Past research, guided by Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development, has shown that young children base their moral judgments on the consequence of the story protagonist's behavior while older children base their judgments on the protagonist's intent. Three age groups of children (144 subjects) heard four stories and were placed in three conditions to investigate whether their judgments could be influenced by asking them to pay attention either to why the protagonist did what she or he did or to what happened in the story, or given no instructions. As age increased, children's recall of stories and use of a protagonist's intention as a reason behind their judgments increased. Judgment scores followed the same pattern for all ages. Results were discussed in terms of social-emotional and cognitive development.

This research focuses on the impact of the moral community (or social context) on the formation of conscience and its implication for moral responsibility. It is an interdisciplinary approach to theological reflection that is particularly attentive to psychological, philosophical, sociological, and neurobiological viewpoints showing how these have either distorted or broadened our understanding of conscience in its relation to community and social responsibility, or its formation in relationship to our moral development. It stresses reciprocity of conduct (for we are "responders") and the complementarities of internal and external sanctions. It insists that the influence of conscience on behavior is undermined by a fixation on its cognitive aspect at the detriment of the feeling aspect such that retrieving the latter will broaden our appreciation of its deep but subtle influence. While admitting the richness of African <italic>communalism<<</he basis for a healthy formative process, it also sees in it a perplexing paradox given the socio-political realities of venal leadership and systemic corruption that de-colors the African landscape. Focusing on Nigeria, it identifies "tribalism" as a socio-moral "pathology" (an institutionalized self-interest) that not only distorts the traditional process of moral formation but has evolved as a core driver of systemic corruption. It claims that globalization enables "external powers" to impact local moral orientation. It links "local tribalism" and "international tribalism" as "pathologies" based on kinship of disordered self-interest. It exposes how the latter influences local moral disorientation in a way analogous to how the local moral community impacts the malformation of individual conscience and thus influencing irresponsibility. Its recommendations include: a "glocalized" moral reform aimed at "updating" conscience formation process and overcoming tribalism; a paradigm shift in foreign policy agenda towards a new ethic; and a "three-stage-process" that focuses on deconstructing unhealthy belief systems and building "active" moral communities as part of a robust long-term strategy against systemic corruption and deeper socio-moral transformation. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;