Role of Basic Psychological Needs in Moral Identity

Background: Moral commitments of therapists is the important subject that attracted the attention of researches in the field of medical ethics. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between basic psychological needs and moral identity among medical students. Method: The plan of this research is descriptive-correlation. Subjects were 140 medical interns of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences that selected by stratified sampling method from Shiraz public hospitals. For collecting data, using psychological needs satisfaction scale and self- important of moral identity scale. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. Results: Results of research showed satisfying needs of competence and relatedness have positive correlation with internalized moral identity. Also, satisfying needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness showed positive correlation with symbolized moral identity. In addition, results of multiple regression analysis indicated that satisfying need of competence predicts internalized moral identity, positively. Satisfying need of relatedness predicts symbolized and total scores of moral identity positively. Conclusion: In general, results of present research in line with early research evidence and self-determination theory, showed the importance of satisfying basic psychological needs in forming medical students’ moral identity.