Two studies used a modification of the weakly interpretive scoring method of Langford and D'Cruz to examine judicial and legislative reasoning. Findings were in accord with modified versions of Piaget's and Kohlberg's views and contradicted Gibbs' theory. There were three stages of legislative reasoning between 7 and 21 years: heteronomy or…

Children between the ages of 3 and 10 years were presented with a set of pictures representing a contract with bilateral cheating options between a parent and child (Study 1) and between 2 peers (Study 2). The children had to (a) evaluate which situations violated the contract when the relevant information was presented, (b) anticipate the…

The Arsenio and Lemerise (this issue) proposal integrating social information processing (SIP) and domain theory to study children's aggression is evaluated from a domain theory perspective. Basic tenets of domain theory rendering it compatible with SIP are discussed as well as points of divergence. Focus is directed to the proposition that…

Examined kindergarten, first, third, and fifth graders' reactions to the moral transgressions of children and adults. The stories presented to the children varied in terms of intention, damage, and age of transgressor. (BD)

Kindergarten children and adults were shown slides with an accompanying taped soundtrack which portrayed reciprocal and nonreciprocal aggressive and prosocial interactions. Following each episode, subjects' evaluations of the actor and their attributions concerning the cause of his behavior were obtained. (Author/JMB)

Results are discussed in terms of Piaget's concept of the parallel development of the cognition of the impersonal and interpersonal worlds. (Authors)

Unlike Piaget's clinical procedure, the experiment's methodology allowed substantiation of the ability of children to simultaneously weigh damage and intent information when making a moral judgment. Other advantages of this quantitative methodology are also presented. (Authors)

A group-administerable version of Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI) was psychometrically evaluated. Results showed that the Sociomoral Reflection Measure has acceptable concurrent validity with the MJI as well as high levels of construct validity and reliability. (Author/MP)

Seeks to demonstrate that age differences in the interpretation of moral judgment stimulus stories can reliably predict differences in patterns of moral evaluations. Also attempts to characterize the nature of these age-related interpretation differences. Stimulus stories represented each of Heider's levels of responsibility and varied in outcome…

Examines several issues concerning Gilligan's and Kohlberg's models of moral orientations and Kohlberg's model of moral stages in a longitudinal study of 233 subjects aged 5 to 63 years. Results revealed few violations of the stage sequence over the two-year longitudinal interval. (RJC)

Social information processing theory has been posited as a description of how mental operations affect behavioral responding in social situations. Arsenio and Lemerise (this issue) proposed that consideration of concepts and methods from moral domain models could enhance this description. This paper agrees with their proposition, although it…

Effects of observing differentially generous models, instructional constraint, and age on private and public charitability were assessed with 192 fourth and fifth grade girls, who engaged in a concept formation task which provided them with money. Implications for social learning theory and for moral development are discussed. (Author/CS)

Punisher effectiveness and generalization of an aversive stimulus, a rationale, and a combination of the two were investigated in a laboratory analog designed for punishment research, with 80 first and second grade subjects. Significantly greater suppression of deviant behavior and punishment generalization occurred when the punisher consisted of…

Third- and sixth-grade children rated nine single stories which combined three levels of intentions and consequences and which varied by order in which intention and consequence information was presented. Subjects also made choices for three story pairs which varied in terms of the order of presentation of intention and consequence information.…