Faculty

Broadly defined, my research focuses on the developing child’s understanding of the social world and his or her personal role within it. My most specific interest is in sociomoral development and the ways it is fostered in family and school contexts.
Topics within this area of interest include:

• the ‘moral self' (or moral personality), as revealed in interactions between moral cognition and identity formation, and its relation to conduct
• adolescents' conceptions of (and commitment to) social justice
• moral reasoning (across the life-span)
• values socialization within the family and schools
• moral/character education
• the influence of teachers on students' sociomoral development
• the ethical dimensions of schooling; teacher-student relations

Pratt, M. W., Norris, J. E., Hebblethwaite, S., & Arnold, M. L.  (in press).  Intergenerational transmission of values:  Family generativity and adolescents’ narratives of parent and grandparent value teaching.  Journal of Personality. 

Helwig, C. C., Arnold, M. L., Tan, D., & Boyd, D.  (2007)  Mainland Chinese and Canadian adolescents’ judgments and reasoning about the fairness of democratic and other forms of government. Cognitive Development, 22(1), 96-109.

Pratt, M. W., Skoe, E. E., & Arnold, M. L.  (2004).  Care reasoning development and family socialisation patterns in later adolescence:  A longitudinal analysis.  International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28(2), 139-147

Arnold, M. L., Pratt, M. W., & Hicks, C. (2004). Adolescents’ representations of parents’ voices in family stories: Value lessons, personal adjustment, and identity development. In M. W. Pratt, & B. Fiese (Eds.), Across time and generations: Family stories and the lifecourse (pp.163-186). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Helwig, C.C, Arnold, M.L. , Dingliang, T., & Boyd, D.  (2003).  Chinese adolescents' reasonging about democratic and authority-based decision making in peer, family, and school contexts.  Child Development, 74, 1-18.