ABSTRACT
The social world is complex. It is structured by many social expectations and rules, which are enforced in diverse social situations and in the context of different social relationships and societal arrangements. Through the process of development, children must acquire an understanding of these different social expectations and rules, including an awareness of the regularities that are specific to particular social contexts, as well as an understanding of which expectations and rules are more broadly applicable and obligatory across contexts. Moreover, although morality regulates social relationships, not all social rules are moral; some rules may be functional in regulating social interactions but lack the prescriptive and obligatory basis of moral rules. This chapter describes theory and research from the social-cognitive domain perspective on moral and social development (Helwig & Turiel, 2003; Nucci, 2001, 2002; Smetana, 1995b; Turiel, 1998, 2002, chap. 1 this volume) that describes how children come to understand, interpret, accept, and sometimes reject these diverse aspects of their social world.
