activities is needed.