Handbook of Moral Development

The Handbook of Moral Development is the definitive source of theory and research on the development of morality. Since the publication of the first edition, ground-breaking approaches to studying the development of morality have re-invigorated debates about what it means to conceptualize and measure morality in early childhood, how children understand fairness and equality, what the evolutionary basis is for morality, and the role of culture. The contributors of this new edition grapple with these questions and provide answers for how morality originates, changes, evolves, and develops during childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. Thoroughly updated and expanded, the second edition features new chapters that focus on:

• infancy
• neuroscience
• theory of mind
• moral personality and identity
• cooperation and culture
• gender, sexuality, prejudice and discrimination

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the study of moral development, this edition contains contributions from over 50 scholars in developmental science, cognitive psychology, social neuroscience, comparative psychology and evolution, and education.

Melanie Killen, Ph.D., is Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, Professor of Psychology (Affiliate), and Associate Director of the Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice and Group Identity (2011) and co-editor of Social Development in Childhood and Adolescence: A Contemporary Reader (2011). She studies the development of moral judgment, intergroup attitudes, prejudice and bias, peer relationships, and cultural influences on development.

Judith G. Smetana, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Rochester, where she also held the Frederika Warner Chair of Human Development. She is the author of Adolescents, Families and Social Development: How Teens Construct Their Worlds (2011). She studies children’s moral judgment development, parenting, and adolescent-parent relationships in different cultural contexts.