Children’s Moral Self as a Precursor of Moral Identity Development

This chapter outlines important developmental assumptions attached to the moral identity construct and discusses different notions of self-morality integration and their developmental implications. It reviews existing research on children's moral self and examines in what sense it specifies precursors of moral identity development. Vertical precursors of moral identity development were distinguished from horizontal precursors. In the vertical sense, children need to develop a moral self as an intentional and volitional agent before developing a moral identity. The chapter discusses the notion of an integration of self and morality as the guiding assumption for research on moral identity development. A trait-based approach conceptualizes moral identity as similar to personality traits. It assumes cross-situational consistency and temporal stability of behavioural dispositions relevant for individuals' moral conduct. For socio-cognitive approaches, there is no need to assume developmental precursors of moral identity, as the moral self of 3-year-olds already exhibits major characteristics of an adult moral identity.