ABSTRACT
Chapter summary
Human morality consists of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. There are often discrepancies among these components (e.g., individuals behaving in ways they know are wrong).
187Kohlberg argued that moral development always proceeds from pre-conventional morality through conventional morality to post-conventional morality. There is some support for this viewpoint from cross-cultural studies.
Kohlberg focused primarily on the cognitive component of morality and de-emphasised the emotional and behavioural components. He also underestimated the extent to which even infants and young children exhibit basic aspects of a moral perspective.
Young children’s moral development depends on the extent to which they exhibit perspective taking, or theory of mind.
There is only weak support for Gilligan’s hypothesis that males develop a morality of justice whereas women develop a morality of care. However, research indicates that moral reasoning in women depends more on emotional considerations and empathic concern than is the case with men.
Children’s moral development is facilitated by a parental style based on induction (e.g., explaining why a given action could harm others), whereas parental power assertion has negative effects on children. However, broad categories of parenting (e.g., induction) are oversimplified because there are numerous parental practices and parents’ use of these practices is not consistent across situations.
Children’s moral development depends heavily on mutually responsive orientation between parents and children and on the extent to which children possess the personality trait of effortful control.
Peers can have positive and negative influences on adolescents’ moral behaviour. However, it can be hard to establish that adolescents’ moral behaviour has been caused by peer influences.
Twin studies have shown that individual differences in moral development depend in part on genetic factors.
According to the social information processing–moral decision-making framework, moral development depends on complex interactions among brain development, social factors, emotion processes, and a database of knowledge and memory.
