People can use a variety of different strategies to perform tasks and these strategies all have two characteristics in common. First, they can be evaluated in comparison with either an absolute or a relative standard. Second, they can be used at varying levels of consistency. In the present article, the authors develop a general theory of task…

Six hundred adolescents and 25 teachers responded to incidents containing a moral issue. Overall there was moral development with age, as suggested by Piaget, but many (by Piaget's definitions) immature responses were recorded on some incidents, even by adults. The context in which issues were presented was an important influence. (Author/SJL)