Euthanasia and Psychology

 

Elderly Man and a Garden, 2023
Geoffrey W Sutton & Bing AI

Euthanasia is the termination of a life to end pain and suffering. Euthanasia is both an ethical, legal, and spiritual issue (e.g., Deak et al., 2017; Gielen et al., 2011). Ethicists consider different types of euthanasia. The active type refers to ending life by an active process such as injecting a drug. The passive type allows a person to die by withholding artificial life support. A related procedure is to withdraw life support from a patient who is on life support. Euthanasia may also be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia involves the consent of the patient. Involuntary euthanasia occurs without consent. Sometimes patients are not able to give consent because they are unconscious, but their wishes are known. Euthanasia may also be categorized by who is involved in the process. For example, euthanasia may be self-administered, administered by someone else, or self-administered with assistance. In the US, a small majority (55%) consider doctor-assisted suicide morally acceptable (Brenan, 2022).

Source

Sutton, G. W. (2023). Assessing spirituality & religiosity: Beliefs, practices, values, & experiences. Springfield, MO: Sunflower.

References

Brenan, M. (2022, June 9). Americans Say Birth Control, Divorce Most 'Morally Acceptable'. Gallup. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/393515/americans-say-birth-control-divorce-morally-acceptable.aspx



Deak, C., & Saroglou, V. (2017). Terminating a child’s life? Religious, moral, cognitive, and emotional factors underlying non-acceptance of child euthanasia. Psychologica Belgica, 57(1), 59–76. https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.341


Gielen, J., Van den Branden, S., Van Iersel, T., & Broeckaert, B. (2011). The diverse influence of religion and world view on palliative-care nurses’ attitudes towards euthanasia. Journal of Empirical Theology, 24(1), 36–56.

 

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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Psychology of Guilt

Guilt is an uncomfortable emotional response associated with personal responsibility for violating one's moral code.

The moral violations may be doing something wrong or failing to do something one ought to do.

Guilt in a psychological sense is different from guilt in a legal sense. In psychology, a person feels guilty, which involves a self-conscious response along with the emotion. The feeling of guilt may be associated with past or present actions or failures to act associated with oneself or one's group. 

A person found guilty of breaking a law is a judgment made by some external authority. The person judged guilty may or may not feel guilty.

In psychology, a small amount of guilt related to a specific act or failure to act may be helpful to maintain important relationships when the feeling leads to actions that repair the perceived harm such as an apology or actions that rebuild trust.

Excessive guilt can be harmful. When people cannot gain relief from guilt they may need to see a psychotherapist.

Psychologists distinguish between guilt and shame. See the article on shame and the work by June Tangney. Guilt generally is experienced as a distressful emotion linked to some negative outcome or experience for which the person who feels guilty believes they have some degree of responsibility. In contrast, shame is a more pervasive negative evaluation of oneself as unworthy or blameworthy.

June Tangney was interviewed for an APA podcast. Here is a quote from that interview.

In a nutshell, when we feel shame, we feel bad about ourselves. We are fundamentally flawed because we did something. It reflects on who we are as a person. I’m a bad person for having done that. Guilt in contrast focuses on a behavior somewhat separate from the self. You can be a good person, but do a bad thing.

Guilt and Religion

Guilt and religion often have a close relationship. This is often seen in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for those who obsess about wrongdoing and perform compulsive religious actions as if to rid oneself of guilt. For example, repeatedly confessing sin or asking forgiveness for sin.

 Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

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Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Read more about shame and guilt

Dein S. (2013). The Origins of Jewish Guilt: Psychological, Theological, and Cultural Perspectives. Journal of spirituality in mental health, 15(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2012.737682

Rakesh, K., Arvind, S., Dutt, B. P., Mamta, B., Bhavneesh, S., Kavita, M., Navneet, K., Shrutika, G., Priyanka, B., Arun, K., Harkamal, K., & Jagdeep, K. (2021). The Role of Religiosity and Guilt in Symptomatology and Outcome of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Psychopharmacology bulletin, 51(3), 38–49.

Tangney, J. P. (1990). Assessing individual differences in proneness to shame and guilt: Development of the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 102-111.

Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256-1269.

Walinga, P., Corveleyn, J., & van Saane, J. (2005). GUILT AND RELIGION: THE INFLUENCE OF ORTHODOX PROTESTANT AND ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CONCEPTIONS OF GUILT ON GUILT-EXPERIENCE. Archiv Für Religionspsychologie / Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 27, 113–135. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23910015

Lazarus effect / phenomenon

The Lazarus Effect or Lazarus Phenomenon is a person's return to life after they were declared dead.

According to the Smithsonian, perhaps one third of those who return to life make a complete recovery.

The effect is named for Lazarus of Bethany brought back to life in response to a command from his friend Jesus (John 11).

Researchers have found published reports of the phenomenon, which is also called spontaneous resuscitation. Physician surveys have documented the Lazarus Effect at a fairly high level of frequency but others are sceptical.

From the perspective of clinical psychology, it is easy to see why people were so afraid of being buried alive in the past and arranged for "safety coffins" that allowed for air intake and ways to notify people if they were trapped inside such as bells and flags. The fear is called taphophobia.

From the perspective of moral psychology, emotional responses can influence decisions about how long people wait until allowing a perceived dead person to be maintained on life support. Another consideration is the time frame for removing donated organs.

