The Attribution of Blame

The Attribution of Blame PDF Author: K.G. Shaver
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461250943
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
How can we identify the causes of events? What does it mean to assert that someone is responsible for a moral affront? Under what circumstances should we blame others for wrongdoing? The related, but conceptually distinct, issues of causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness that are the subject of this book play a critical role in our everyday social encounters. As very young children we learn to assert that "it wasn't my fault," or that "I didn't mean to do it." Responsibility and blame follow us into adulthood, as personal or organizational failings require explanation. Although judgments of moral accountability are quickly made and adamantly defended, the process leading to those judgments is not as simple as it might seem. Psychological research on causality and responsibility has not taken complete advantage of a long tradition of philosophical analysis of these concepts. Philosophical discussions, for their part, have not been sufficiently I1ware of the psychological realities. An assignment of blame is a social explanation. It is the outcome of a process that begins with an event having negative consequences, involves judgments about causality, personal responsibility, and possible mitigation. The result can be an assertion, or a denial, of individual blameworthiness. The purpose of this book is to develop a comprehensive theory of how people assign blame.

The Attribution of Blame

The Attribution of Blame PDF Author: K.G. Shaver
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461250943
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
How can we identify the causes of events? What does it mean to assert that someone is responsible for a moral affront? Under what circumstances should we blame others for wrongdoing? The related, but conceptually distinct, issues of causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness that are the subject of this book play a critical role in our everyday social encounters. As very young children we learn to assert that "it wasn't my fault," or that "I didn't mean to do it." Responsibility and blame follow us into adulthood, as personal or organizational failings require explanation. Although judgments of moral accountability are quickly made and adamantly defended, the process leading to those judgments is not as simple as it might seem. Psychological research on causality and responsibility has not taken complete advantage of a long tradition of philosophical analysis of these concepts. Philosophical discussions, for their part, have not been sufficiently I1ware of the psychological realities. An assignment of blame is a social explanation. It is the outcome of a process that begins with an event having negative consequences, involves judgments about causality, personal responsibility, and possible mitigation. The result can be an assertion, or a denial, of individual blameworthiness. The purpose of this book is to develop a comprehensive theory of how people assign blame.

The Limits of Blame

The Limits of Blame PDF Author: Erin I. Kelly
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674980778
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, Erin Kelly challenges the moralism behind harsh treatment of criminal offenders and calls into question our society’s commitment to mass incarceration. The Limits of Blame takes issue with a criminal justice system that aligns legal criteria of guilt with moral criteria of blameworthiness. Many incarcerated people do not meet the criteria of blameworthiness, even when they are guilty of crimes. Kelly underscores the problems of exaggerating what criminal guilt indicates, particularly when it is tied to the illusion that we know how long and in what ways criminals should suffer. Our practice of assigning blame has gone beyond a pragmatic need for protection and a moral need to repudiate harmful acts publicly. It represents a desire for retribution that normalizes excessive punishment. Appreciating the limits of moral blame critically undermines a commonplace rationale for long and brutal punishment practices. Kelly proposes that we abandon our culture of blame and aim at reducing serious crime rather than imposing retribution. Were we to refocus our perspective to fit the relevant moral circumstances and legal criteria, we could endorse a humane, appropriately limited, and more productive approach to criminal justice.

Social Cognition and Aging

Social Cognition and Aging PDF Author: Thomas M. Hess
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080541305
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Most of the research done in social cognition has been conducted with younger adults and may not be applicable to a much older population. Social Cognition and Aging provides a snapshot view of research that has been done with older adults or is directly applicable to this population. Focusing on issues of self identity, social interactions, and social perceptions, this book provides a broad overview of how aging affects one's own perceptions and actions as well as how others perceive and interact with the aged. Coverage includes such topics as self-control, memory, resilience, age stereotypes, moral development, and the "art" of living. With contributions from top researchers in both gerontology and psychology, this book is an important reference for academics and professionals alike in personality, cognition, social psychology, adult development, sociology, and gerontology.

Economic News

Economic News PDF Author: Rens Vliegenthart
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108948081
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Mistreatment in Organizations

Mistreatment in Organizations PDF Author: Pamela L. Perrewé
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1785601164
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Volume 13 of Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being is focused on mistreatment in organizations. Mistreatment can be damaging to the individual as well as to the organization. This volume includes critical topics on customer mistreatment, aggression in the workplace, incivility, and workplace ostracism.

