Self-regulation and moral behavior: an analysis of theoretical approaches and a review of empirical research
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2026-5-98-107
The relevance of studying the psychological determinants of an individual's moral behavior acquires particular significance in the modern conditions of uncertainty and the emergence of fundamentally new ethical dilemmas, including those associated with the development of information technologies. The study of key psychological mechanisms of moral choice, among which self-regulation is included, is necessitated by the need to resolve the fundamental contradiction between the knowledge of moral norms and actual human behavior.The study of self-regulation within the domain of moral behavior, moral decision-making, and moral choice currently lies at the intersection of several fields of scientific inquiry, including cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience. The central premise is that moral behavior constitutes a complex process shaped by personality characteristics, situational context, and individuals’ regulatory resources. The aim of the present article is to analyze the current state of research on human self-regulation and its application to the scientific study of moral behavior. The theoretical and empirical analysis presented herein was conducted using bibliographic databases such as Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Consensus, PubMed, and ResearchGate. Contemporary theoretical approaches to the analysis of psychological self-regulation are systematized. Two major lines of empirical research on self-regulation in the domain of moral behavior are identified. The first emphasizes the regulatory foundations of moral identity and conceptualizes selfregulation as an integral characteristic of moral character. The second focuses on the mechanisms underlying the activation of self-regulation in the process of moral decision-making itself. The paper outlines current trends in the study of psychological self-regulation and substantiates the methodological foundations for an integrative investigation of self-regulation, moral identity, and moral choice. It also identifies promising directions for future research on self-regulation in the domain of moral behavior, including in contexts characterized by the growing practice of delegating moral decision-making to artificial intelligence technologies.
Keywords: self-regulation, moral identity, decision-making, moral choice, artificial intelligence technologies
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Issue: 5, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: PSYCHOLOGY
Pages: 98 — 107
Downloads: 22