NCJ Number
186986
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2001 Pages: 1-34
Editor(s)
Vincent B. Van Hasselt,
Michel Hersen
Date Published
2001
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This review focuses on one aspect of moral judgment of aggression and violent behavior in the context of the psycho-dynamics of everyday life, judgmental modularity.
Abstract
The central hypothesis asserts that, from the victim's perspective, the severity of judgments or the relative weight assigned to physical damage will be maximized when information on intent and damage is available, whereas inverse trends will typify judgments of the same person from the assailant's perspective. This view resembles the spirit of the functional approach to moral judgments of violent behavior. In this light, related studies conducted within the framework of functional measurement were reviewed, and judgmental modularity is documented in the majority of the findings. However, in two studies, the same participants exhibited judgmental consistency in the first phase and judgmental modularity in the second phase which manipulated other types of judgmental perspectives. Implications for the issue of judgmental modularity, for the issue of modularity in violent behavior, and for a proposal to establish a functional definition of aggression are discussed. 87 references, 10 tables, and 8 figures