Research On The Relationship Among Moral Judgment Ability, Interpersonal Trust And Prosocial Behavior Of College Students

Morality has occupied an important position in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Insocial life, morality receives much attention as an important factor that influences humanbehavior. The relationship between moral judgment and moral behavior has been studied formany years, but so far there is no general consensus regarding the relationship. There hasbeen no research on whether interpersonal trust influences the relationship between moraljudgment and moral behavior. The purpose of this study is to understand the moraldevelopment level of college students, discuss whether interpersonal trust is a moderatorvariable in the relationship between moral judgment and moral behavior, find reasons that canaccount for the gradual decrease in pro-social behavior, provide an objective basis for how toimprove the possibility of college students showing more prosocial behavior, and providepsychological guidance for moral education for adolescents in the future.In the study,340college students from Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang Collegeand Cangzhou Normal College were tested using the Chinese version of the Moral JudgmentTest, Interpersonal Trust Scale and Prosocial Tendencies Measure. The purpose of the studyis to investigate the present situation of college students’ moral judgment ability, interpersonaltrust and prosocial behavior, and to discuss the relationship among the three variables. Inaddition,45students from Hebei Normal University were interviewed. The purpose of theinterview was to study the relationship between interpersonal trust and prosocial behaviorspecifically. The data was analyzed by applying SPSS16.0. The statistical methods usedinclude analysis of variance, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, etc. Themain conclusions obtained are as follows:1. Generally, the moral judgment ability of college students is at the medium level, andthere is no significant difference among different genders, grades, departments and regions,and between students who are an only child and those who are not.2. The moral developmental level of college students is at the fifth or the sixth stage ofKohlberg’s moral development theory.3. College students’ interpersonal trust is generally at the medium level. Theinterpersonal trust score of male freshmen is significantly higher than that of females. The female freshmen’s interpersonal trust score is significantly lower than that of females in othergrades. In science departments, the interpersonal trust scores of freshman and senior studentsare significantly lower than those of sophomores and juniors.4. College students’ prosocial behavior is at a relatively higher level. There is nosignificant difference among grades. In science departments, the prosocial behavior score ofmale students is significantly higher than that of female students. The prosocial behaviorscore of female students majoring in liberal arts is significantly higher than that of femalestudents in science departments.5. For the effect of moral judgment ability on prosocial behavior, the moderating effectof interpersonal trust is not significant. For the effect of moral judgment ability on anonymousprosocial behavior, the moderating effect of interpersonal trust is marginally significant.6. To a certain degree, the relationship between interpersonal trust and prosocial behavioris affected by the possibility of trust in the situation.