Offers a discussion of contemporary theories of moral development, discussing both cognitive and affective positions and proposing an alternative third position as a resolution of the first two. The proposed alternative is based upon the model of the subject within communicative relations, whose life involves constructing reality through social…

Explores the relations between temperament, communicative competence, and humor expression among four- and five-year-old nursery school children. Shows that ratings of communicative competence and various dimensions of temperament account for a significant proportion of the variance in the reported frequency of children's laughter and verbal and…

The conservation of distance and of length and the awareness of the horizontal and of the vertical do seem to significantly precede the measurement of length, but the results did not indicate that these four tasks have any developmental order among themselves. Bibliography, charts. (Author)

Defends domain theory approach to children's moral development based on limitations of Piaget's original theory. Argues that Fowler's characterization of domain theory research omits important features and studies. Maintains that distinctions between morality and convention cannot be reduced to differences in perceptible harm and punishment; it is…

Domain theorists' findings in Piaget's work in children's moral development do not contradict Piaget because they are predicted by objective responsibility; research has not established that children distinguish between moral and conventional events. Claims that Piaget underestimated early morality are based on research that neglects children's…

Examines strategies for studying individual differences in infant behavior from the standpoints of the distinction between individual differences and developmental function and the need to study change with multivariate techniques. These themes are applied to the study of mental development, behavior genetics, temperament, and attachment. (RJC)

Traced emergence of elaborated framework of belief-desire reasoning. Preschoolers and adults were asked to explain why a story protagonist searched for a desired object in an incorrect location. Results suggest that, during late preschool years, conception of cognitive activities as contributing to knowledge and belief becomes integrated into…

Examined the variability in the development of moral judgment by reanalyzing a set of Kohlberg's data studies on the concept of structured wholeness, a deep cognitive organization unifying different surface judgments given by the same subject. Although the results failed to show total consistency they also show that it is not meaningful to claim…

Investigated the age at which children first acquire understanding of others' feelings and of ways in which they can affect others' feelings. Also considered the relation of children's development in this domain to their understanding of the nonsocial world. Findings indicated that it was possible to predict the age at which children would pass…

Describes an experiment undertaken to identify the home experiences of 1- to 3-year-old children which result in competence at the age of 6. (BRT)

A portion of the Child Care Cost, Quality, and Outcomes study finds that quality of center-based care was positively related to preschool children's concurrent cognitive and socioemotional development. More advantaged children are not necessarily buffered from effects of poor quality care. In addition, stronger positive effects of child care…

Comments on Damon and Killen's study, pointing out that the methodological difficulties in examining spontaneous moral discussions have led to the appropriation of a dyadic social-cognitive conflict paradigm that focuses on dialogic interaction. (Author/RH)

Discusses domain-specificity with regard to social and cognitive development. General epistemological and theoretic considerations of the study of cognitive development are discussed. Included is a consideration of the intersection of the interactional model and a classification of systems of knowledge. (RH)