Moral Developmental Science Between Changing Paradigms

Article type: Review Article

Authors: Keller, Monika

Affiliations: Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Note: [] Address for correspondence: Monika Keller, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. E-mail:keller@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

Abstract: This review encompasses a time-span of about 50 years of research on morality and moral development. It discusses Kohlberg's (1984) work as a milestone that constituted the cognitive developmental viewpoint of morality and that dominated research for about three decades. In this paradigm the role of reasoning and deliberation was emphasized as the basis for morality. Towards the end of the last century new paradigms of morality arose outside of developmental psychology, bridging from the social sciences and humanities to the natural sciences. These paradigms emphasize moral feelings and intuitions as the basis of morality. Basic aspects of these approaches are presented, also in light of moral developmental science.

Keywords: moral reasoning, moral emotions, deliberation, moral intuition, paradigm change

DOI: 10.3233/DEV-2012-11090

Journal: International Journal of Developmental Science, vol. 6, no. 1-2, pp. 65-69, 2012