Handbook of Moral Development

"The first and second editions of the Handbook of Moral Development framed existing knowledge and advanced future scholarship about moral development. The third edition impressively continues this tradition by presenting the rich theoretical and empirical knowledge about all domains of the field and by illuminating the paths forward for understanding and enhancing the science of moral development. The third edition of this extraordinary reference work is required reading for all developmental scientists."

- Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University


"While research on moral development has a rich history, the newest edition of this handbook clearly highlights how cutting-edge research continues to tackle the evolving complexity of morality in today’s world. By both reviewing past research and expanding the canon to include social justice and social responsibility as moral concerns, this handbook provides a comprehensive and socially relevant overview of the ever-growing field of moral development research."

- Christia Spears Brown, Ph.D.

Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, College of Arts & Sciences
Lester and Helen Milich Professor of Children at Risk and Associate Chair, Department of Psychology. Associate Editor, British Journal of Developmental Psychology

"Research on moral development, a long-time, core topic in child psychology, has steadily expanded to include studies on inequality, exclusion and bullying, on infant foundations, and on the connections between morality, emotion and mentalizing. Classic and more recent ideas are all surveyed in this comprehensive Handbook. Students of moral development should do the right thing and read the 3rd Edition!"

- Paul Harris, Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA.

"Killen and Smetana present an artfully updated articulation of how morality, and children's moral development, are critical to understanding and interrupting the social injustices that occupy our newsfeeds. Their analysis outlines how morality is more than an esoteric notion of "right" and "wrong", it is at the core of what it means to participate meaningfully in society, to contest racism and discrimination, and to strive collectively for a just world."

- Tiffany Yip, Professor of Psychology Fordham University

"This latest edition of the go-to handbook on moral development offers an effective blend of seminal work and newer advances through the contributions of leading researchers from around the world. This updating assures that the volume will continue to be a most trusted resource for scholars at all levels."

- Andrew Fuligni, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

"Each day of our lives, it seems, we read about or even experience some act we deem moral or amoral, just or unjust, fair or unfair. It is not for no reason that the likes of Locke and Hobbes, Darwin and Freud were drawn to profound questions about human morality. What are the developmental roots of moral judgments and behavior? Morality, we now know, occupies a central nexus in an array of significant influences: biological, personological, social, economic, cultural, and evolutionary. Intrigued? Then the place to turn is the new, erudite, and very welcome edition of the Handbook of Moral Development. Here, two world-renown expert editors have assembled stellar contributors who offer in-depth state-of-the-art conceptual and empirical treatments of the full spectrum of major topics that are bound up in the challenging but essential issue that is human morality."

- Marc H. Bornstein, Editor, Parenting: Science and Practice