Notes that moral decisions include both moral concepts and factual beliefs. Considers possible sources of variation in factual beliefs and presents research into children's and adults' thinking about practices based on factual beliefs different from their own. Discusses how individuals take these differences into account when judging the seemingly…

Thirty-six students attending an evangelical college completed Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test of ego development and wrote stories in response to 3 Thematic Apperception Test pictures. Findings indicate increased intrinsic moral motivation, broader perception of ethical dilemmas, richer conceptualization of a moral self, and holistic…

Investigated 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds' reasoning about laws and legal compliance. Found that children considered several factors in their judgments, including perceived justice of the law, its socially beneficial purpose, and potential for infringement on individual freedoms and rights. Found that children apply moral concepts of harm, rights, and…

Asserts that this text by Matthews is a remedy to the scant attention paid to philosophical questioning by children. Describes the book's attempt to set children's philosophical questions against a re-examination of children's art and literature, legal issues regarding children's autonomy, and psychological models of the child's cognitive and…

This article explores the moral-ethical implications of the mechanistic world view and related issues such as technological determinism, social Darwinism, and androcentrism. It finds that educational approaches reinforced by the mechanistic world view include positivistic approaches to curriculum, instruction, and research. Recommendations for…

Asserts that, for catechists, being a "faith sharer" is more important than merely imparting knowledge. Presents guidelines that may assist catechists in developing a program that builds both knowledge and character: (1) teach responsibility; (2) encourage self-discipline, independently and as a community; and (3) care for others. (EMH)

Exposes the structural-functionalist roots of Kohlberg's theory of moral development, questioning the application of Kohlberg's ideas in the classroom, reviewing Kohlberg's Just Community model, examining Durkheim's and Dreeben's theories and their similarity to Kohlberg's moral theory, critiquing Kohlberg's conception of the Just Community…

Participation and competition in some sports are associated with lower stages of moral reasoning. Coaches can foster moral development by starting with the right mental model, holding benchmark meetings about team values, setting goals for physical and character skills, making time for guided discussion sessions, building community, modeling…

It seems evident why Americans have so embraced the notion of self-esteem. On the one hand, an overriding cultural value has been placed on the development of the individual, who emerges all too often as just another material commodity. On the other hand, everything about a distraction/entertainment-driven culture is about feeling good, putting…

This article reports on two values education programmes currently available for UK schools, which are associated with two Hindu-related organisations, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and the Sathya Sai Service Organisation, UK. Attention is paid to the development of the programmes, the educational context in which they seek to embed…

Social information processing and moral domain theories have developed in relative isolation from each other despite their common focus on intentional harm and victimization, and mutual emphasis on social cognitive processes in explaining aggressive, morally relevant behaviors. This article presents a selective summary of these literatures with…

In modern Western moral and political theory the notion of the liberal subject has flourished as the locus of moral experience, interpretation and critique. Through this conceptual lens on subjectivity, individuals are enabled to shape and regulate their interactions in arguably desirable ways, e.g. through principles of respect for persons and…

This chapter argues for the essential role of culture in forming the basic constructs and theories of developmental psychology. The case is made for the need to overcome the cultural insularity of core developmental concepts and methods in order to create a psychology that is more truly universal.

Many school districts have implemented "packaged" programs designed to teach character education. Millions of dollars have been spent on these programs, yet society continues to produce more "characters" than students "with character." This article describes a shift from the "programmatic" mindset to a solution that is not packaged or purchased.…

The article presents one perspective on how children can be encouraged to develop moral judgement. The recalcitrance that Piaget encounters in his attempts to teach his own daughter a specific mundane rule provide a focus for much of the discussion. The differing impact of two separate strategies for conveying the point of rules, both on immediate…