Helping, hitting and developing: Toward a constructivist–interactionist account of early morality

The first years of life are unlike any other period in moral development, characterized by both transformative advances and apparent paradoxes. During this period, young children’s orientations toward moral issues are transformed as children acquire the willingness and ability to help others, express and justify judgements about moral violations, and protest against moral violations even as unaffected third parties (Dahl, 2015; Nucci & Weber, 1995; Rizzo & Killen, 2016; Schmidt, Rakoczy, & Tomasello, 2012; Smetana et al., 2012; Vaish, Missana, & Tomasello, 2011; Warneken & Tomasello, 2007). These transformations constitute qualitative advances toward a developed morality.