Moral Development
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 November 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 November 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0267
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 November 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 November 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0267
Introduction
The structure of moral judgment and its ontogenetic and phylogenetic origins have been empirically studied since the emergence of psychology as a science. Although an early influential perspective emerged with Piaget, the first systematic theory, which was the subject of a great deal of empirical research, was proposed by Kohlberg. Kohlberg’s theory is regarded as a rationalist theory because, although he thinks emotional processes are at least partly involved in making moral judgments, he claims that rational thinking processes are the main determinant because, as children age and mature cognitively, they mature morally as well. In addition to the cognitive underpinnings of moral development, recent studies have also focused on the biological origins of morality, and alternative theoretical approaches arguing that morality is innate have been proposed. The best known of these are the innate moral core theory and the two-stage theory. According to these theories, making moral judgments is ingrained in our genes due to their adaptive functions, and this genetic feature causes human infants to develop moral sensitivities. Not only can we observe these moral sensitivities in 6-month-old babies, but in comparative animal studies as well. Empirical evidence also suggests that the influence of socialization increases with age. However, when we consider the variety of current theoretical frameworks, the lack of an integrative perspective becomes apparent. More importantly, experimental studies with very small sample sizes pose a fundamental problem for the progress of the field. For example, key original studies with 10–15 subjects are sometimes attempted to be replicated with 20–30 subjects, and it seems very difficult to reach a final conclusion with such small samples. Therefore, future studies should attempt to replicate the key findings in this field with multi-lab organizations such as Many Babies. However, while doing this, it is essential to consider cross-cultural differences and to adapt the methodological paradigms used in the past with Western samples to non-Western cultures, and to document their validity before application.
General Overviews
Paulus 2020 can be taken as the main reference in this section because it summarizes the different influential theoretical approaches proposed so far and emphasizes the lack of an overarching perspective that will unify all the findings in the literature. Paulus presents examples of open questions as future directions and argues how the relevant research, taken as evidence for different theories, has been criticized. Articles in this section generally refer to the importance of cross-cultural studies as a limitation of the current literature, and Lavoie, et al. 2022 and others summarize several different methodologies used in moral development research, and also point out the lack of methodological unity in the field. A recent edited handbook, Jensen 2020 provides a comprehensive summary of the moral development literature and discusses the current debates and challenges.
Cowell, J. M., and J. Decety. “Precursors to Morality in Development as a Complex Interplay between Neural, Socioenvironmental, and Behavioral Facets.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112.41 (2015): 12657–12662.
Demonstrates that moral sensitivity is present from early development through neural and environmental mechanisms underlying its emergence. As responses to witnessing prosocial and antisocial behaviors, brainwave differences of infants and toddlers predicted attraction to prosocial others. Differences in response times were also related to parents’ values regarding fairness and justice. Based on a social neuroscience perspective, the study empirically clarifies the biological basis and brain-behavior processes that shape moral sensitivity.
Dahl, A. “Definitions and Developmental Processes in Research on Infant Morality.” Human Development 57 (2014): 241–249.
DOI: 10.1159/000364919
In this commentary, it is emphasized that the concepts in the moral development literature are not well-defined, and to ensure theoretical development, conceptual unity should be provided first.
Dahl, A. “The Science of Early Moral Development: On Defining, Constructing, and Studying Morality from Birth.” Advances in Child Development and Behavior 56 (2019): 1–35.
DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2018.11.001
In this chapter, interactionist and constructivist approaches are described and the moral development of children as shaped by daily interactions is summarized. Finally, the main limitations of the relevant research paradigms are explained by focusing on future research ideas.
Ellemers, N., J. van der Toorn, Y. Paunov, and T. van Leeuwen. “The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published from 1940 through 2017.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 23.4 (2019): 332–366.
This article reviews studies and research questions published in the field of moral psychology between 1940 and 2017 and categorizes the basic issues in the field under five subtitles. The adequacy of the empirical evidence for the basic research questions is questioned. The results show that many problems have not been adequately examined and empirical support is limited.
Garrigan, B., A. L. Adlam, and P. E. Langdon. “Moral Decision-Making and Moral Development: Toward an Integrative Framework.” Developmental Review 49 (2018): 80–100.
It is claimed that one of the most important problems in the field is that moral development studies do not examine the neural origins of moral development from an integrated perspective. By summarizing the theories in these two areas, the Social Information Processing-Moral Decision-Making (SIP-MDM) framework is proposed, taking into account the situational, cognitive, and affective factors that influence moral decision-making, and the differences among alternative theoretical explanations are discussed.
Jensen, L. A., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Moral Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
The handbook provides a comprehensive review of research on moral development across more than forty chapters. It includes four different sections: “Moral Motives,” “Moral Behaviors,” “Contexts of Moral Development,” and “Applications and Policies.” Jensen reviews the current empirical state of the literature and provides new insights into the contemporary debates and challenges in the moral development literature.
