Navid Karimian’s scientific contributions

Moral disengagement is an important predictor of unethical behavior. However, there is little information about individual difference predictors of moral disengagement. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the role of moral identity, mood and intelligence in predicting moral disengagement and its mechanisms. A total of 344 Iranian undergraduate students completed scales to assess moral disengagement, moral identity, mood, intelligence and social desirability. Findings indicated that 14% of moral disengagement was predicted by low internalization of moral identity, negative mood and high symbolization of moral identity. Internalization of moral identity and positive mood negatively, and negative mood positively, correlated to moral disengagement and some of its mechanisms. Among the examined mechanisms, only moral justification demonstrated a positive correlation and was predicted by intelligence. The individual differences noted primarily exhibited small effect sizes, with predictor roles accounting for a maximum of 14%. Thus, it can be hypothesized that moral disengagement is more a situational variable than a dispositional one.

Background: Moral disengagement consists of some cognitive mechanisms that people use them to reduce their negative feeling after doing an immoral behavior. Present study has aimed to study the frequencies of the mechanisms in the content of students' reasoning about cheating in exams. Also, it has aimed to study the relationship between the disengagement mechanisms and cheating behavior Method: Present study was a content analysis study. Population was the students of Salman Farsi University of Kazerun (in Iran). The Sample consisted of 379 students who were selected by convenient sampling. Students responded to an open-ended question about how they evaluate cheating in exams; also, they responded to a Likert scale question about how much they cheat in exams. The responses were examined by content analysis within eight mechanisms of moral disengagement framework and also considering cheating as wrong. To statistical analysis it was used the frequency, percent, chi-Square goodness of fit (χ2) t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation and point- biserial correlation. Results: 40.9% of students considered cheating as a wrong behavior; however, 82.7% of students have done it at least once. Among the contents that consider cheating as right, 54.91% corresponded to moral justifications as a mechanism of moral disengagement. Amount of using moral disengagement positively correlated to cheating behavior (r: 0.396). Except the superiority of female students in considering cheating as incorrect, there were not any differences based on gender or years of education in any of the variable. Conclusion: It seems that cheating is not considered as immoral behavior in the reasoning of the students. It is suggested that using some proceedings to reduce moral disengagement and also illuminate the cheating as immoral

Background: Moral disengagement consists of some cognitive mechanisms that people use them to reduce their negative feeling after doing an immoral behavior. Present study has aimed to study the frequencies of the mechanisms in the content of students' reasoning about cheating in exams. Also, it has aimed to study the relationship between the disengagement mechanisms and cheating behavior Method: Present study was a content analysis study. Population was the students of Salman Farsi University of Kazerun (in Iran). The Sample consisted of 379 students who were selected by convenient sampling. Students responded to an open-ended question about how they evaluate cheating in exams; also, they responded to a Likert scale question about how much they cheat in exams. The responses were examined by content analysis within eight mechanisms of moral disengagement framework and also considering cheating as wrong. To statistical analysis it was used the frequency, percent, chi-Square goodness of fit (χ2) t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation and point- biserial correlation. Results: 40.9% of students considered cheating as a wrong behavior; however, 82.7% of students have done it at least once. Among the contents that consider cheating as right, 54.91% corresponded to moral justifications as a mechanism of moral disengagement. Amount of using moral disengagement positively correlated to cheating behavior (r: 0.396). Except the superiority of female students in considering cheating as incorrect, there were not any differences based on gender or years of education in any of the variable. Conclusion: It seems that cheating is not considered as immoral behavior in the reasoning of the students. It is suggested that using some proceedings to reduce moral disengagement and also illuminate the cheating as immoral in formal and informal curriculum of the universities

Background and Aim: Moral disengagement includes the cognitive mechanisms which are formed in the doer's mind while performing unethical actions or deciding not to perform ethical actions, which influences the occurrence of unethical actions or not performing ethical behaviors. The Present study aims to narratively review the studies that have examined the role of this variable in medical and nursing settings. Methods: Through Google scholar and PubMed databases, besides using the search section of the websites of the journals related to medical and nursing ethics, the keywords moral disengagement, medical ethics and nursing ethics were searched; the articles which had studied moral disengagement in medicine and nursing until 2022 were reviewed. Ethical Considerations: The results of the studies have been mentioned without bias, while observing trustworthiness in reporting the contents of the articles. Results: Moral disengagement was found to be prevalent among the nurses and the physicians. Moral disengagement was accompanied by decreasing moral reasoning, behaviors and traits, as well as increasing unethical and unproductive behaviors among the physicians and the nurses. In addition, these mechanisms increased in the medical environments with higher levels of stress, more perceived injustice and higher power. On the other hand, they decreased in managerial conditions in the form of moral leadership. These mechanisms were more prevalent among the physicians and the nurses who had stress, unstable moods, negative emotions, as well as the desire for power. Conclusion: Considering the modifiability of moral disengagement through certain educational interventions, it is necessary to add some lessons or courses in order to introduce and reduce the mechanisms of moral disengagement in academic programs and the in-service courses of doctors and nurses In addition, considering the role of variables such as job stress, perceived injustice and having uncontrolled power, it can be possible to reduce the aforementioned variables and consequently, moral disengagement through applying certain management reforms such as applying ethical leadership.

Background: Moral disengagement is a variable in the social cognitive theory of morality and includes eight cognitive, psychosocial mechanisms by which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged from inhumane conduct. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to validate a university student replica of the moral disengagement scale among some Iranian university students. Methods: This validation study was based on the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) method. The statistical population consisted of 346 undergraduate students at the Salman Farsi University of Kazerun. Also, 44 other undergraduate students were participated to examine the test-retest reliability of the scale. Both samples were selected by convenient sampling. The main sample completed the 32-item Moral Disengagement scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. CFA (by AMOS 24), stability coefficients, Cronbach's alpha, and multiple analysis of variance (ANOVA) (all by SPSS 16) were used to study gender differences. Results: The indices of CFA for the 32-item scale were not satisfactory, then an item in all subscales with the lesser beta was dropped, and the scale included only 24-items. The indices of CFA of the 24-item scale were satisfactory. The internal consistency for the whole scale was desirable (α: .817) and for the subscales were adequate. Test-retest correlations were not desirable for the whole scale (r: .693) and for the subscales. The total score and the scores of some subscales were negatively correlated with social desirability. The total score and the scores of some subscales also were greater in males. Conclusions: The satisfactory indices of CFA and also the higher scores of males in the 24-item scale confirmed its construct validity. However, correlations between the scale and social desirability did not confirm the ideal divergent validity. Thus, assessing the social desirability of the scale can clarify interpreting the scores. The obtained test-retest reliability suggests that this scale cannot assess a stable variable, and according to the social cognitive theory, it is better to consider moral disengagement as a changeable and inconstant variable.