Premium
The Origins and Development of Concepts of Justice
Author(s) -
Berg Nancy Eisenberg,
Mussen Paul
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1975.tb01003.x
Subject(s) - lawrence kohlberg's stages of moral development , economic justice , socialization , cognitive development , piaget's theory of cognitive development , psychology , epistemology , moral development , cognition , process (computing) , stage theory , developmental stage theories , cognitive science , sociology , social psychology , developmental psychology , computer science , political science , philosophy , neuroscience , law , operating system
The origins and development of concepts of justice are examined from three theoretical points of view—learning theory, psychoanalysis, and cognitive developmental theory. Cognitive developmental theory and research, particularly the work of Piaget and Kohlberg, has contributed most to our understanding of children's ideas of justice and how these change and mature. Empirical data supporting the hypothesis that concepts of justice develop through a fixed and invariant sequence of stages is reviewed together with hypotheses and studies related to the process of transition from one stage to the next. Knowledge about the course of development needs to be supplemented, through systematic research, with information about aspects of the socialization process as antecedents of mature concepts of justice and of behavior consistent with these concepts.