The Influence Of Moral Emotion And Moral Cognition To Moral Judgment Of University Students

There were two theories-Greene's dual-process theory and Moll's theory-on the influence of emotion and recognition to moral judgment. Greene thought that recognition and emotions were competing in the process of moral judgment. If emotions overcame to cognition, deontological judgments were made; if cognition overcame to emotions, utilitarian judgments were made. Moll thought that emotions and cognition were compositing in the moral judgment. Emotions affected the moral judgment mostly, that was cognition existed in both deontological judgment and utilitarian judgment, but only emotions affected people's moral judgment. If emotions were added, deontological judgment were made; if emotions were decreasing, utilitarian judgment were made. Both theories expounded the affection of emotions and cognition to moral judgment from different aspects. The common point was that emotions were dominant so deontological judgment was made, while the difference was the cause of utilitarian judgment. Dual-process claimed that cognition addition led to utilitarian judgment, while Moll thought it was the result of the reduction of emotion and unchanging of cognition. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was distinguishing two theories, which had highly significant not only in theoretical but also in moral education of university students.This research divided into two parts:the first part had three experiments which used the moral dilemma stories made by myself. The first experiment was about the affection of emotion addition to moral judgment, which was the common part of Greene and Moll. The second experiment was about the affection of emotion reduction to moral judgment, which tested and verified whether Moll's theory was tenable with the first experience. The third experiment was about the affection of cognition addition to moral judgment, which tested and verified whether Greene's theory was tenable with the first experience. The second part was the analysis of the choice reason, which showed the characteristic of university students'moral judgment. The results were as follow:1,The first and second experiments proved Moll's theory which was if emotion were added, deontological judgment were made; if emotion were decreasing, utilitarian judgment were made. The first and third experiments proved Greene's dual-process theory which was if emotion were adding, deontological judgment were made; if cognition were adding, utilitarian judgment were made. Experiments proved two theories.2,The important points of the two theories were different but the essences were the same, which were the competition between emotion and cognition. The two theories described Moral judgment from different aspects. The dual-process theory could explain Moll's theory.3,There was no difference between genders in moral judgment, only a little different in a small scale.4,There were two characteristics of university students' moral judgment: first, personal emotion and affection mostly affected students to make moral judgment, while students thought personal, others (collectivity) or country's benefit and value, utilitarian judgment was made. Second, when university students encounter dilemma, their choice order was from country's benefit, affection, friendship, others benefit, the sympathy to stranger, to personal benefit.