The Research On Social Cognitive Domain Theory: Domain, Context And Culture

Social cognitive domain theory is taken as the third generation of the constructivist moral psychology. It is argued that the social interaction is the dynamic resource of individual's construction, with the point of domain specified view and the active and rational being assumption. In almost 30 years of research, the social cognitive domain theory has gained three topics. They are domain, context and culture. The research of the three topics not only constitutes the main parts of the theory, but also deepens the theory.There are some basic points of view in the domain theory. First, it applies Piaget's thought of domain-specific theory into the social cognition. It is proposed that we should hold the opinion of partial constructivist based on the domain specific social knowledge. Second, to study different domain, it is thought that people has heterogeneous domain thinking and therefore, the interaction of different domain thinking is also emphasized. Third, to study the individual development, it figures two dimensions: the development in single domain and the development of interaction among different domains.From the view point of the context in the individual-social interaction, the way to divide different domain thinking provides powerful method to study the individual's flexible cognition faced to multifaceted context. It makes the research get into the world of real life. With the context in cognition-emotion interaction and cognition-behavior interaction, the method of dividing domains make the emotion and behavior appropriate to different domain and takes the systematic view.Social cognitive domain theory is not only a structural theory but also a new perspective. From this view point, the moral education should be domain-appropriated. From the same view point, both culture and morality are dynamic. The interaction between the generalization of the moral domain thinking and the other domain thinking could probably result in the change of culture.The dissertation did some theoretic and empirical analysis in the context of the present China, with a testification for its cultural reliability. This result prefigures the prospect of the application on the moral education in China.