TY - JOUR
T1 - Age-related differences in contribution of rule-based thinking toward moral evaluations
AU - Caravita, Simona Carla Silvia
AU - De Silva, Lindamulage N.
AU - Pagani, Vera
AU - Colombo, Barbara
AU - Antonietti, Alessandro
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This study aims to investigate the interplay of different criteria of moral evaluation, related
to the type of the rule and context characteristics, in moral reasoning of children, early,
and late adolescents. Students attending to fourth, seventh, and tenth grade were
asked to evaluate the acceptability of rule breaking actions using ad hoc scenarios.
Results suggest that the role of different moral evaluation criteria changes by age. During
adolescence a greater integration of the moral criteria emerged. Moreover, adolescents
also prioritized the evaluation of moral rule (forbidding to harm others) violations as
non-acceptable when the perpetrator harms an innocent victim by applying a direct
personal force. The relevance of these findings to increase the understanding of how
moral reasoning changes by age for the assessment of impairments in moral reasoning
of non-normative groups is also discussed.
AB - This study aims to investigate the interplay of different criteria of moral evaluation, related
to the type of the rule and context characteristics, in moral reasoning of children, early,
and late adolescents. Students attending to fourth, seventh, and tenth grade were
asked to evaluate the acceptability of rule breaking actions using ad hoc scenarios.
Results suggest that the role of different moral evaluation criteria changes by age. During
adolescence a greater integration of the moral criteria emerged. Moreover, adolescents
also prioritized the evaluation of moral rule (forbidding to harm others) violations as
non-acceptable when the perpetrator harms an innocent victim by applying a direct
personal force. The relevance of these findings to increase the understanding of how
moral reasoning changes by age for the assessment of impairments in moral reasoning
of non-normative groups is also discussed.
KW - moral reasoning
KW - moral reasoning
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/97961
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00597
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00597
M3 - Article
SN - 1664-1078
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
ER -