Lavoie, J., A. L. Murray, G. Skinner, and E. Janiczek. “Measuring Morality in Infancy: A Scoping Methodological Review.” Infant and Child Development 31.3 (2022): e2298.
DOI: 10.1002/icd.2298
The methods used in moral development research with infants younger than two are reviewed and it is reported that the most frequently used methods were experimental studies. In addition, although approximately one-third of the studies used longitudinal designs and the overwhelming majority of these studies reported statistically significant results, it is noted that more reliable methods in different age ranges are needed.
Paulus, M. “The Developmental Emergence of Morality: A Review of Current Theoretical Perspectives.” Progress in Brain Research 254 (2020): 205–223.
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.05.006
Four different theoretical approaches to moral development are critically summarized, the empirical support of each is presented and alternative interpretations of these findings are discussed in detail. The approaches in question are the innate moral core theory, the two-stage theory, the internalization model, and constructivist approaches.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abduction of Children
- Aboriginal Childhoods
- Addams, Jane
- ADHD, Sociological Perspectives on
- Adolescence and Youth
- Adolescent Consent to Medical Treatment
- Adoption and Fostering
- Adoption and Fostering, History of Cross-Country
- Adoption and Fostering in Canada, History of
- Advertising and Marketing, Psychological Approaches to
- Advertising and Marketing, Sociocultural Approaches to
- Africa, Children and Young People in
- African American Children and Childhood
- After-school Hours and Activities
- Aggression across the Lifespan
- Ancient Near and Middle East, Child Sacrifice in the
- Animals, Children and
- Animations, Comic Books, and Manga
- Anthropology of Childhood
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Ariès, Philippe
- Art History, Children in
- Attachment in Children and Adolescents
- Australia, History of Adoption and Fostering in
- Australian Indigenous Contexts and Childhood Experiences
- Autism, Females and
- Autism, Medical Model Perspectives on
- Autobiography and Childhood
- Benjamin, Walter
- Bereavement
- Best Interest of the Child
- Bioarchaeology of Childhood
- Body, Children and the
- Body Image
- Bourdieu, Pierre
- Boy Scouts/Girl Guides
- Boys and Fatherhood
- Breastfeeding
- Bronfenbrenner, Urie
- Bruner, Jerome
- Buddhist Views of Childhood
- Byzantine Childhoods
- Child and Adolescent Anger
- Child Beauty Pageants
- Child Homelessness
- Child Mortality, Historical Perspectives on Infant and
- Child Protection
- Child Protection, Children, Neoliberalism, and
- Child Public Health
- Child Trafficking and Slavery
- Childcare Manuals
- Childhod, Agency and
- Childhood and Borders
- Childhood and Empire
- Childhood as Discourse
- Childhood, Confucian Views of Children and
- Childhood, Memory and
- Childhood Publics
- Childhood Studies and Leisure Studies
- Childhood Studies in France
- Childhood Studies, Interdisciplinarity in
- Childhood Studies, Posthumanism and
- Childhoods in the United States, Sports and
- Childism
- Children and Dance
- Children and Film-Making
- Children and Money
- Children and Social Media
- Children and Sport
- Children and Sustainable Cities
- Children as Language Brokers
- Children as Perpetrators of Crime
- Children, Code-switching and
- Children in the Industrial Revolution
- Children with Autism in a Brazilian Context
- Children, Young People, and Architecture
- Children's Humor
- Children’s Museums
- Children’s Parliaments
- Children’s Reading Development and Instruction
- Children's Views of Childhood
- China, Japan, and Korea
- China's One Child Policy
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation
- Class
- Classical World, Children in the
- Clothes and Costume, Children’s
- Collective Memory in Latin America, Childhoods and Collect...
- Colonial America, Child Witches in
- Colonialism and Human Rights
- Colonization and Nationalism
- Color Symbolism and Child Development
- Common World Childhoods
- Competitiveness, Children and
- Conceptual Development in Early Childhood
- Congenital Disabilities
- Constructivist Approaches to Childhood
- Consumer Culture, Children and
- Consumption, Child and Teen
- Conversation Analysis and Research with Children
- Critical Approaches to Children’s Work and the Concept of ...
