The Development of Socio-Moral Cognition in Late Adolescence: A Three-Dimensional Model.

The nature of the developmental shift from adolescence to adulthood has been of ongoing interest to researchers studying the development of socio-moral cognition from within the "cognitive-developmental" paradigm. This paper identifies three dimensions along which developmental changes in socio-moral cognition occur during late adolescence: normative moral cognition, moral metacognition, and epistemic moral cognition. Normative moral cognition involves making first-order judgments about what is right, good, or obligatory, and giving reasons for such judgments. Moral metacognition refers to the processes an individual invokes to think about and reflect on first-order processes. Epistemic moral cognition is primarily concerned with the nature and validity of moral language and moral knowledge. This model suggests that previous attempts to understand socio-moral development during the present era have been fundamentally flawed. Ultimately, the model may lead to both a more accurate description and a more useful explanation of the development of socio-moral cognition during late adolescence. (Author/RH)