References

Adhiyaman, V., Adhiyaman, S., & Sundaram, R. (2007). The Lazarus phenomenon. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 100(12), 552–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076807100012013

Braun P., Herff H., Paal P. (2011). The Lazarus phenomenon-false positive death certifications and auto-resuscitation cases covered in lay press. Resuscitation, 82, 1363-1364

Bray, J.G. (1993). The Lazarus Phenomenon Revisited. Anesthesiology 78:, 991 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-199305000-00030

Gerard, D., Vaux, J. Boche, T., Chollet-Xemard, C., & Marty, J. (2013). Lazarus phenomenon: Knowledge, attitude and practice, Resuscitation, 84,12, 153, ISSN 0300-9572, 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2013.07.030.

Hornby, K., Hornby, L., & Shemie, S. D. (2010). A systematic review of autoresuscitation after cardiac arrest. Critical care medicine, 38(5), 1246–1253. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181d8caaa

Image: The Resurrection of Lazarus by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308 - 1311)

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 

 

Dr. Sutton’s posts are for educational purposes only. See a licensed mental health provider for diagnoses, treatment, and consultation.

Virtue Signaling & Moral Grandstanding

 

Link to Time Image/Getty Images 2020

Virtue signaling is a 2015 term meaning that people are advertising themselves as kind, decent, and virtuous. Virtue signaling is a term used to shame others for their moral grandstanding.

Moral grandstanding combines the concept of a moral proclamation with the concept of a prominent display (see Tosi & Warmke, 2016). Making moral pronouncements is risky because human beings have different views on morality and rarely live lives that match the call to a moral stance.

Grandstanding of any type is also risky because people may look closely at what the speaker is saying or doing and find fault if the pronouncements from the public grandstand seem hollow, false, or a thinly disguised attempt to win votes or profit from a newly discovered cause—often presented as a moral cause.

Psychological scientists find that people are harsher in their moral judgments when they perceive a selfish motivation compared to people who do not make a moral judgment (Zaki & Cikara, 2020).

Zaki and Cikara suggest that virtue signaling may work under certain conditions. If you follow politics or religion, you have likely seen many people saying or doing things that their leaders say or do. Loud and prominent voices are signals. People often do not know what other’s think. Most people are influenced by frequent and persistent opinions. Opinions and information are powerful forces for social change. Opinions can create social norms, which people adopt without a great deal of thought.

Virtue signaling that leads to conformity may be judged in terms of effectiveness. The actions that are signaled are those subject to be examined for their moral worth.

Cite this post

Sutton, G. W. (2021, January 14). Virtue signaling & moral grandstanding. SuttonPsychology. https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2021/01/virtue-signaling-moral-grandstanding.html

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Psychology of Respect

Respect is a bipolar relational concept describing a person’s social status and likeability within a social group.

Groups vary in size. Groups may be small such as family members, a classroom, or a department at work. And groups may be as large as a university, professional association, multinational corporation, or nation.

Respect is a bipolar concept. The nature of respect is evident in the anchor words we use to describe level of respect as high or low. Not surprisingly, level of respect varies based on the perception group members have of the words and deeds of another group member. Of course, different people have may different opinions regarding the level of respect that should be accorded to a group member.

Social status is linked to a group’s values. Groups have different qualities that they highly value such as loyalty, kindness, wealth, fitness, attractiveness, musical talent, writing ability, and so forth. People who have high levels of several values gain higher status, which is an aspect of respect. Sometimes the social status is evident in observable ways such as clothing, medals, places to sit at a meeting, and so forth. In some cultures, social status along with respectful treatment can be purchased such as buying a first-class plane ticket.

Likeability refers to personal qualities, which are highly valued within a group. People who appear cheerful, interested, respectful of others, sincere, and so forth get high respect. Physically attractive people often get high respect evident by people wanting to spend more time with them.

Different groups may hold competing values. For example, high levels of wealth are highly valued in many western cultures. However, a poor person who has given her life to helping the poor can also be regarded with a high level of respect.

Loss of respect. Loss of respect happens when there is evidence of a serious breach of a group’s values. Groups that value freedom from sexual harassment will quickly devalue the respect status of the person who harasses. When it comes to moral violations, one powerful driver of disrespect is the emotion of disgust. Disgust is often, but not exclusively, linked to socially unacceptable sexual behavior.

Respect for the office. In western cultures, people are expected to treat people holding certain positions with culturally defined ways of showing respect. When an officeholder has behaved disrespectfully, members are expected to show respect to the position even if they consider the officeholder as a person who does not deserve respect. This can happen with high level political leaders like presidents and prime ministers.

Respect and Virtues. In some groups, the possession of certain traditional virtues gain high levels of respect. In some groups, people feel conflicted about the virtues. For example, self-confident leaders may border on being arrogant and violate a value of humility.

For an application of respect to parenting and teaching, see Discipline with Respect. 

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Macbeth Effect

The Macbeth Effect is a finding that people engage in cleansing thoughts and even behavior when they experience a threat to their sense of moral purity. The authors, Chen Bo- Zhong and Katie Liljenquist, reported results in a 2006 article in Science titled, "Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing."

The Macbeth Effect was challenged in a 2018 article by Siev, Zuckerman, and Siev. Their meta-analysis did not support a strong effect. They suggested their may be an effect under certain conditions.


The effect was named Macbeth based on a work by Shakespear (link to a summary of Macbeth).

Reference

Siev, J., Zuckerman, S., Sieve, J.J. (2018). The relationship between immorality and cleansing: A meta-analysis of the Macbeth effect. Social Psychology, 49, 303-309. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000349

Zhong, C-B. & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 313, 1451-1452.


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