CHRISTIAN H. JORDAN and MARK P. ZANNAargue that there
isprimarily a way on how to read research reports, for several reasons.
They suggest that for starters, research papers make up the majority of
the published literature in social psychology. Second, the summaries in
review articles and the ideas given in theoretical papers are based on the
findings in research reports. Fluency in reading original research reports is
required to gain a thorough understanding of how social psychological
research is conducted. Furthermore, theoretical articles usually report on
new experiments that compare two theories or test a unique prediction
generated from a new theory. A solid comprehension of basic results is
essential for evaluating the veracity of such theoretical assertions. Finally,
most research papers follow a standard format that new readers are likely
to be unfamiliar with.
They, therefore, discuss the anatomy of research reports where you will
know where in the paper particular information is found, making it easier
to locate.
The suggested anatomy by"CHRISTIAN H. JORDAN and MARK P.
ZANNAconsists of the following;
1. TITLE AND ABSTRACT
The title presents a concise statement of the theoretical issues
investigated, and/or the variables that were studied.
For example, in the article “Moral Foundations, Political Orientation and
Religiosity in Italy”, the title itself draws a vivid picture of what we are
going to learn.
Abstract:
They argue that the abstract is a brief synopsis of the study, and packs a
lot of information into 150 words or less. The abstract contains
information about the problem that was investigated, how it was
investigated, the major findings of the study, and hints at the theoretical
and practical implications of the findings
For the topic above, the most appropriate abstract is as follows;
In light of Haidt and Graham's Moral Foundations Theory, this study
explores the influence of political orientation and religion in moral
foundations endorsement in Italy. According to this theory, moral systems
are made up of five aspects (harm/care, fairness/reciprocity,
ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity), which can be
divided into two categories (Binding and Individualizing).
Objective:
We want to investigate and extend the moral foundation assumptions to
the Italian context, predicting that Italian Right-wingers are more likely to
support binding principles than Left-wingers. Given that politics and the
Catholic Church have always been interwoven in modern Italy, we extend
this line of study by looking at the role of religion.
Method:
A total of 248 Italian participants completed a self-report questionnaire,
which included the Moral Foundations Questionnaires. Individuals place a
higher value on individualizing moral foundations than on binding moral
foundations; conservatives and regular religious attendees place a higher
value on binding moral foundations than people with a Left-wing political
orientation and those who are less religious.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that the political orientation of Italians plays a
substantial role in the adoption of moral principles. Furthermore, our
findings suggest that, given the historical and important importance of the
Catholic Church in Italian society and politics, binding values are
especially valued in groups like practicing Catholics, where institutions,
families, and authority are prized.
INTRODUCTION
Here, they suggest thatthe introduction begins the main body of a
research report. Here, the researchers set the stage for the study. They
present the problem under investigation and state why it was important to
study. By providing a brief review of past research and theory relevant to
the central issue of investigation, the researchers place the study in a
historical context and suggest how the study advances knowledge of the
problem
The topic method of “Moral Foundations, Political Orientation, and
Religiosity in Italy” is as follows;
Morality is a complex concept that has been defined in a variety of ways
in the literature by philosophers and social psychologists [1 - 5]. Natural
selection prepares the human mind to respond to five sets of moral
foundations labeled Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty,
Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity, according to Haidt and colleagues'
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) [1 - 6], which asserts that natural
selection prepares the human mind to respond to five sets of moral
foundations labeled Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/l Concerns
for others' suffering, compassion emotions, and virtues of care are all
examples of harm. Justice, rights, and reciprocity are all aspects of
fairness. Concerns about social cohesion and group membership
requirements are referred to an ingroup. Concerns for social order,
expectations of social role fulfillment, and respect for traditions and
institutions are all part of the authority.
1. THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
2.1. The Political Situation in Italy from the First Republic to the
Early Years of the Twenty-First Century
"Italy has a multi-party-political system that is highly fragmented. Donald
Sassoon [19] argues that thanks to improvements in the socio-economic
situation, life expectancy, and better rights and civil liberties comparable
to other Western European countries, the huge gap that existed in Italy in
comparison to the United States – the model that Italians largely compare
their own country with – has been significantly reduced since 1945. In
terms of politics alone, Italy was unusual in comparison to other
Westernized countries in that people remained loyal to the same Catholic
party (Democrazia Cristiana – DC) for a long time after the war, despite
the fact that this party required coalition partners such as the Socialist
and Communist parties to form a government. Italy had the largest
Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano – PCI) and the largest
Catholic Party (Partito Catholico Italiano – PCI) in Europe (DC).
Furthermore, Italy, like West Germany, was a post-authoritarian country-
influenced heavily by the US, with a very unstable and dysfunctional
parliamentary system, rapidly changing governments, and systemic
corruption.
2.2. Moral Reasoning and Religiousness in the Italian Political
Context
For most people and groups, religion is the primary source of moral ideals,
beliefs, and actions. Religion stresses certain aspects of morality that non-
religious people find less significant, such as the ethics of divinity and
purity [37]. Graham and Haidt [38] research religion from a social-
functionalist perspective, concentrating on the link between religion and
morality. Many religious individuals feel they are inextricably linked. They
define religion as a mechanism of organizing and holding people together
in moral communities, drawing on Durkheim's [39] conceptualizations of
religion. Religion is said to be a complicated system with a variety of
social roles, one of which is to unite people in cooperative communities
centered on deities [38 - 40]. Glover [41] investigates the links between
moral reasoning and religiousness among participants divided into three
religious’ groups: conservative, moderate, and liberal. Although
correlational analyses reveal links between moral reasoning and
religiousness, those relationships are not consistent when the three
categories are analyzed independently.
1. THE CURRENT RESEARCH
This study will look at the moral foundation's assumptions in the context
of Italy, building on previous research that has linked moral insights to
political orientation. We also want to look into the Catholic-Christian
religion's wide and historical role in Italian politics and moral reasoning.
H1: Individualizing moral foundations will be more relevant to
Italians than constraining moral foundations, according to both
Left and Right-wingers.
In comparison to the liberal/Left, the conservative/Right political wing is
consistent in its emphasis on binding foundations for its emphasis on
obedience and social order. In other words, politically progressive persons
place a higher focus on individualizing ideals than binding values, whereas
political conservatives place a stronger emphasis on the in-group,
authority, and purity [8].
H3: Regular Catholic church attendees will value binding values
more than nonattenders and infrequent religious attendees
among Italians.
The Catholic Church clearly plays a part in politics and Italian moral
reasoning, but this role is multifaceted and does not intersect with Italian
political ideology, according to the link between religion and political
orientation. Despite the fact that the Italian Church is a transversal,
autonomous, and authoritative point of reference in Italian culture on
complicated ethical and moral issues, it appears to have a binding
approach to morality, emphasizing either individualizing or binding ideals.
1. MATERIAL AND METHODS
CHRISTIAN H. JORDAN and MARK P. ZANNAsay thatin the method
section, the researchers translate their hypotheses into a set of specific,
testable questions.
The following is a kind of method used in the above topic;
4.1. Instruments and Procedures
In 2010, in the Center-South of Italy, a survey based on MFT [8] was
administered to students in a university setting and in some youth
sections of political parties during some party meetings, either to Left-
wing political groups (PD) or Right-wing political groups (PdL – Popolo della
Libertà). The research approach was in accordance with the Italian
Psychology Association's Code of Ethics [70].
The political inclination of the participants was graded on a seven-point
scale ranging from one (left) to seven (right). We assumed a one-
dimensional spectrum of Left-Right or liberal-conservative political
orientations that was well-organized. Indeed, a single liberal-conservative
(or Left–Right) continuum was deemed a valid and appropriate measure of
voting behavior and beliefs on a variety of subjects [31, 72, 73]. We used
a single question to assess self-reported religious beliefs (1 = I am a
believer; 2 = I am a non-believer); and a single item to assess self-
reported religious attendance, ranging from 1 (not at all religious
attenders) to 7 (very religious attenders) (extremely religious attenders).
One of the items listed the religious affiliations of the individuals.
