ABSTRACT
Over time, there has been an ongoing debate by philosophers and psychologists on the role of cognition and emotion in moral development (Hoffman, 2000), and after the decay of the cognitive paradigm in the tradition of Piaget (1932/1965) and Kohlberg (1984) moral emotions have gained renewed attention. On the one hand, emotions have been included in the cognitive approach through the theory of the moral self and moral motivation (Blasi, 1993; Keller, 1996; Keller & Edelstein, 1993; Keller, Fang, Fang, Edelstein, Cecora, & Eckert, 2004a; Lapsley & Narváez, 2004). On the other hand, the question of how children develop moral feelings has been pursued increasingly in different research traditions. In this chapter we will first discuss divergent views on the development of moral feelings in different research traditions. Second, we will provide a conceptual framework for the integration of findings from these different traditions. Finally, we will present our own cross-cultural research findings concerning the development of moral emotions across childhood and adolescence.
