En psykologisk genovervejelse af moralsk stress: Et argument for et nyt forskningsparadigme

Lauridsen, Simon Schjermer

4. semester

Psykologi, Kandidat

2024

2024-05-31

47 pages

Moral Distress research remains an increasingly popular term in organizational and nurs-ing literature, despite significant terminological confusion and controversy about what the term does and should refer to. This project argues in favor of a psychological, theory-driven approach to pinpointing a fitting definition for the term. By discussing and analyzing current mainstream definitions for moral distress, it is argued that these defini-tions broadly fit into four different categories: 1) classical definitions, 2) narrow defini-tions, 3) broad definitions and 4) alternative definitions. Building upon the broad definitions, a variety of theory from evolutionary, social and moral psychology is drawn upon to explore the likely elicitors and consequences of moral distress. Using Curry’s (2016) Morality as Cooperation theory as a framework, a vast variety of negative moral situations are identified in the modern workplace, that have not previously been consid-ered in moral distress research. Likewise, drawing upon theories of moral emotions empathy reveals that current understandings of the psychological effects and moral-cognitive processes involved in moral distress are underdeveloped. It is therefore argued that integrating psychological theory can solve some of the current terminological confu-sions about moral distress, by grounding the term in modern understandings of what morality really is. For this purpose, a two-fold definition of moral distress is suggested. Moral distress can be defined as the negative emotional, psychological, motivational, and physiological effects that occur in response to a perceived morally undesirable situa¬tion. This broad definition opens for the possibilities of integrating other organizational terms that are related to morality into a broader framework, such as bullying, lack of reciprocity, free-rider problems, work-life balance, and many others. While these are distinct phenomena, it is argued that there is evidence to suggest that they draw upon the same underlying psychological mechanisms. Due to this being a significant broadening of moral distress’ original object of inquiry, an additional definition for distress is pro¬posed, which is identical to the former, but only focuses on the distress of caregivers in nursing and similar professions. By referring to ‘care-distress’ and moral distress separately, confusion is avoided, and a new paradigm of research into the psychological effects of morality on modern organizations is made possible.

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