4.2. Participants
There were 248 Italians in all (166 females, or 66.9%, and 77 males, or
31%; 5 are missing). Their average age was 25.29 (SD = 9.53), with a
range of 18 to 69 years old. Political orientation found that 90 people
(36.3 percent; 1 to 3 on the continuum axis) prefer to be on the left side
of the Left-Right axis, whereas 98 people prefer to be on the right side
(39.5 percent; from 5 to 7). The analyses do not include the scale's Centre
point (21.4 percent of participants). The bulk of the people in the study (n
= 201; 81%) were religious believers. The vast majority (n = 178; 71.8
percent) identified as Catholic-Christians. The analyses excluded 24
participants (9.7%) who said they believed in "God" but did not identify
with a religious confession, as well as 20 people (8%) from various and
small religions. According to religion attendance, 56 participants reported
themselves to be absolutely nonattenders (22.6 percent; 44 non-
believers; 11 Catholics); 81 declared themselves to be intermittent
religious attenders (32.7 percent); and 84 declared themselves to be
consistent religious attenders (33.99 percent).
1. Results
At the results section, they suggest that the results section describes how
the observations collected were analyzed to determine whether the
original hypotheses were supported. The following is the results of the
chosen topic;
On the basis of mean scores, we estimated two individualizing indices
(Cronbach's Alpha =.74) and binding foundations (Cronbach's Alpha =.86)
according to Graham and colleagues' work [10] and Bobbio and
colleagues' Italian psychometric examinations of the MFQ [71]. Bobbio
and associates [71] revealed that the two-factor solution – with no
differentiation between moral relevance and moral judgment items – is
more stable and reliable than the other solutions in their Italian
psychometric study. Pearson's Correlations between moral foundations,
political orientation, and religious attendance were calculated
1. discussion
At the discussion section, they suggest thatthe discussion section
frequently opens with a summary of what the study found and an
evaluation of whether the findings supported the original hypotheses.
Here, the researchers evaluate the theoretical and practical implications
of their results
The following is the discussion of the topic;
The Italian political orientation emerges as a crucial element in the
unequal adoption of moral basis sets, according to this study. In short,
individuals in Italy with both Left- and Right-wing political orientations
place a higher value on individualizing moral foundations than on binding
moral foundations; however, individuals with the Right-wing political
orientation place a higher value on binding moral foundations than those
with the Left-wing political orientation. Conservatives appear to be more
concerned with the social order in the literature [73, 74], whilst liberals
are more concerned with individual rights and the employment of
government programs to expand those rights as widely as possible [75,
76].
Right-wing conservatives, in general, have binding moral concerns that
Left-liberals do not recognize as such [9]. Individualizing foundations have
been endorsed by liberals more consistently than binding foundations,
according to Graham and colleagues [8]. The authors of a study on sacred
values and taboo trade-offs [8] also discovered that liberals are not more
concerned than conservatives about individualizing issues. Similarly, we
assume that individualizing principles such as justice and compassion
influence attitude and conduct across the political spectrum and that they
are significant on both the Left and Right. Both Left-wingers and Right-
wingers agree that individualizing moral underpinnings are more
important than binding ones.
CONCLUSION
Our findings reflect the findings of the MFH, which reveal that both the
Left and the Right in Italy embrace liberty, justice, and equality as
fundamental political aspirations rather than binding foundations. In
organizations where institutions, groups, families, and authority are
prized, such as Italian right-wingers or frequent Catholic attendees from
both the Left and the Right, binding values are significant.
"
REFERENCES
Haidt J, Joseph C."Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions
generate culturally variable virtues."Daedalus 2004; 133(4): 55-66.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/0011526042365555]
Gilligan C. In a different voice: Essays on psychological theory and
women’s development."Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1982.
Kohlberg L."Stage and sequence: The cognitive-developmental approach
to socialization."In: Goslin DA. Ed. Handbook of socialization theory and
research. Chicago: Rand McNally 1969.
Shweder RA, Much NC, Mahapatra M, Park L."The big three of morality
(autonomy, community, and divinity), and the big three explanations of
suffering."In: Brandt A, Rozin P. Eds. Morality and health 1997; pp. 119–
169.
