Moral Development, Cultural-Developmental Perspective

The study of moral development has seen recurrent calls for the inclusion of more than one kind of moral reasoning in order to move beyond earlier conceptualizations of morality as a unitary structure or domain. The argument for plurality has also been put forth for other fundamental aspects of human psychology, including intelligence, creativity, and self. Typically, the arguments have been inspired by consideration of culturally diverse individuals and groups. What has so far received less attention is the development of these psychological phenomena and how developmental patterns may vary among cultures. This is because it takes time to build knowledge about new constructs, such as “naturalistic intelligence” and “ethic of community.” It also takes new ways of theoretical thinking to capture the development of ...