Emotion and Social Motivation in University Students’ Real Life Moral Dilemmas

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.