ABSTRACT

Morality has once again become an important focus of research in different scientific disciplines, from biology, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, to social psychology, economics, and political philosophy. One of the reasons for this renewed interest stems from the tragedies that human beings, individually or in groups, inflict upon the lives of one another and the world at large, tragedies such as war, the extinction of species and ecological destruction, climate change, and last but not least – the financial crisis. Moral destitution and collapse, a lack of respect for human dignity and worth, and deficits in proper moral functioning at all levels of the world community, often discounted or masked by transparent excuses and vacuous rationalizations, are all viewed as principal causes of the social, societal and ecological crises with which we are confronted today. The key to solving these crises must lie, at least partly, in a better understanding and active deployment of morality. Developmental psychology is charged with the specific task of illuminating the growth and evolution of moral functioning in human beings. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.

chapter |7 pages

Introduction: Meaning, measurement, and correlates of moral development

ByDaniel Brugman, Monika Keller, Bryan Sokol

chapter 1|22 pages

The evolved developmental niche and child sociomoral outcomes in Chinese 3-year-olds

ByDarcia Narvaez, Lijuan Wang, Tracy Gleason, Ying Cheng, Jennifer Lefever, Lifang Deng

chapter 3|15 pages

Counterfactual reasoning and moral emotion attribution

ByMichaela Gummerum, Christopher Cribbett, Anna Nogueira Nicolau, Rebecca Uren

chapter 4|15 pages

Moral emotions and the development of the moral self in childhood

ByTobias Krettenauer, Samantha Campbell, Steven Hertz

chapter 5|16 pages

The structure and correlates of a measure of prosocial moral reasoning in adolescents from Spain

ByGustavo Carlo, Maria Vicenta Mestre, Meredith McGinley, Ana Tur-Porcar, Paula Samper, Cara Streit

chapter 6|16 pages

Moral dilemma in adolescence: The role of values, prosocial moral reasoning and moral disengagement in helping decision making

ByMarinella Paciello, Roberta Fida, Carlo Tramontano, Ellie Cole, Luca Cerniglia

chapter 7|15 pages

Moral judgement in adolescents: Age differences in applying and justifying three principles of harm

ByPaul C. Stey, Daniel Lapsley, Mary O. McKeever

chapter 8|18 pages

Moral vs. non-moral attribution in adolescence: Environmental and behavioural correlates

ByDario Bacchini, Gaetana Affuso, Grazia De Angelis

chapter 9|14 pages

Describing and testing an intermediate concept measure of adolescent moral thinking

ByStephen Thoma, W. Pitt Derryberry, H. Michael Crowson

chapter 10|16 pages

Situational moral adjustment and the happy victimizer

ByGerhard Minnameier, Simone Schmidt

chapter 11|16 pages

Change in values and moral reasoning during higher education

ByLiisa Myyry, Soile Juujärvi, Kaija Pesso

chapter 12|16 pages

The development of moral motivation across the adult lifespan

ByWilliam L. Dunlop, Lawrence J. Walker, M. Kyle Matsuba