Understanding Morality in China from a Perspective of Developmental Psychology

Abstract

Morality, a concept central to China's values and education system, profoundly influences children's development from an early age. Over the years, developmental psychologists have investigated how Chinese children's moral development is influenced by age, education, social changes, and cultural contexts, and comparisons have been carried out across cultures, regions, and generations. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of literature that examined the development of Chinese children's moral cognition and behaviors. The chapter consists of four sections: (1) Re-examining moral development theories in Chinese children, which reviews the findings of early efforts to replicate classical studies in moral reasoning and development; (2) Moral issues and moral education, which focuses on a number of novel topics in moral development that are particularly important in Chinese society, such as children's moral judgment of public and private property, collectivism, responsibility, and labor; (3) Moral development and cultural influence, which discusses cross-cultural studies that examined moral reasoning, behaviors, and developmental trajectories of children in different cultural contexts; and (4) Social change and moral development, which reviews research that examines moral development under the influence of social changes such as economic reform, the single child policy, and the difference between rural and urban regions.