| Introduction | The Philosophy as Virtue as a Skill | Lay Conceptions of Virtue in the Context of Genetic Information | Heritability Beliefs, Parenting and Virtue Development | Vess' Presentation |
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What is the DNA testing company does Vess use as an example in the introduction?
23andMe
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Explain the 'virtue as skill' thesis.
"Virtuous characteristics are considered malleable skills that require training, practice and improvement across time and contexts" (169).
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What view of virtue may be psychologically advantageous for development?
Virtue as skill
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What parenting styles is associated with lower levels of virtue?
Authoritarian parenting; permissive parenting
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"People are more likely to see ______ traits as caused by genes as central to true self"
"But, the ______ true self central traits are more strongly linked to a belief that the trait is caused by genes" Fill in the blanks with "positive" or "negative"
positive; negative
Shows a motivated selectivity of essence placeholders. |
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What is the research objective of Vess' study?
Vess' study examines lay beliefs about genetics in the context of parenting and virtue development.
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Name three characteristics that are considered virtuous strengths?
Temperance, honesty, kindness, curiosity, or generosity.
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What does it mean for personal characteristics to be "fixed" or "malleable?" Why is that important?
Fixed views of personal characteristics assume that characteristics are static and can't be changed.
Malleable views of personal characteristics led people to respond more adaptively to setbacks by adopting orientations that foster self-improvement. "Which view an individual adopts has meaningful and predictable consequences for their judgements, behaviors, and experienced outcomes" (170). |
What parenting style is associated with greater parental efficacy?
Authoritative parenting
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What heritability belief was correlated with genetic essentialism?
Authoritarian Parenting
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What three academic fields is Vess focusing in his study?
1. Philosophy
2. Social Psychology 3. Developmental Psychology |
What is personality trait view of virtue?
The personality trait view of virtue is rooted in Aristotelian ethics and "portrays virtue as a collection of stable character traits that influence behavior consistently across context and time" (169).
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How do "fixed" and "malleable" personal characteristics map onto conceptualizations of virtue (virtue as a personality trait and virtue as skill)?
"Fixed" personal characteristics <--> Virtue as personality trait
"Malleable" personal characteristics <--> virtue as skill thesis |
How do parenting styles map onto conceptualizations of virtue and the fixed vs malleable debate?
Authoritarian parenting --> virtue as a personality trait; fixed personal characteristic.
Authoritative parenting --> virtue as a skill, malleable personal characteristic. |
Where did Vess find his participants for his study?
Amazon Mechanical Turk
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Define "lay heritability beliefs."
Lay heritability beliefs is when individuals in the lay population interpret information about heritability for themselves (168).
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What are dispositional characteristics?
Dispositional characteristics predisposes individuals to act consistently with regard to moral reasons across a variety of situation and over time.
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What is genetic essentialism?
Genetic essentialism is the promotion of "beliefs that genes make psychological characteristics and behaviors unavoidable and less malleable" (171).
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How does virtue develop in children accordin to social-constructivist theories?
"Social-constructivist theories posit that morality and virtue are constructed by children via interactions with others. In early life, of course, interactions with others primarily involve social exchanges with caregivers" (171).
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What heritability beliefs did Vess look at in his study? Name 3.
-Genetic Essentialism
- Discreteness - Informativeness - Social Determinism - Right-Wing Authoritarianism |
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What initiative in the John Templeton Foundation founded Vess' project?
The 'Genetics and Human Agency' initiative
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According to the idea that a skill approach emphasizes deliberate training, what are the three ways one can change or improve their virtuous behavior?
"(1) Increasing reliability in familiar conditions (similar to situation)
(2) Extending current levels of performance to a difficult condition (e.g. driving as safe in icy conditions as dry conditions). (3) Tackling a more difficult task (e.g. a complex task like driving while also navigating to a new location). |
Name the four defining qualities of genetic essentialism and explain them.
1) Fatalism is believing that possessing the gene makes possession of the characteristic uncontrollable and determined.
2) The tendency to see the heritable characteristic as fundamentally caused by genes. 3) Those who possess the genes as members of a distinct group and those who do not possess the gene as unlikely to possess the characteristic linked to the gene. 4) Characteristics described as heritable are viewed as natural, implying in many cases that they are "good" because they follow a natural tendency. |
What is the goal of the major study Vess is conducting? And how does he go about it?
The major goal of the study is to examine the genetic explanations for virtue and how it could give rise to less adaptive parental beliefs and parenting practices.
"We aim to recruit older children and adolescents along with their primary giver to a laboratory study. Both parents and children will complete a variety of measures, including measures of heritability beliefs, virtuous character, and parent-child interactions" (172). |
What is the idea of "essence" placeholders
- Genes as essences (immutable, naturally occurring, diagnostic, casual, stable)
-Folk notions of "true" selves as essences. --> Essentialism bias produces higher belief in "true" selves --> Changes in characteristics fundamental to "true" selves elicit greater belief that a person is becoming who they "truly" are. |
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