An Experimental Study On The Feedback Mechanism Of Moral Self-regulation: The Mediating Role Of Guilt And Self-depletion

According to the two directions of moral personality theory,character and cognitive,a person's moral conduct is always in the dynamic change process.Generally speaking,good people can do bad things,and bad people can do good things.We want to know the situation where people do good or bad things and the reason for doing good or bad.The mechanism by which people behave ethically or unethically is puzzling researchers.Recently,the study of moral self-regulation provides a possible explanation for this.It refers to that people may adjust their moral behavior in time according to their own moral self-concept.For examples,people might reduce own moral behaviors when the present moral self-concept lower than the ideal moral concept.In turn,people might do more ethical behaviors.This mechanism always be compared to a rubber band.Moral self-regulation contains two important feedback mechanisms,positive feedback mechanism(moral identity)and negative feedback mechanism(moral licensing effect and moral cleansing effect).Moral identity refers to the importance of external ethics in individual selfconsciousness.It is the bridge and link between internal moral cognition and external moral behavior.Moral licensing effect refers to that the past experience of moral behavior allows people to reduce moral behavior in the future or to commit immoral acts.Moral cleansing effect refers to that after individuals make unethical behavior and experience negative emotions,they want to get rid of negative emotions and maintain the way of moral self-image by trying to make moral compensation behavior.In addition,the study found that the moral emotions and self-control resources has played an important role in the process of moral behavior.The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of moral identity and moral selfregulation on the cooperative behavior and cheating behavior of middle school students,explore the role of guilt and ego-depletion in this relationship,and try to provide some explanation for the phenomenon that “good kids” do “bad things” or “bad kids” do “good thing”.This study contains four experiments.In the first experiment,the influence of moral identity and moral self-perception on cooperative behavior is investigated by virtue of the moral identity of moral self-perception as the independent variable and the cooperative propensity score as the dependent variable.In the second experiment,the intermediary role of guilt in the relationship between moral identity and cooperative behavior was examined,with moral identity as the independent variable,cooperative behavior scores as the dependent variable,and guilt as the intermediary variable.In the third experiment,we examined the influence of moral identity and moral self-perception on cheating behavior with moral identity,moral self-perception as the independent variable,and the cheating behavior score as the dependent variable.In the last experiment,we examined multiple intermediary role of ego-depletion,moral credits and moral credentials in relationship between moral self-perception priming and cheating behaviors.The results of the study showed that compared with the subjects of the low moral identity group,the high moral identity group showed more cooperative behaviors and less cheating behaviors(the positive feedback mechanism of moral self-regulation,the enhancement of moral identity).The moral perception priming group was tested for less cooperative behavior and more cheating than the unethical perceptual priming group(moral licensing effect).The interaction between moral identity and moral perception priming is significant.the participants in the low moral identity×moral perception priming group showed less cooperative behaviors tendency and more cheating behaviors(the moral license effect).Moral identity positively predicted guilt and cooperative behavior,and guilt positively predicted cooperative behavior,and guilt played an intermediary role in the relationship between moral identity and cooperative behavior.moral selfperception priming has impact on cheating behaviors through the multiple mediator effects of egodepletion,moral credits and moral credentials.The main results were as follows:(1)In the dynamic change of moral behavior,there exists the enhancement of moral identity,moral licensing effect and moral cleansing effect.(2)Guilt played an intermediary role in the relationship between moral identity and cooperative behavior.(3)Moral self-perception priming has impact on cheating behaviors through the multiple mediator effects of ego-depletion,moral credits and moral credentials.