The cultural universal hypothesis of cognitive development theory, as developed by Piaget and elaborated by Kohlberg, assumes that all individuals, regardless of culture, progress through the same series of six invariant stages in the development of moral judgment. The stages of moral development are transformations in the form of structure of thought rather than beliefs that are internalized from the environment. Therefore, individual differences in moral development should occur only in the rate at which individuals progress and in their final point of development. Kohlberg reports cross-cultural evidence to support the universal assumption concerning the first four stages, but not the entire developmental sequence. Consequently, whether stages five and six are more than representations of cultural specializations under determinable conditions remains a question. Further, there is an apparent gap in Kohlberg's theory between moral reasoning and moral action, because, given the underlying principles of universality and consistency, one's moral conduct should be predictable. The key question for moral judgment research on Chicanos is whether cross-cultural differences in moral development are the consequence of social experience or an artifact of bias in concepts, theory, or research methodology. Further research is needed. (SB)