The Development of Domains of Moral and Conventional Norms, Coordination in Decision-Making, and the Implications of Social Opposition

Abstract

This chapter discusses norms in the domains of morality, social convention, and personal jurisdiction from the perspective of psychological development. Many studies have documented that by a young age children think in different ways about each of these domains and that each represents a different developmental pathway. Reasoning about the moral domain, which is a main focus of the chapter, is connected with emotions, and the development of moral judgments stems from individuals’ reciprocal social interactions in direct and everyday experiences. Whereas the domains of norms are distinct, many social situations include considerations from different domains and, therefore, social decisions often involve processes of coordination of weighing those differing and sometimes conflicting considerations. After discussion of processes of coordination, the chapter considers ways that individuals reflect upon the fairness of systems of social organization and coordinate acceptance of norms and opposition to norms through their moral judgments.