ABSTRACT
Children are egocentric and lack the ability to coordinate the perspectives of others with their own. Since they have a unilateral respect for all the rules of those in authority, the distinction between moral rules and those that apply to social conventions occurs out of a global fusion of all social concepts. Daycare is a highly relevant context for examining the proposition that children's early social concepts are global and undifferentiated. While Piaget contended that mature conceptions of rules in both domains are constructed from peer-oriented social interactions, E. Turiel has proposed that this distinction arises from qualitatively different aspects of the individual's social interactions. Some redefinition of Piaget's approach, however, may provide a more accurate characterisation of social-cognitive development. Without influencing perspective-taking ability, peer group interaction may affect the child's respect for authority through the ability to discriminate between moral and social rules.
