ABSTRACT
Domain theory turned Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development "on its side". From the perspective of domain theory, moral issues represent universally applicable truths, which are structured by underlying conceptions of justice, rights, and welfare. A central claim of domain theory—that people everywhere distinguish between morality and culturally specific convention and that morality is universal and nonarbitary—poses a challenge to certain assumptions in cultural psychology. Acknowledging the social and cultural features of moral identity can help us to better understand situations in which people struggle collectively to bring their world into conformity with ideals of justice. Children's social interactions are a stimulus for structural transformations in the way that they reason about their social world. A key point is that moral understanding, in particular, develops in relationships dominated not by authority but instead by egalitarian social relationships, typically with peers.
