The Defining Issues Test of moral judgment development.

Abstract

A measure of moral judgment development, the Defining Issues Test ( dit) is described and the supporting evidence for the measure is summarized. We address these questions: what does the dit measure; how does the measure work, and how has the measure been validated? The psychometric properties of the dit are also presented. We suggest that the current evidence supports the dit as a reliable and valid measure of the characteristic ways adolescents and adults comprehend moral issues. he Defining Issues Test (hereafter the DIT ) was first developed in the early 1970s (Cooper, Coder, Masanz and Anderson, 1974). Originally the measure was described as a paper and pencil alternative to Lawrence Kohlberg's (1969) semi-structured interview measure of moral judgment development (Rest, 1979). As such, the primary focus of the measure was an assessment of the understanding and interpretation of moral issues. Consistent with the Kohlbergian model, Rest viewed moral judgment devel- opment as a social and cognitive construct that progressed from a self-focused view of moral issues, through a group-based moral perspective, to a reliance on post-conventional moral principles. Also consistent with Kohlberg, Rest viewed moral judgments as primarily cognitive and a primary factor in the understanding of moral actions and emotions. In short and during the 70s the DIT was viewed as a measure designed to test Kohlberg's developmental sequence and contribute to the development of moral judgment theory in adolescent and adult populations.