The Social World of the Child (1977) by William Damon

When

I read this in my doctoral program and in preparation for some of my scholarship and teaching activities. Fun fact: I met William Damon during a doctoral program informational event, and almost got the chance to work with him. But I did not get accepted to Stanford’s program. Sometimes I wonder how my intellectual and professional journeys might have been different if I did.

Why

Like Kohlberg and Social Cognitive Domain Theory (SCDT), Damon’s constructivist approach to social and moral development is influential in my work. He was one of the first to distinguish certain social concepts, such as authority from justice.

How

Like other constructivist approaches, it takes children’s early understandings of social and moral concepts seriously. And like SCDT, Damon provides some evidence that, at least in some situations, children reliably distinguish between moral and non-moral social concepts. As when, say, children may believe it is acceptable to disobey a parent’s authority when the parent commands them to commit an immoral act.