Moral Development and Conceptions of Fairness: Damon
•Five to seven
year old children believe that equality is
the only fair way to divvy up valued
rewards, and they will argue their point.
–No mitigating circumstances for them
•For ages 8 and
above, ideas of merit and need enter
into children’s moral reasoning.
–They start to take into account all the factors involved in order to ensure a fair outcome in each situations — a case by case decision.
Sources: Damon, William
(1977). The Social World of the Child.
San Francisco: Josse-Bass; Damon, W. (1983). Social and Personality
Development: Infancy Through
Adolescence. New York: W.W. Norton; Damon W. (1988). The Moral Child. New York: The Free Press. Slide arranged by
Gordon Vessels, 2005.