【Seminar公告】
講題：Morality, Virtues, and 道德: The influence of Chinese vs. English language and cultures on mental concepts
講者：Prof. Emma Buchtel (Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong)
時間：2024-04-26（五）13:10-15:00
地點：成大社會科學院北棟2樓心理學系階梯教室
演講語言：English
線上註冊連結: https://nckucc.webex.com/weblink/register/r1d487904a965877e502def086449eec5
 
演講摘要：
In this lecture, I will show how Western psychologists’ studies of “moral cognition” may not translate across cultures and language. However, by comparing English- and Chinese-speakers lay prototypes of morality, we can come closer to finding what makes morality a universally important concept. I describe three threads of research that suggest that the Chinese “moral” concept does not match Western psychological research on “moral cognition.” First, the content of English and Chinese “immoral” categories of behaviors are ill-matched, disagreeing on whether criminally wrong vs. uncivilized behaviors belong within the category of immorality. Second, justifications also suggest a mis-match, as Chinese explanations for why behaviors are wrong emphasize disrespectfulness and character judgement, while American explanations focus on harmfulness and unfairness. Third, that Chinese immoral behaviors do not uniquely evoke what Western psychologists term “moralization,” such as more universalization or more emotional engagement (as measured through psychophysiological measures), compared to “worse than Chinese-immoral” behaviors such as harmful behaviors.  I conclude that Western-style moral cognition, i.e. an emphasis on absolutist, principle-based use of moral judgement, may be a cultural curiosity and not a universal way of categorizing and regulating socially undesirable behaviors. Features of Chinese history and culture may have enhanced the salience of a different human tendency: A focus on character virtues and moral cultivation, with a uniquely Confucian emphasis on appropriate fulfillment of social roles. Yet, even if Chinese morality emphasizes role-focused virtue ethics, and Western morality emphasizes moral judgment and absolutist principles, both forms may be “natural” human ways of thinking of morality—differentially emphasized in each culture—and both may serve a meaning-making, moral-compass-providing purpose of morality. 
 
個人簡介或CV：
 Dr. Emma E. Buchtel (BOOK-tull) is Associate Professor and Associate Head (International Engagement) in the Department of Psychology and Member of the Centre for Psychosocial Health at the Education University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in cultural psychology (social/personality area; quantitative minor) from the University of British Columbia in 2009, and a B.A. from Yale University in 1999. In between, she spent four years in Changsha and Beijing as a teacher and student, experiences that led to her research interests in Chinese and Western comparisons. Her research aims to explore and deepen our understanding of Chinese cultural influences on psychology, including moral concepts, values, motivation and reasoning styles, and their implications for Western theories. Her lab uses interdisciplinary approaches, multiple/mixed methods with cross-cultural data (e.g. psychophysiological data, qualitative data, quantitative surveys and experiments) and adopts open-science practices.
個人網站：
 https://www.emmabuchtel.org/
參考文獻：
Buchtel, E. E. (2023). Morality as fish: Defining morality as a prototype concept. Psychological Inquiry, 34(2), 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2023.2248859
Buchtel, E. E., Ng, L. C. Y., Bidwell, A., & Cannon, P. R. (2022). Moral expressions in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the U.K.: Cultural similarities and differences in how affective facial muscle activity predicts judgments. Emotion, 22(3), 511-525. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000766
Buchtel, E. E. (2022). Cultural psychology and the meaning of morality in Chinese and China: Misconceptions, conceptions, and possibilities. In R. Nichols (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Morality, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior in China. (pp. 215-235). Routledge.
蒲安梅 (2023): 文化心理學與道德在中文和中國之意涵：誤解，觀念和可能性，  輯於柯仁泉 (Ryan Nichols) 編《中國人道德體系的文化演進》，(頁255-277)，新北市， 華藝學術出版部(Ainosco Press).
Buchtel, E. E., Ng, L. C. Y., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S. J., Biesanz, J. C., Chen, S. X., Bond, M. H., Peng, Q., & Su, Y. (2018). A sense of obligation: Cultural differences in the experience of obligation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(11), 1545-1566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218769610
Buchtel, E. E., Guan, Y., Peng, Q., Su, Y., Sang, B., Chen, S. X., & Bond, M. H. (2015). Immorality East and West: Are immoral behaviors especially harmful, or especially uncivilized? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(10), 1382-1394. doi:10.1177/014616721559560n6