DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations College of Science and Health Summer 8-23-2015 Trait Contempt and the Five Moral Foundations Russell Steiger DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/csh_etd Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Steiger, Russell, "Trait Contempt and the Five Moral Foundations" (2015). College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations. 129. https://via.library.depaul.edu/csh_etd/129 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Science and Health at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Trait Contempt and the Five Moral Foundations A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Rusty L. Steiger August, 2015 Department of Psychology College of Science and Health DePaul University Chicago, Illinois i Thesis Committee Christine Reyna, Ph.D, Chairperson Kimberly Quinn, Ph.D. Linda Camras, Ph.D. ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my thesis chair, Christine Reyna, and committee members Kimberly Quinn and Linda Camras for their support, advice, and encouragement throughout this project. I would also like to thank Christine Reyna and DePaul University for providing me with the amazing opportunity of an excellent (and tuition-free!) graduate education, as well as three years of employment in the most fun, challenging, and stimulating job I’ve ever had. I would also like to thank DePaul’s social psychology club (especially Geoffrey Wetherell, Or’Shaundra Benson, Jim Davis, and Verena Graupman) for their excellent feedback and advice throughout this thesis’ many stages of development. Finally, I would like to thank my family, for their unconditional love and support throughout this process. iii Biography Rusty L. Steiger was born in Burbank, Illinois, September 26th, 1984. He graduated from Lemont High School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Lewis University in 2012. With the completion of this thesis, he will receive his Master of Arts degree in Psychology from DePaul University in 2015. iv Table of Contents Thesis Committee………………………………………………………………….i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..ii Biography………………………………………………………………………...iii List of Tables………………………………………………………………….....xii List of Figures.…………………………………………………………………..xiii Abstract...…….……………………………………………………………………1 Introduction.………………………………………………………………….…....4 Past Perspectives on Morality..…………………………………………....6 Contemporary Perspectives on Morality: Group-Level Moral Values……7 Shweder’s Three Ethics.………………………………………......8 Moral Foundations Theory…………………………………........10 Individualizing Foundations: Harm and Fairness ……….11 Socially Binding Foundations: Loyalty, Authority, and Purity ….….………………………………………...……12 Morality and Emotion……………………………………………………13 Different Types of Moral Emotions..…………………………….14 Classifications of the Moral Emotions ………………………......15 Links between Other-Critical Emotions and Moral Values..………….…16 Individual Differences in Emotion as a Predictor for Group-Level Moral Values ………………………………………………………………….. 18 v A Gap in the Literature: Trait Contempt as a Predictor of Loyalty and Authority Foundation Valuation…………………………………..……. 20 Trait Contempt Remains Ill-Defined and Under-Researched ...... 21 Defining and Measuring Trait Contempt: a Gap in the Literature 22 The Functional Features of Emotion …………………………………… 23 The Essential Features for the Study of Moral Emotions ……… 25 Contempt ……………………………………………………………….. 26 Conflicting Classifications of Contempt by Past Researchers …. 27 A Significant Confound: Semantic Confusion over Contempt in Participants …………………………………………………...… 28 Assessing Contempt via its Unique Facial Expression ………… 29 Defining Contempt via its Fundamental Characteristics ………. 32 Contempt’s Five Key Characteristics …………………...32 Violations of Social Standards, Expectations, or Ideals…33 A Sense of Superiority …………………………………..35 Negative Dispositional Attributions …………………… 35 Aversive and Derogatory Action Tendencies …………...36 Cold Feelings of Dislike with Psychological Distancing .36 What is a Trait Emotion? ………………………………………………..37 Defining Trait Contempt ………………………………………...39 Rationale ………………………………………………………………………...40 Testing the Internal Consistency and Cohesiveness of the Five Key Characteristics of Contempt………………..……………………………41 vi Two Indirect Methodologies for Assessing Contempt and Trait Contempt …………………………………………………………….