I thought she knew that would hurt my feelings: Developing psychological knowledge and moral thinking

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with developing psychological knowledge and moral thinking. It outlines a framework for understanding why and how children's psychological understandings are implicated in their moral thinking and discusses the role of interpretation in moral thinking, putting forth the proposition that children make moral judgments about the world as they understand it or construe it. The chapter argues for the view that children's understandings of persons–persons' beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions are a central component of how children construe the world and present evidence of the multiple ways in which children's developing psychological concepts inform, and differently constrain, their moral thinking. This chapter concludes by speculating broadly about the nature of the relation between psychological knowledge and moral reasoning and discusses the implications that this relation may have for future research in moral development.