The Relation of Role Taking to the Development of Moral Judgment in Children

Abstract

SELMAN, ROBERT L. The Relation of Role Taking to the Development of Moral Judgment in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 79-91. In order to explore the relationship in middle childhood between two socialcognitive processes, role-taking ability and moral reasoning, 60 middle-class children (10 boys and 10 girls each at ages 8, 9, and 10) were administered Kohlberg's (1963) moral-judgment measure, two role-taking tasks, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a conventional measure of intelligence. Results indicated that at this age range, with intelligence controlled, the development of reciprocal role-taking skills related to the development of conventional moral judgment. Results of a reexamination 1 year later of 10 subjects whose role-taking and moral-judgment levels were low in the original study supported the hypothesis that the development of the ability to understand the reciprocal nature of interpersonal relations is a necessary but not suficient condition for the development of conventional moral thought.