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Are today’s children more able to distinguish right from wrong than their earlier counterparts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

J. Clare Wilson
J. Clare Wilson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Sydney
*
Department of Psychology, University of Kent, CANTERBURY CT2 7NP UK, Phone: 44 1227 823081, Fax: 44 1227 827030, E-mail: J.C.Wilson@ukc.ac.uk
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Abstract

The present paper reviews the empirical psychological literature on moral development to examine the hypothesis that children today are more advanced in their moral reasoning than their earlier counterparts. The review briefly examines the classic research on how children understand morality and when they understand the short- and long-term consequences of their behaviour. It then examines replication studies in the moral development literature. The review concludes that there is no evidence for or against the proposition that today’s children are more advanced in their moral reasoning than their earlier counterparts, as there is a distinct lack of reliable replication studies that could answer the question one way or another.

Keywords

Age of Criminal CulpabilityConsequencesDoli IncapaxGuilty MindMens ReaMoral Development
Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , 2001 , pp. 15 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 2001

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