The neurocognitive development of moral and conventional judgments was examined. Event-related potentials were recorded while 24 adolescents (13 years) and 30 young adults (20 years) read scenarios with 1 of 3 endings: moral violations, conventional violations, or neutral acts. Participants judged whether the act was acceptable or unacceptable…

One hundred thirty-three children, average age 9.58 years, were read vignettes describing a moral transgression and then discussed what would constitute a fair punishment. Children's gender influenced conversation dynamics (use of interruption and other simultaneous speech) but not conversation content (justifications for judgments). All children…

Children and adolescents evaluated group inclusion and exclusion in the context of generic and group-specific norms involving morality and social conventions. Participants ("N" = 381), aged 9.5 and 13.5 years, judged an in-group member's decision to deviate from the norms of the group, whom to include, and whether their personal…

Makes a case for rereading the fact-value dichotomy that currently divides the contemporaneous literatures dealing with children's moral reasoning development and their evolving theories of mind. Presents findings from two research programs, in which children's beliefs about truth and rightness are combined, to illustrate the natural…

Investigated how children's decisions about allocating money to story characters were affected by the relationship (friends versus strangers) among the characters. Children's rationales for their decisions showed that equality was the most salient principle for decisions at all ages and that older children provided rationales based on benevolence…

Examined 6-, 8-, and 10-year olds' conceptions of flags as social conventions and their understandings of the symbolic and psychological consequences associated with transgressions toward flags. Found that despite age-related increases in understanding of flags as meaningful collective symbols, children at all ages considered transgressions to be…

Investigated 4-, 8-, and 11-year-olds' ability to categorize intentionally false and true statements as lies and truths. Found that older children were more likely to categorize false statements as lies and true statements as truths than were 4-year-olds. Antisocial lies were rated as most serious, and "white lies" as least serious.…

Examined the relationships between certain socialization experiences and social judgments among 54 inner-city, African American kindergartners from low-income families. Results indicated that in evaluating transgressions children distinguished between moral and social-conventional issues when explaining why they were wrong and in terms of rule and…

A theory of the assignment of moral responsibility and punishment for harm was tested with 5- to 11-year-old children. Results indicated sophisticated use of moral concepts from 5 years. Developmental trends suggested increasing sensitivity to these concepts, greater tolerance for harm doing, and more emphasis on restitution than punishment.…

Two studies used a modification of the weakly interpretive scoring method of Langford and D'Cruz to examine judicial and legislative reasoning. Findings were in accord with modified versions of Piaget's and Kohlberg's views and contradicted Gibbs' theory. There were three stages of legislative reasoning between 7 and 21 years: heteronomy or…

Studied the emotional attributions which 60 children aged four-eight gave to a story figure who violated a moral rule. Results suggested a clear change from outcome-oriented toward morally oriented attributions to a moral wrongdoer between the different age groups. (RJC)

Investigated 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds' and adults' integration of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Found that participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict fear or embarrassment on unwilling participants. Younger children tended to use outcome rules when assigning punishment; older…

Examined effects of negative group stereotypes on reasoning about peer retribution (child hits another child in response to name calling) among 2,604 Arab and Jewish adolescents in Israel. Found evidence that Arab and Jewish students hold stereotypes about one another and that in-group bias affected approval and reasoning about peer retribution…

Videotaped stories depicting deliberate lies and unintentionally untrue statements were presented to 200 subjects evenly divided into the following age groups: 5, 8, 9, 11 years, and adult. Definitions of lying were seen to change gradually over this age range. (Author/RH)

The moral realism of everyday life is neither Piaget's childlike egocentrism nor Gabennesch's reification. Natural moral law is seen by Turiel, a cognitivist, as a code of harm, rights, and justice. Other cognitivists accept codes of duty and natural order. (BC)