Protest and the Politics of Blame

Protest and the Politics of Blame PDF Author: Debra Lynn Javeline
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472024779
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The wage arrears crisis has been one of the biggest problems facing contemporary Russia. At its peak, it has involved some $10 billion worth of unpaid wages and has affected approximately 70 percent of the workforce. Yet public protest in the country has been rather limited. The relative passivity of most Russians in the face of such desperate circumstances is a puzzle for students of both collective action and Russian politics. In Protest and the Politics of Blame, Debra Javeline shows that to understand the Russian public's reaction to wage delays, one must examine the ease or difficulty of attributing blame for the crisis. Previous studies have tried to explain the Russian response to economic hardship by focusing on the economic, organizational, psychological, cultural, and other obstacles that prevent Russians from acting collectively. Challenging the conventional wisdom by testing these alternative explanations with data from an original nationwide survey, Javeline finds that many of the alternative explanations come up short. Instead, she focuses on the need to specify blame among the dizzying number of culprits and potential problem solvers in the crisis, including Russia's central authorities, local authorities, and enterprise managers. Javeline shows that understanding causal relationships drives human behavior and that specificity in blame attribution for a problem influences whether people address that problem through protest. Debra Javeline is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rice University.

Trends and Issues in Victimology

Trends and Issues in Victimology PDF Author: Moshe Bensimon
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443814539
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This book focuses on varied practical and theoretical issues of the science of victims, Victimology. Featuring a foreword and epilogue by leading victimologists, and fifteen original essays by leading as well as by young international victimologists, Trends and issues in Victimology, illustrates how victimization is currently perceived. This edited collection describes how the victim’s right for privacy is deprived for the benefit of the accused and the public interest, and how special needs populations are exposed to revictimization during criminal proceedings. It also delineates specific characteristics of stalking victims, sexual abused victims, and victims in work place. Several recommendations and solutions in order to balance the justice system and improve the victims of crime situation are presented in this book. Practical modifications such as the adoption of the principle of restitution in the penal code as a framework for building evidence of victim legislation and policy, and the incorporation of the victim’s therapy and restorative justice proceedings into the criminal justice system, are suggested. Theoretical aspects discuss the rhetoric of victimization and the social construction of victimization and empirical aspects of the focus on the impact of victimization. This book is a valuable addition to the growing literature on Victimology and Victimization. This book offers versatile authors of multidisciplinary fields of law, victimology, psychology and criminology. It is suitable to use in courses across social sciences, criminology, victimology and law. ”I have read this book with a kind of breathless tension and with an intellectual joy. Its contributions triggered many theoretical questions. This book not only reflects the current intellectual climate in social science, but it has also posed certain challenges.” —Prof. Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff (from the Foreward).

Ways to be Blameworthy

Ways to be Blameworthy PDF Author: Elinor Mason
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192570218
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
There must be some connection between our deontic notions, rightness and wrongness, and our responsibility notions, praise- and blameworthiness. Yet traditional approaches to each set of concepts tend to take the other set for granted. This book takes an integrated approach to these questions, drawing on both ethics and responsibility theory, and thereby illuminating both sets of concepts. Elinor Mason describes this as 'normative responsibility theory': the primary aim is not to give an account of the conditions of agency, but to give an account of what sort of wrong action makes blame fitting. She presents a pluralistic view of both obligation and blameworthiness, identifying three different ways to be blameworthy, corresponding to different ways of acting wrongly. First, ordinary blameworthiness is essentially connected to subjective wrongness, to acting wrongly by one's own lights. Subjective obligation, and ordinary blame, apply only to those who are within our moral community, who understand and share our value system. By contrast, detached blame can apply even when the agent is outside our moral community, and has no sense that her act is morally wrong. In detached blame, the blame rather than the blameworthiness is fundamental. Finally, agents can take responsibility for some inadvertent wrongs, and thus become responsible. This third sort of blameworthiness, 'extended blameworthiness', applies when the agent understands the objective wrongness of her act, but has no bad will. In such cases, the social context may be such that the agent should take responsibility, and accept ordinary blame from the wronged party.

Justice in Social Relations

Justice in Social Relations PDF Author: Hans Werner Bierhoff
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146845059X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
From July 16 through July 21, 1984 a group of American and West German scholars met in Marburg, West Germany to discuss their com mon work on the topic of justice in social relations. For over 30 hours they presented papers, raised questions about each other's work, and in so doing plotted a course for future research and theory building on this topic. The participants were asked to present work that represented their most recent state-of-the-science contributions in the area. The con tributions to this volume represent refined versions of those presentations-papers that have been improved by the authors' consid eration of the comments and reactions of their colleagues. The result, we believe, is a work that represents the cutting edge of scholarly inquiry into the important matter of justice in social relations. To give the participants the freedom to present their ideas in the most appropriate way, we, the conference organizers and the editors of this volume, gave them complete control over the form and substance of their presentations. The resulting diversity is reflected in this book, where the reader will find critical integrative reviews of the literature, reports of research investigations, and statements of theoretical posi tions. The chapters are organized with respect to the common themes that emerged in the way the authors addressed the issues of justice in social relations. Each of these themes-conflict and power, theoretical perspectives, norms, and applications-is represented by a part of this book.

Policy Controversies and Political Blame Games

Policy Controversies and Political Blame Games PDF Author: Markus Hinterleitner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108494862
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Analyses and compares political blame games in Western democracies to show how democratic political systems manage policy controversies.