Early moral conscience: the development of a moral short played stories procedure

We set up a cross-sectional study to investigate how moral core self's mental representations develop from age 3 to 6 years. An ad hoc instrument (Moral Short Played Stories Procedure; MSPSP) was developed to tap into how moral emotions, conducts, and cognitions referred to moral and nonmoral characters. A total of 143 preschoolers completed the MSPSP and moral dilemmas procedures, together with attachment and behavioral inhibition assessment. The main results confirm the hypothesis of a mild developmental trend characterized by the prominence of moral conduct over moral emotion and cognition. In addition, our results stress the emergence of a developmental turning point at around age 4 when procedural moral activation in children predicts the declarative feature of moral conscience.