Citation

Fleming WH. J. Relig. Health 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Academy of Religion and Mental Health, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10943-022-01676-5

PMID

36224299

Abstract

This paper introduces an infographic tool called The Moral Injury Experience Wheel, designed to help users accurately label moral emotions and conceptualize the mechanisms of moral injury (MI). Feeling wheels have been used by therapists and clinical chaplains to increase emotional literacy since the 1980s. The literature on the skill of emotion differentiation shows a causal relationship between identifying emotions with specificity and emotional and behavioral regulation. Emerging research in moral psychology indicates that differentiating moral emotions with precision is related to similar regulatory effects. Based on this evidence, it is proposed that increasing moral emotional awareness through use of an instrument that visually depicts moral emotions and their causal links to MI will enhance appraisal and flexible thinking skills recognized to reduce the persistent dissonance and maladaptive coping related to MI. Design of the wheel is empirically grounded in MI definitional and scale studies. Iterative evaluative feedback from Veterans with features of MI offers initial qualitative evidence of validity. Two case studies will show utility of the wheel in clinical settings and present preliminary evidence of efficacy.

Language: en

Keywords

PTSD; Veterans; Chaplain; Emotion differentiation; Feeling wheel; Moral emotion; Moral Injury; Plutchik’s wheel of emotions