Moral Development Through Social Interaction

With essays by prominent researchers, this text reflects the current state of scholarship with respect to social interaction and its effects on moral behavior and development. The book consists of five main parts corresponding to the emerging areas of interest in the field. Part I examines moral development from the perspective of developmental processes, including a model to account for moral change and a look at the ways in which social interaction and context influence self-attribution and moral development. Part II deals with the developmental-contructivist perspective, with discussions of childhood social regulation of intimacy and autonomy. Part III examines moral development from a social constructivist perspective, reviewing the evidence for this approach and describing a psychosocial approach that focuses on constructive social-evolutionary processes. Part IV, dealing with the interpretive-hermeneutic perspective, outlines a scheme of concepts to account for the construction of meaning in discourse and examines the psychological study of social interaction. Finally, Part V presents several social process perspectives on social development. Taken as a whole, the book offers a uniquely comprehensive look at developments in the field.