……………...41 Empirically Testing the CAD Model’s Application to the Five Moral Foundations ……………………………………………………………...42 Study 1 …………………………………………………………………………..42 Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………………....43 Method …………………………………………………………………………..44 Participants ……………………………………………………………....44 Procedure ………………………………………………………………..44 Materials ………………………………………………………………...46 Trait Contempt Instrument ………………………………………46 Increased Awareness of Social Standard Violations Subscale ……………………………………...………… 46 Frequent Feelings of Superiority Subscale ……………...47 Increased Negative Dispositional Attributions Subscale...47 Aversive and Derogatory Action Tendencies Subscale.....47 Cold Feelings with Psychological Distance Subscale.…..48 Additional Contempt Instruments ……………………………… 48 Izard’s Trait Contempt Scale …………………………....48 Crowley’s Trait Contempt Expression Instrument ……...49 Trait Anger and Trait Disgust Scales …………………………....49 The DES Trait Anger Scale ……………………………..49 The DES Trait Disgust Scale …………………………....50 vii Moral Foundations Questionnaire ……………………………….50 Reciprocity Valuation Items …………………………….51 Demographics …………………………………………………...51 Results and Discussion……………………….………………………………….52 Data preparation ………………………………………………………....52 Exploratory Factor Analysis …………………………………………….52 Initial Principle Axis Factoring Model…………………………..53 Fixed-factor principle axis factoring models…………………….54 Hypothesis I: Testing the Construct Validity of the Trait Contempt Instrument’s Subscales …………………………………………………..54 Cold feelings and avoidant action tendencies……………………55 Cold feelings and avoidant action tendencies: Internal reliability and items dropped………………..……….…. 55 Feelings of superiority and social standard violations…………...56 Feelings of superiority and social standard violations: Internal reliability and items dropped……………………56 Derogatory action tendencies ……………………………………57 Derogatory action tendencies: Internal reliability and items dropped ……………………………………………...…..58 Psychological distancing and negative dispositional attributions..58 Psychological distancing and negative dispositional attributions: Internal reliability and items dropped………58 Summary: Reduced trait contempt instrument…………………..59 viii Hypothesis II: Do the Subscales Contribute to a Single Trait Contempt Factor? ………………………………………………………………...... 60 Confirmatory Factor Analysis.…………………………………...61 Discussion of Hypotheses I & II: The Factor Structure of the Trait Contempt Scale and Construct.………..………………………....63 Hypothesis III: Testing the Discriminant and Convergent Validity of the Comprehensive Trait Contempt Scale…………………………………...64 Results of principle components analysis………………………. 65 Limitations of the analytical strategy…………………………….67 Discussion of Hypothesis III: Convergent and Discriminant Validity…………………………………………………………..69 Hypothesis IV: Does Trait Contempt Uniquely Predict Loyalty and Authority Values? .....................................................................................70 Trait contempt as a predictor of authority values ……………….71 Trait contempt as a predictor of loyalty values…………………..71 Discussion of Hypothesis IV: Trait contempt and moral values...72 Trait emotions and the CAD model……………………...73 Trait contempt and other moral values…………………..73 Hypothesis V: Is the Omnibus Trait Contempt Instrument a Stronger Predictor of Moral Values than the Pre-existing Instruments? ……….....75 Path models.…..………………………………………………….75 Improvement over other trait contempt scales.……………..…....76 Study 2.…………………………………………………………………………..77 ix Hypotheses.………………………………………………………………………79 Method.…………………………………………………………………………..80 Participants.…………………………………………………………...….80 Procedure………………………………………………………………...81 Materials…………………………………………………………………81 Moral Scenarios.………………………………………………....81 Facial Expression Magnitude Ratings.…………………………..82 Moral Judgment Items.…………………………………………..83 Trait Emotion Instruments.……………………………………....83 Demographics.…………………………………………………...84 Results and Discussion.……………………………………………………….....84 Data Preparation.…………………………………………………………84 Hypothesis VI: Does the CAD Model Apply to the Five Moral Foundations?.…………………………………………………………….84 Repeated measures results……………………………………….85 Does contempt match the CAD pattern for loyalty and authority violations?...........................................................86 Does anger match the CAD pattern for harm, fairness, and reciprocity violations?........................................................87 Does Disgust Match the CAD Pattern for Purity Violations?.……………………………………………....88 Discussion of Hypothesis VI: Does the CAD pattern apply to the moral foundations?........................................................................89 x Hypothesis VII: Do Trait Emotions predict their Corresponding Emotion’s Expression Ratings Across all Scenario Types?........................................91