Experimental Study on the Influence of Cognition and Emotion on Moral Judgment of College Students in Dilemma Situation

Objective:To study the influence of cognition and emotion on moral judgment of college students under the circumstance of whether the cognitive resources are occupied and whether the emotion is induced.Methods:This experiment uses a multi-factor mixed experiment method to divide experiments and groups.Experiment 1 uses a two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(cognitive resource occupancy group,cognitive resource non-occupied group)×3(difficult situation type).Experiment 2 uses a two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(emotion induction group,emotion induction and cognitive resource occupation group)×3(three types of dilemma situation types)is adopted.The dependent variable of this experiment(including Experiment 1 and Experiment 2)is the judgment response time and the judgment result is“Yes”(F)or“No”(J).Results:(1)The reaction time of the cognitive resource occupancy group was significantly higher than that of the cognitive resource non-occupied group,and the cognitive resource occupancy group in the three types of dilemma situations of high personal involvement,low personal involvement,and non-personal participation.There is no significant difference between the results of moral judgments and the cognitive resource non-occupied group.(2)In the three dilemmas of high personal involvement,low personal involvement,and non-personal participation,the emotion-induced group and the emotion-induced and cognitive resource occupation group have no significant differences in reaction time and moral judgment results.(3)In the three dilemmas of high personal involvement,low personal involvement,and non-personal participation,the reaction time difference between the cognitive resource occupation group and the emotionally induced and cognitive resource occupation is not significant,while in the dilemma of low personal involvement,the number of people in the cognitive resource occupation group whose moral judgment is“Yes”was significantly higher than that in the emotionally induced and cognitive resource occupation group.(4)In the three dilemmas of high personal involvement,low personal involvement,and non-personal participation,the reaction time of the emotionally induced group was significantly higher than that of the cognitive resource non-occupied group,and the moral judgment results of the two groups were both found no significant difference.Conclusion:When the occupation of cognitive resources and the induction of emotions will significantly affect the response of individual moral judgments,different types of dilemmas will significantly affect the results of individual moral judgments.

Criticism of the Theory of Motivation

The theory of motivation is a theory which takes the executora＇s motivation as the basis of moral judgment. One presupposition of the theory is that motivation can be a common object of understanding. However, motivation exists only in the heart of the executor, and cannot be known exactly by others, so motivation cannot be perceived like a common object, and thus, logically, cannot be the basis of moral judgment. Even if the executor＇s motivation is accepted by others and turned into a common object, the motivation still cannot become the valid basis of a moral judgment. This is the dilemma of the theory of motivation. In practice, the dilemma appears as follows： if one insists on the theory of motivation, one can be led to the result that people do evil with good intentions. However, just because motivation cannot be the basis of moral judgment does not mean that motivation is of no significance. Good motivation is always better than evil motivation. Therefore, in moral education we should carry out motivation education and teach people to strive to have good motivations for their behavior. This is the value of motivation theory.