道德自我形象对亲社会行为的影响,存在道德一致性效应与道德平衡效应两种矛盾现象。本研究通过一个问卷研究与两个实验来验证调节定向的调节作用。结果发现:(1)促进定向的被试中,高道德自我形象的人有着更高的亲社会意愿;而预防定向的被试中,高道德自我形象的人亲社会意愿反而更低;(2)促进定向启动下,高道德自我形象组在无偿亲社会任务上耗时更多,而预防定向启动下,高道德自我形象组耗时更少。结论:调节定向调节了道德自我形象对亲社会行为的作用。
People's social behaviors are not only determined by their personality and value, but also, to a certain extent, affected by the situations and past experiences. Likewise, the prosocial behavior among individuals would be shaped collaboratively by their prosocial attributes and the prior experiences. Past research has demonstrated that people's present moral self-image had an influence, though mixed and unstable, on their prosocial intentions as well as behaviors. Some studies revealed a positive effect of moral self-image on prosocial behavior, indicating that people with higher moral self-image would be more prosocial than those with lower moral self-image. These findings attest to the phenomena of moral consistency. However, dozens of research have found inconsistent, or more precisely contrasting results. In their studies, people with higher moral self-image exhibited significantly less prosocial behaviors than their counterparts, which led to an account of moral balancing. On the basis of these two contrasting findings and accounts, the present research aims to examine the moderating role of regulatory focus motivation among the relation between moral self-image and prosocial behavior. The present research encompasses one correlational study (Study 1) and two experimental studies (Study 2 and 3). In Study 1, 107 participants were recruited and self-reported on three questionnaires, namely the Moral Self-Image questionnaire, Regulatory Focus questionnaire, and Prosocial Intention Inventory. The results revealed a significant interaction between moral self-image and regulatory focus (β=.246, t(99)=2.513, p=.014, η^2=.060). Simple slope analysis showed that among those with promotion motivation, their moral self-image positively predicted the prosocial intentions (β=.366, t(99)=3.170, p=.002,η^2=.092). While for those with prevention motivation, there was no significant predicting effect of moral self-image. Study 2 adopted a recalling paradigm to manipulate people's moral sel