Between the ages of 4 and 8 children increasingly make moral judgments on the basis of an actor's intent, as opposed to the outcome that the actor brings about. Does this reflect a reorganization of concepts in the moral domain, or simply the development of capacities outside the moral domain such as theory of mind and executive function?…

The work of John Wilson, now teaching at Oxford University, as moral educator is summarized and evaluated. His rationalist humanistic approach is based on a componential characterization of the morally educated person. The rationale and conceptual status of the components is discussed. His position is compared to that of Peter McPhail, R. S.…

Compares concepts defining Kohlbergian stages of moral development with those associated with orders of hierarchical complexity determined with a generalized content-independent stage-scoring system. Finds that Kohlberg's sequence generally matches that identified with the scoring system and that contract and authority concepts match the concepts…

The rules and concepts of basic moral reasoning can be taught without difficulty to quite young children; but educating them to prefer to use these rules is another matter. Kohlberg's stages are not likely to be stages of cognitive reasoning, but indication of the reasoning encouraged by the child's environment. (Author/SJL)

This presentation: (1) outlines three educational approaches to moral development; (2) explains Piaget's stages of moral judgment; (3) reviews Piaget's ideas about the development of children's concepts of justice; and (4) discusses comments by contemporary educators concerning moral education and its implications. Outlined in Part I are character…

This study explored the relationship between children's sense of justice for a criminal offender and their cognitive level. Subjects were 60 children, 10 boys and 10 girls at each of the following developmental or cognitive levels: preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each child was individually pretested for cognitive…

Kindergarten and first grade children participated in a training program designed to facilitate moral development. Stories that stimulated discussion of solutions to moral issues were read to children in the treatment group. Children in the treatment group, compared to controls, improved significantly in three of four specific areas tested.…

Reviews Kohlberg's research on moral development and criticizes standard issue scoring, a measure of individual developmental stages of moral judgment. Discusses problems with the Moral Judgment Interview's content and scoring, suggesting longitudinal, comparative, and gender-related research needed to resolve problems of validity and reliability.…

Epistemological loneliness refers to the isolation adolescents may experience as the result of cognitive relativism, ushered in by the emergence of formal operational thought. To examine the relationship between cognitive relativity, epistemological loneliness, and depression in adolescence, 108 adolescents (29 seventh graders, 29 ninth graders,…

A study was conducted to determine if the responses of elementary school children to questions about the moral dilemmas in fables would reflect developmental trends in moral judgment, along the lines suggested by Jean Piaget. Sixty second, fourth, and sixth grade children listened to three tape-recorded fables and responded orally to questions…

Working toward a definition of a developmental model, evaluated how children (N=385) perceive their natural environment by coding their responses to words "Nature is" presented to them on a piece of paper. Results are discussed in terms of age/grade levels corresponding to characteristics of literalism, organization, and moralism. (JN)

This book is the first volume of a collection of papers from the Seventh Interdisciplinary Conference on Piagetian theory and its implications for the helping professions social work and psychological services. More than 40 papers are included. Areas explored in the papers include development of prosocial behavior in children; the effect of…