ABSTRACT
Defining the Moral Domain The information contained in this chapter is based on work in what is referred to as social cognitive domain theory (Turiel, 1983, 1998). Domain theory has emerged over the past decade as the dominant paradigm for research on moral development, and provides a set of novel
implications for classroom management practices. This view of social development holds that children construct social concepts within discrete developmental frameworks, or domains, that are generated out of qualitatively differing aspects of their social interactions. Three basic conceptual frameworks or domains of social knowledge are posited by domain theory: morality, societal convention, and the personal. Concepts of morality address the nonarbitrary and therefore universal aspects of social relations pertaining to issues of human welfare, rights, and fairness (Turiel, 1983, 2002). Children as young as age 3 have been found to treat moral transgressions such as the unprovoked hitting and hurting of another child as wrong even in the absence of a governing rule or norm, because of the intrinsic effects (pain and injury) that the act of hitting has on the victim (Turiel, 1983, 2002). Children’s moral development entails progressive transformations in their conceptions of justice and human welfare (Turiel, 2002). These moral understandings inform children’s and adolescents’ views of such larger moral issues as civil liberties (Helwig & Turiel, 2002).
