Emotions in Engineering Ethics Education: Systematic Review and Ways Forward

Abstract Emotion is an increasingly important concept in ethics, education, and engineering. It is also important for the intersection of these three domains: engineering ethics education. Despite extensive research being conducted independently in each field, there has yet to be a synthesis across the fields which would identify key themes, concepts or theories in use, and which would identify conceptual spaces for development. That is the goal of this paper. Our extensive systematic review identified 30 publications relevant to engineering, technology, or computer science education that were substantively focused on emotions and ethics. We coded these abductively and analyzed them thematically to identify underlying theoretical frameworks and concepts. Most publications included theorizations of emotion, ethics, or moral reasoning , and the ways they are related. Three – primarily psychological – theoretical frameworks were widely used: (A) empathy and pro-social action, (B) moral emotions, and (C) emotional intelligence/ emotional regulation. Possible intersections and relationships between these three frameworks were, however, largely unexplored in the included publications. We conclude that (1) researchers can break down conceptual silos by engaging with the relationships between different theories of emotion and ethics, (2) exploring academic emotions – emotions in the process of learning engineering ethics – presents considerable opportunities for further development, and (3) there is a need to broaden the theoretical base to supplement the current individualistic focus with more social theories of emotion and ethics.