Moral Judgment and Reasoning in Addiction and Recovery

Moral psychology research has often overlooked the perspectives of individuals grappling with addiction due to social and methodological biases. To address this, we developed a research tool exploring their moral reasoning across different stages of use and recovery. Phase 1 involved exploratory interviews with three men, shaping our study protocol, including the Population Adapted Moral Dilemma Interview and a semi-structured interview. Phase 2 included 31 men with diverse educational backgrounds and addiction types, spanning active use to 44 years of abstinence. Findings reveal maladaptive moral reasoning frameworks, shaped by deterministic, rigid deontological, and termed “Candidian” tendencies during active addiction. In long-term recovery, participants employ various adaptive strategies to foster autonomous moral decision-making. The study suggests that an unalienating, tailored, and holistic methodological approach is productive in pursuing recovery-oriented knowledge on marginalized populations. Along with recovery, the authoritative and obligative approach is neglected, while moral development is achieved through self-compassionate practicality.