Understanding what others think and feel, an essential ingredient of social functioning, develops early on, allowing children to understand and evaluate other people's actions. To assess whether those actions break or uphold moral rules (moral judgments), children must consider the agent's intentions and whether the action harms or helps others.…

In this longitudinal study we examined whether two components of effortful control, behavioral control, and executive function moderated the relation between temperament and conscience development. Temperament was assessed when participants were two years of age, and three temperament groups were formed: inhibited, exuberant, and low reactive. At…