- Crying
- Cultural psychology and human development
- Debt and Financialization of Childhood
- Disability
- Discipline and Punishment
- Discrimination
- Disney, Walt
- Divorce And Custody
- Dolls
- Domestic Violence
- Drawings, Children’s
- Early Childhood
- Early Childhood Care and Education, Selected History of
- Eating disorders and obesity
- Education: Learning and Schooling Worldwide
- Environment, Children and the
- Environmental Education and Children
- Ethics in Research with Children
- Eugenics
- Europe (including Greece and Rome), Child Sacrifice in
- Evolutionary Studies of Childhood
- Family Meals
- Fandom (Fan Studies)
- Fathers
- Female Genital Cutting
- Feminist New Materialist Approaches to Childhood Studies
- Feral and "Wild" Children
- Fetuses and Embryos
- Filicide
- Films about Children
- Films for Children
- Folk Tales, Fairy Tales and
- Folklore
- Food
- Foundlings and Abandoned Children
- Freud, Anna
- Freud, Sigmund
- Friends and Peers: Psychological Perspectives
- Froebel, Friedrich
- Gangs
- Gay and Lesbian Parents
- Gender and Childhood
- Generations, The Concept of
- Geographies, Children's
- Gifted and Talented Children
- Globalization
- Growing Up in the Digital Era
- Hall, G. Stanley
- Happiness in Children
- Hindu Views of Childhood and Child Rearing
- Hispanic Childhoods (U.S.)
- Historical Approaches to Child Witches
- History of Childhood in America
- History of Childhood in Canada
- HIV/AIDS, Growing Up with
- Homeschooling
- Humor and Laughter
- Images of Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age in Children’s ...
- Infancy and Ethnography
- Infant Mortality in a Global Context
- Innocence and Childhood
- Institutional Care
- Intercultural Learning and Teaching with Children
- Islamic Views of Childhood
- Japan, Childhood in
- Juvenile Detention in the US
- Key, Ellen
- Klein, Melanie
- Labor, Child
- Latin America
- Learning, Language
- Learning to Write
- Legends, Contemporary
- Literary Representations of Childhood
- Literature, Children's
- Love and Care in the Early Years
- Magazines for Teenagers
- Maltreatment, Child
- Maria Montessori
- Marxism and Childhood
- Masculinities/Boyhood
- Material Cultures of Western Childhoods
- Mead, Margaret
- Media, Children in the
- Media Culture, Children's
- Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Childhoods
- Menstruation
- Middle Childhood
- Middle East
- Migration
- Miscarriage
- Missionaries/Evangelism
- Moral Development
- Moral Panics
- Mothers
- Multi-culturalism and Education
- Music and Babies
- Nation and Childhood
- Native American and Aboriginal Canadian Childhood
- New Reproductive Technologies and Assisted Conception
- Nursery Rhymes
- Organizations, Nongovernmental
- Orphans
- Parental Gender Preferences, The Social Construction of
- Parenting
- Pediatrics, History of
- Peer Culture
- Perspectives on Boys' Circumcision
- Peter Pan
- Philosophy and Childhood
- Piaget, Jean
- Play
- Politics, Children and
- Postcolonial Childhoods
- Post-Modernism
- Poverty, Rights, and Well-being, Child
- Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica Childhoods
- Premodern China, Conceptions of Childhood in
- Prostitution and Pornography, Child
- Psychoanalysis
- Queer Theory and Childhood
- Race and Ethnicity
- Racism, Children and
- Radio, Children, and Young People
- Readers, Children as
- Refugee and Displaced Children
- Reimagining Early Childhood Education, Reconceptualizing a...
- Relational Ontologies
- Relational Pedagogies
- Rights, Children’s
- Risk and Resilience
- Russia
- School Shootings
- Sex Education in the United States
- Sexuality
- Siblings
- Siblings, Learning Disabilities and
- Social and Cultural Capital of Childhood
- Social Habitus in Childhood
- Social Movements, Children's
- Social Policy, Children and
- Socialization and Child Rearing
- Socio-cultural Perspectives on Children's Spirituality
- Sociology of Childhood
- South African Birth to Twenty Project
- South Asia
- South Asia, History of Childhood in
- Special Education
- Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
- Spock, Benjamin
- Sports and Organized Games
- Street Children
- Street Children And Brazil
- Subcultures
- Sure Start
- Teenage Fathers
- Teenage Pregnancy
- Television
- The Bible and Children
- The Harms and Prevention of Drugs and Alcohol on Children
- The Spaces of Childhood
- Theater for Children and Young People
- Theories, Pedagogic
- Tourism
- Toys
- Transgender Children
- Tweens
- Twins and Multiple Births
- Unaccompanied Migrant Children
- United Kingdom, History of Adoption and Fostering in the
- United States, Schooling in the
- Value of Children
- Views of Childhood, Jewish and Christian
- Violence, Children and
- Visual Representations of Childhood
- Voice, Participation, and Agency
- Vygotsky, Lev and His Cultural-historical Approach to Deve...
- War
- Welfare Law in the United States, Child
- Well-Being, Child
- Western Europe and Scandinavia
- Western Literature, The Urban Child in
- Witchcraft in the Contemporary World, Children and
- Work and Apprenticeship, Children's
- Young Carers
- Young Children and Inclusion
- Young Children’s Imagination
- Young Lives
- Young People, Alcohol, and Urban Life
- Young People and Climate Activism
- Young People and Disadvantaged Environments in Affluent Co...