n not only
distinguish between accidental and intentional harm, but
(20)also judge intentional harm as naughtier, regardless of the
amount of damage produced. Both of these findings seem
to indicate that children, at an earlier age than Piaget
claimed, advance into the second stage of moral develop-
ment, moral autonomy, in which they accept social rules
(25)but view them as more arbitrary than do children in the
first stage.
Keasey’s research raises two key questions for develop-
mental psychologists about children under age seven: do
they recognize justifications for harmful actions, and do
(30)they make distinctions between harmful acts that are pre-
ventable and those acts that have unforeseen harmful con-
sequences? Studies indicate that justifications excusing
harmful actions might include public duty,self-defense, and
provocation. For example, Nesdale and Rule concluded that
(35)children were capable of considering whether or not an
aggressor’s action was justified by public duty: five year
olds reacted very differently to \"Bonnie wrecks Ann’s
pretend house\" depending on whether Bonnie did it \"so
somebody won’t fall over it\" or because Bonnie wanted \"to
(40)make Ann feel bad.\"Thus, a child of five begins to under-
stand that certain harmful actions, though intentional, can
be justified; the constraints of moral absolutism no longer
solely guide their judgments.
Psychologists have determined that during kindergarten
(45)children learn to make subtle distinctions involving harm.
Darley observed that among acts involving unintentional
harm, six-year-old children just entering kindergarten could
not differentiate between foreseeable, and thus preventable,
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