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An experience sampling study of the momentary dynamics of moral, autonomous, competent, and related need satisfactions, moral enactments, and psychological thriving

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Abstract

Do people really have a psychological need to be moral? We present results from an experience sampling study of momentary moral need satisfaction, moral behaviors, and psychological thriving, which also provided an opportunity to test whether the moral need functions differently in people of high vs. low moral character. Results were that moral need satisfaction correlated with psychological thriving cross-sectionally and concurrently in everyday life as much as, and in some cases more than, the other psychological needs recognized as basic in self-determination theory. Further, of all the needs, moral need satisfaction was most tightly linked to moral behavior, demonstrating the specificity of content for the need. Based on these and previous results on the moral need, we present a theoretical analysis of morality as a basic psychological need against the criteria recently outlined by Ryan and Deci (in: Ryan, Deci (eds), Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness, Guilford Publishing, New York, 2017) and by which researchers measure the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In summary, the present research provides empirical evidence to add depth and breadth to the case for morality as an entrant to the list of basic psychological needs.

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Funding

This study was funded by Templeton Religion Trust Grant #TRT0096.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, USA

    Mike Prentice, Eranda Jayawickreme & William Fleeson

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  1. Mike Prentice
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  2. Eranda Jayawickreme
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  3. William Fleeson
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Correspondence to Mike Prentice.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the American Psychological Association’s ethical standards. The study was reviewed and approved by the Wake Forest IRB prior to data collection (IRB #IRB00023117). No study involved research on animals.

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Prentice, M., Jayawickreme, E. & Fleeson, W. An experience sampling study of the momentary dynamics of moral, autonomous, competent, and related need satisfactions, moral enactments, and psychological thriving. Motiv Emot 44, 244–256 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-020-09829-3

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