Examines the distinctions and interrelations between necessary and contingent knowledge and relates these concepts to the distinction between scientific and empirical validity. Considers how these distinctions can be applied to an understanding of morality, arguing for a relational rather than absolutist approach to questions of necessity. (JPB)

The study examined children's moral reasoning with specific reference to adult interventions, across age and gender. Seventy-two children from the age groups 6-8 years and 10-12 years respectively were presented with two hypothetical vignettes pertaining to Piaget's justice framework of moral reasoning. Chi-square analysis and descriptive analysis…

Investigated six- to nine-year-old children's understanding of the principle of mutual trust by testing children's ability to make correct blame attributions on the basis of second-order beliefs. Subjects were presented with four story frames. Stories differed in protagonist's second-order belief about another's knowledge. (Author/NH)

Author describes how psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg's work has been influential in a different line of research than Kohlberg's own, sharing observations of the impact of Kohlberg's work on the field of moral education and on the author's own work in the field. (Author/NB)

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's moral judgments, attributions of emotion, and their associations were examined in hypothetical, prototypical situations and situations of provocation and peer retaliation. Children judged prototypical and provoked moral transgressions (hitting and teasing). Hypothetical moral transgressions were judged to be more serious and deserving…

Investigates the ways in which young adults make judgments about two contrasting kinds of rights: moral worthiness (the aretaic) and moral obligation (the deontic), reflecting on how thinking in these areas may be coordinated with responsibility judgments and behavior. Discusses what might be gained if the aretaic domain were taken into account in…

Current models of moral functioning such as those of Rest (1983) and Damon and Hart (1988) have maintained that optimal moral development and consistent moral action require the presence of multiple constructs. In order to examine the importance of the presence of multiple variables relevant to moral functioning, structural equation modeling was…

Author reflects on his association with psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg and his collaboration with Kohlberg in a project funded by the Danforth Foundation for research and development in moral education. (Author/NB)

A facet of the construction of children's theory of mind is examined in a study with a two-fold purpose: to investigate whether story scenarios of typical social interaction could facilitate young children's recognition of others' false beliefs, and to study how children's concepts of moral judgment might be influenced by the recognition of a…

The nature of moral problems as formulated by gifted adolescents was examined. Stories written by students in grades 9-12 were analyzed in terms of the age and sex of characters, social relationships between characters, issues in the moral problems, and solutions to the problems. (Author/AM)

This article revisits Kohlberg's cognitive developmental claims that stages of moral judgment, facilitative processes of social perspective-taking, and moral values are commonly identifiable across cultures. Snarey [Snarey, J. (1985). "The cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research."…

The nature of the developmental shift from adolescence to adulthood has been of ongoing interest to researchers studying the development of socio-moral cognition from within the "cognitive-developmental" paradigm. This paper identifies three dimensions along which developmental changes in socio-moral cognition occur during late…

Author describes his first encounters with psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg and explains how Kohlberg's approach has been blended with other approaches in the development of the author's work on the moral education of children. (Author)

Presents recent changes in the theory of moral stages, including a broadening of theoretical and research concerns, differentiation of "hard" and "soft" stages, clarification of the form-content distinction, revision of A and B substages, clarification of stages six and seven, discussion of moral action, and listing of nine…