Emotion and social motivation in university students’ real life moral dilemmas.

Övrig information: Abstract: Studied the relationship between social motivation and approaches to moral decision making, and also the emotions people experience in real life moral dilemmas. 44 students were interviewed about a moral dilemma that they had faced in the past. Social motivation was measured with Emmons’ (1989) idiographic personal strivings method. Intimacy motivation was related to a preference for making decisions after having consulted others and to being open to their values and norms, whereas achievement motivation was related to consequence-oriented moral reasoning and a concrete construal of moral problems. When asked to think of and relive their moral dilemma, participants scored significantly lower than their baseline level on a mood questionnaire, females scoring significantly lower than the males. Possible implications of negative emotion on the cognitive processes involved in solving moral dilemmas are discussed.