Mapping the Moral Mind: Developing an Empirical Typology of Moral Residue Reading Experiences through Lexical Basis for Numerically Aided Phenomenology (Lex-Nap)

[Nuo]

Speaker: Nuo Liu @Nuo

Affiliation: Huygens Institute

Co-authors: Aristi Makrygiannaki, Huygens Institute, Kenau Bester, Huygens Institute, Anna Dijkstra, Huygens Institute, Olivia Fialho, Huygens Institute

Title: Mapping the Moral Mind: Developing an Empirical Typology of Moral Residue Reading Experiences through Lexical Basis for Numerically Aided Phenomenology (Lex-Nap).

Abstract: This poster offers a coding system resulting from the analysis of reading experiences of moral residue-related literature. Moral residue (MR) is currently defined as “the distress experienced by a self-perceived failure to meet moral requirements despite not being normatively blamed for it” (Solbakk, 2021). Our analysis assesses the effects of reading literature on this subjective state. Using the NVivo software, we analyse interviews with ten healthcare practitioners on moral residue and fictional works, cataloguing them by following the Lex-Nap methodology. Developing a phenomenological system of categorisation, we map how experiences appear in and influence readers’ understanding of MR.

Nuo Liu_Mapping the Moral Mind Academic Poster.pdf (1.2 MB)

Long abstract

1. Introduction
   This poster is part of the MORE project (WP1), aiming at the conceptualisation and phenomenological analysis of moral residue (MR): the distress experienced by a self-perceived failure to meet moral requirements despite not being normatively blameworthy (Solbakk, 2021). We ask: (1) What do reading interviews with health care practitioners reveal about the experience of MR? and (2) How can literary texts narrate experiences of MR that can contribute to the conceptual model and typology of MR?

Addressing the first question, we conduct a bottom-up qualitative analysis of thematic, semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 healthcare practitioners. The interviews explore how healthcare practitioners describe their experiences through fictional works related to MR (Fialho, 2024a). They are conducted over two sessions of 120-180 minutes in total. In the first session, participants discuss their most memorable MR reading experiences and introduce three to five self-selected or supplied MR fiction books. The second session focused on rereading the most self-impactful story, analysing five evocative passages.

2. Participants and Data analysis
   Thus far, we coded 16 interviews with 10 Dutch healthcare workers from Dutch institutions—10 in the first session and 6 in the second. Participants included seven females and three males, with an average age of 49.

To analyse the data, we use Lexical basis for Numerically Aided Phenomenology (Lex-Nap), a mixed method designed to assess readers’ experiential commentaries by identifying and paraphrasing meaning expressions called constituents and creating clusters of similar commentaries (Fialho, 2024b, p. 68). Lex-Nap identifies constituents based on lexical repetition and modality readers use in their discourse (p. 74).

The analysis is conducted on NVivo software to catalogue how medical practitioners phrase various experiential aspects of MR-related literature. A bottom-up analysis of the participants’ lexical expressions provided us with level-one constituents (Fialho, 2024b, p. 83).

Level-two constituents are based on the readers’ repetition of patterns (Fialho, 2024b, p. 84); using these, we identified 82 types of experiences. The analysis was conducted independently by three judges using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient as a criterion: for 82 constituents, inter-rater agreement was high, ranging between 82.55 and 100.

In constructing level-three constituents, which identify the essence of types of (transformative) reading experiences (Fialho, 2024b, p. 84), we consulted previous empirical findings that categorise constituents of readers’ engagement with texts. A high resemblance was noticed with the Transformative Reading category system (Fialho, 2017), which served as a reference for composing level-three constituents: level-one and level-two constituents were classified into level-three constituents as described in the TR category system. Not all TR categories appeared in our findings (40%), whereas others dominated MR reading experiences (60%).

As an example, one participant responded to Stefan Zweig’s Amok (1922): “I think, I think what makes me smile is that if I will do it differently I would do it in my opinion in the right way sort of.” At the first level, we coded this statement as “I think x,” “what makes me smile,” and “I would do it differently”. The statement was coded in the category “<I think I smile because I would act different (right)>” at the second level. At the third level, it was classified as a “Meta-Experience Response ” with “self-perceptual depth”, indicating how the text inspired readers’ personal growth.

3. Results
   Our coding system has identified ten level-three constituents so far. “Description of Reading Experience” (emotions, environment, time, flow) was coded in 386 references across 11 of 16 transcribed interview files. Additionally, 35 references in 7 files were coded under “Workplace experience”. The constituent “Emotions” had 348 references, with guilt (54) and anger (24) being the most frequent ones, indicating the most relevant feelings to MR-related literature.

“Other Text Experience” was coded in 647 references across 11 files, capturing participants’ comments on interpretive meanings and aesthetic values beyond the text. Sensory and imaginative experiences were reflected in “Sensory Experience” (141 references in 8 files) and “Vivid Imagination” constituents (637 references in 11 files), displaying deep reading engagement. “Story Characters” had 452 codes across all files, demonstrating readers’ evaluation and (lack of) identification with protagonists, whereas “Setting” had only 7 codes appearing in 5 files, indicating a minimal focus on this aspect. The constituent “Meta-Experience Response” had 522 references, in which participants go beyond the reading experience and reflect upon the perception of the self and others.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
   The data suggest that reading moral residue-related fiction can deeply impact healthcare practitioners’ conceptualisations of moral residue. It offers pathways to revisit similar moral dilemmas, anguished sense of responsibility, among other emotions, and facilitate self-perceptual transformation. Using Lex-Nap methodology, we formed the thematic and linguistic constituents describing participants’ reading experience of MR-related fiction. This contributes to the development of an empirical typology of moral residue reading experiences and enables the classification of diverse moral reflection shifts into a structured, data-driven framework.

5. References
   Fialho, O. (2017, September 7). Transformative Reading: Literary Experience and the Awareness of Empathy in Fiction and in Life [Conference Presentation]. Literacy, Empathy and Social Sustainability, Halmstadt University, Sweden.
   Fialho, O. (2024). Transformative Reading. John Benjamins. Transformative Reading
   Fialho, O. (2024, July 19). The Phenomenology of Moral Residue Reading Experiences Among Healthcare Professionals: Towards a Typology [Conference presentation]. A Literary and Phenomenological Journey into Unavoidable Moral Failure: Fiction Reading, Ethics, and Medical Education, Aachen, Germany.
   Solbakk, J. H. (2024). Moral residue – epistemological ramifications, ethical implications, and didactic opportunities (MORE). University of Oslo. Moral residue – epistemological ramifications, ethical implications, and didactic opportunities (MORE) - Institute of Health and Society