Moral Development and Perceptual Role-Taking Egocentrism: Their Development and Interrelationship across the Life-Span

Abstract

Moral judgments and perceptual role taking egocentrism were assessed in seventy-two middle-class people whose age range encompassed a significant portion of the life span. Findings support the anticipated curvilinear relationship between moral development and age, and egocentrism and age. However, the close conceptual relationship between moral development and egocentrism throughout life received only slight statistical support, which attained significance only in the fifteen- to nineteen-year-old age group. The existence of “self-involving” egocentrism was postulated to be an important determinant of moral development during adulthood.