Psychological foundations of emotional and moral development of a personality. Part 2. Emotions and morality as the main psychological needs in the development of personality

Abstract

   Introduction. The relevance of the study is that the assumption that emotions and morality are basic psychological needs has not been sufficiently explored.

   We report empirical evidence on whether emotions and morality should be considered needs.

   Problem statement. The dependence of the occurrence or non-occurrence of an emotion on the amount of information a subject has available to satisfy a need. Negative emotions arise when the subject has an insufficient amount of information, and positive emotions arise when there is an excess of information. Teaching morality through experience (both in personal and social terms is not less, and maybe even more important than the accumulation of information).

   Methodology and methods of the study. In our study we applied an innovative method in dynamics, social-emotional learning self-observation in the form of keeping emotional and structured diaries based on the registration of indicators of emotional states. As indicators reflecting the magnitude of the need for its satisfaction are accepted different types of activities and frequencies of manifestation of emotions, their interaction with morality.

   Results of the study. Our results suggest that a sense of morality can help students’ personality to identify moments when life is going well. It also suggests that morality may be a fundamental psychological need and warrants further study.

   Conclusions. In the process of a personality’s assimilation of morality, emotions and the hierarchy of life values change, starting from the concept of love worthy of any age and ending with the meaning of life as the highest spiritual value given to human. We were able to trace the dynamics of moral qualities among teenagers and students.