The Early Development of Moral Criteria

WELLMAN, HENRY M.; LARKEY, CRAIG; and SOMERVILLE, SUSAN C. The Early Development of Moral Criteria. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 869-873. 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were presented an array of moral-judgment tasks designed to assess their understanding of differing moral criteria. Older children correctly understood more criteria. Understanding of the relevant moral distinctions was developmentally ordered. For example, the self-other and apology items were understood before items depicting amount of damages. Results are discussed in terms of the prevalent, exclusive study of damages and intention criteria in previous research.