| What are the 3 domains needed to understand moral development? | 1. Moral domain.
2. Conventional domain.
3. Personal domain.
(Killen & Smetana, 2010l Parke & Clarke-Stewart, 2011; Turiel, 2008a, 2008b) |
| What are moral domains? | Moral domains deal with basic principles of right, wrong and justice. For example, even young children recognise that intentionally hurting someone is wrong (Thompson, 2012). |
| What are conventional domains? | Conventional domains addresses societal norms and ways of behaving in specific situations.
For instance, it's likely that your instructors allow students to respond in class without being called on, and it's okay to yell at an athletic event but not in a classroom.
Social conventions also vary depending to culture and setting. For example, young people addressing adults by their first names is acceptable in some cultures but not in others. |
| What is personal domain? | Personal domains refer to decisions that are not socially regulated and do not harm or violate others' rights.
For instance, parents and other adults may think tattoos and body piercings look awful, but they aren't morally wrong, and they aren't usually addressed by social conventions as dress codes. |
| How old are children when they first make the distinction between moral, conventional, and personal domain? | Children as young as 2 or 3 begin to make these distinctions (Hamlin & Wynn, 2011; Nucci, 2009; Thompson, 2012).
Children understand, for example, that it's wrong to hit and hurt someone regardless of where you are and whether or not rules prohibiting it exist.
Some researchers even suggest that we are born with a rudimentary sense of justice that can be observed in the first months of life (Bloom, 2010). |
| How do children develop an understanding of these domains and the distinctions between them? | As children interact with others and observe the consequences of their actions, they gradually develop a more sophisticated understanding of differences among the domains (Nucci, 2009; Turiel, 2008a, 2008b; Parke & Clarke-Steward, 2011).
For example, when children push a classmate down on the playground, they see the impact of their actions on others, and they are often reprimanded by adults. They also begin to realise that conventions are arbitrary and situation specific, which can result in their questioning both school regulations and rules at home. |
| Are the lines between the moral, conventional, and personal domains clear? | The lines between the domains are often blurred and depend on individuals' interpretations.
Some preservice teachers, for example, view giving all students the opportunity to participate in class as a moral issue, whereas others are more likely to classify it in the conventional domain (Schellenberg & Eggen, 2008).
Further, some researchers view reasoning about social conventions and society's rules as advances in moral development (Kohlberg, 1981, 1984). |
