Abstract: Although many valuable research results have been obtained in the field of moral development, there are some challenges need to resolve. One of the main problems is the developmental fissure in moral psychology. That is many contemporary studies on moral judgment and emotion have been carried out without connections to developmental processes or temporal changes. Another puzzle is the limited mainstream conception of moral motivation that moral motivation has been viewed only or predominantly as the process of producing moral behavior. The isolation of judgment from conceptions of moral motivation reflects another fissure in moral psychology between moral behavior and moral judgment. To solve the above problems, Kaplan and his colleagues proposed a comprehensive view of moral motivation named dynamic system approach to moral motivation by combination of Kohlberg’s moral cognitive development theory, Dynamic Systems (DS) perspective and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). From the dynamic system approach to moral motivation, moral motivation can be defined as the dynamic developmental process of self-organization and self-regulation of cognitive and emotional elements out of which moral judgment and action emerge. The process of moral motivation is an ongoing iterative or recursive process. As a complex network of interconnected components, moral development involves shifts in the strengths of multiple attractors, as well as increases in self-regulation with regard to the operation of moral attractors. The dynamic system model views context as a dynamic variable that is subject to rapid changes. There is a continuous temporal interaction and reciprocal determinism between context and motivation in moral experience. Both cognitive and emotional processes are strongly involved in moral motivation, which can be perceived and mentally represented in emotional or cognitive terms. In the view of dynamic system, moral identity can be seen as emerging from the process of self-organization over macrodevelopmental time. Moral identity has a top-down influence on moral thinking, feeling, judgment and action in real-time moral motivation. Multicausality in moral motivation reflects that causal responsibility in moral judgment or action does not belong to a single experience, but rather to the microdevelopmental and motivational process by which such components are connected. Both long-term and short-term development can be seen as shifting probabilities of multiple attractors. Ongoing series of microdevelopmental shifts in the operation likelihood and intensity of multiple moral motivation structures serve as building blocks for long-term changes in moral development. Nonlinearity means that moral motivation is highly complex and the magnitudes of changes in moral motivation are often not proportionate to the preceding changes in inputs. Long-term increases in moral motivation occur through repeated learning experiences in contexts that call for various moral judgments and actions. The dynamic system theory represents a neo-Kohlbergian approach of moral development which has some supportive empirical evidences. Further research should concentrate on the relationship between moral cognition and emotion, the influence of environmental factors, the combination of crossing and longitudinal design and the improvement of research instrument.

Key words: moral motivation, dynamic system, dynamic development, time scale, pluralism

摘要： 在科尔伯格道德认知发展阶段理论、动态系统理论和自我决定理论基础上，Kaplan提出了道德动机的动态系统理论，把道德动机界定为认知和情绪成分自我组织和自我调节的动态发展过程。该理论有其特定的提出背景、基本观点和主要内容，并且具有一定的实证证据支持。未来研究应着力解决道德认知与情绪的关系、环境因素的影响、横断研究与纵向研究的结合以及研究工具的完善等问题。

关键词: 道德动机, 动态系统, 动态发展, 时间尺度, 多元性