The Mediating Role of Cognitive Development in Moral Judgment

Abstract

TOMLINSON-KEASEY, C., and KEASEY, CHARLES BLAKE. The Mediating Role of Cognitive Development in Moral Judgment. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 291-298. The hypothesized central role of cognitive development in resolving moral dilemmas was examined in subjects who had just begun to acquire formal operations (30 sixth-grade girls) and subjects who should be practiced in formal thought (24 college coeds). The high correlations and systematic relationships between the stages of cognitive development and moral development suggested that sophisticated cognitive operations are a prerequisite to advanced moral judgments, and that there is a lag or decalage between the acquisition of logical operations and their application to the area of morality.