Augusto Blasi's pioneering work has transformed the research agenda in moral psychology. Lapsley (Ball State University) and Narvaez (University of Notre Dame) present essays by an interdisciplinary group of international scholars working in moral development who use Blasi's work as a starting point to examine the psychological, social- relational, and cultural foundations of the relationship between self and identity, moral personality, and the moral integration of cognition, emotion, and behavior. Social-relational, communitarian, and cultural aspects of moral self-identity are all discussed. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Long dormant, the field of moral development is experiencing a comeback. This book will appeal to scholars, developmental theorists and graduate students interested in issues of moral development, moral education, moral behavior and cognitive development theory.
This volume examines the psychological, social-relational, and cultural foundations of the most basic moral commitments. It begins by looking at the seminal writings of Augusto Blasi, whose writings on moral cognition, the development of self-identity, and moral personality have transformed the research agenda in moral psychology. This work is now the starting point of all discussion about the relationship between self and morality; the developmental grounding of the moral personality; and the moral integration of cognition, emotion, and behavior. Indeed, it is now widely believed that organizing self-understanding around basic moral commitments is crucial to the formation of a moral identity which, in turn, underwrites moral conduct. Using Blasi's work as a point of departure, a distinguished interdisciplinary and international group of scholars have contributed essays summarizing their own theoretical and empirical research on these topics. This book features new theories of moral functioning that range across several psychological literatures, including social cognition, cognitive science, and personality development. Examining the social-relational, communitarian, and cultural aspects of moral self-identity, it provides a comprehensive account of moral personality. Uniformly integrative, field-expanding, and on the cutting edge of research on moral development and personality, the book appeals to scholars, developmental theorists and graduate students interested in issues of moral development, education, and behavior, as well as cognitive development theory.