Turiel's theory of moral development

1. ELLIOT TURIEL
By Dawn Mikelonis, Damian Martinez, Rose Orr

2. BACKGROUND
American Psychologist

 PhD in Psychology from Yale University
 Chancellor Professor of Graduate School Education
at University of California Berkeley
Human Development and relations to education

 Social and moral judgments
 Cultural arrangements
Published many books and other publications
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 Phone # (501) 642-4201

3. INFLUENCES
Jean Piaget

 Studied with Lawrence Kohlberg

4. DOMAIN THEORY
Frameworks for moral decisions

Moral issues v. Conventional issues

Moral issue

Maintaining rights/not hurting people

 Being fair
Conventional issue

Societal rule


5. CRITIQUE
Many domain findings do not contradict Piaget

Both Piaget and Turiel theorized that moral decisions

are predicted by objective responsibility
Claim: research has not shown that children qualitatively

distinguish between conventional and moral issues
Most domain theory research did not take into

account children’s difficulty in evaluating
intentionality
 Some cultures do not distinguish between manners
and morals

6. CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS
Focus on basic, accepted morals

Not values particular to an individual community

Use of universal morals prevents crossover into

religious teachings (or criticism of religion)
 Teach “domain appropriate” morality
Example: dress code is not a moral issue, it’s a

conventional issue.
Focus student activity based on the domain


7. REFERENCES
http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/Faculty/ETuriel/ETuriel.jpg
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http://www.westernpsych.org/programs/program00/th24.
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html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Turiel
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http://www.davidsonfilmsstore.com/2007_LG_PDF/Judg

ments_Discussion_Topics.pdf
http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/practices.html

http://www.dailycal.org/article/12257/professor_charts_

moral_development
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.dworin/theories_of_mora

l_development
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=50014

14075
http://bostonreview.net/BR30.5/saxe.html
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