Defining Issues Test Research Articles

Exploring medical ethics: moral reasoning among new pediatric resident physicians in a tertiary hospital.

Physicians are frequently faced with ethical dilemmas that require answers based in moral reasoning, which develops and evolves during their lives and their medical education. According to Kohlberg, there are three levels of moral reasoning development: pre-conventional (in which decisions are guided by oneself convenience), conventional (focused on obeying society's rules), and post-conventional (decisions are based in universal ethical principles). The aim of this study was to describe the level of moral reasoning among new pediatric resident physicians in a tertiary hospital. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from 2020 to 2023. The Defining Issues Test was used to assess the level of moral reasoning among 195 new pediatric resident physicians in a tertiary hospital. Most resident physicians considered the fourth stage affirmations to be the most important. The median P-index (PI) was 40, and 49% of participants were on the post-conventional level of moral reasoning. The year with the lowest number of new resident physicians on the post-conventional level was 2021. The moral reasoning level among pediatric resident physicians was higher than the average found in general population. This suggests that the education received during the medical formation may influence the individuals' moral development.

Comparing First-Year Engineering Student Conceptions of Ethical Decision-Making to Performance on Standardized Assessments of Ethical Reasoning

The Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) and Engineering Ethical Reasoning Instrument (EERI) are designed to measure ethical reasoning of general (DIT-2) and engineering-student (EERI) populations. These tools—and the DIT-2 especially—have gained wide usage for assessing the ethical reasoning of undergraduate students. This paper reports on a research study in which the ethical reasoning of first-year undergraduate engineering students at multiple universities was assessed with both of these tools. In addition to these two instruments, students were also asked to create personal concept maps of the phrase “ethical decision-making.” It was hypothesized that students whose instrument scores reflected more postconventional levels of moral development and more sophisticated ethical reasoning skills would likewise have richer, more detailed concept maps of ethical decision-making, reflecting their deeper levels of understanding of this topic and the complex of related concepts. In fact, there was no significant correlation between the instrument scores and concept map scoring, suggesting that the way first-year students conceptualize ethical decision making does not predict the way they behave when performing scenario-based ethical reasoning (perhaps more situated). This disparity indicates a need to more precisely quantify engineering ethical reasoning and decision making, if we wish to inform assessment outcomes using the results of such quantitative analyses.

The Impact of Moral Education Interventions on Adolescents' Sociomoral Reasoning Skills

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a moral training workshop designed to enhance sociomoral reasoning among adolescents. Drawing on the principles of ethical decision-making and moral development theory, the intervention sought to provide participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate complex moral dilemmas. Employing a randomized controlled trial design, the study included 50 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years, randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The intervention comprised eight 75-minute sessions conducted over four weeks, focusing on moral dilemmas, perspective-taking, ethical decision-making, and reflection on personal values. Sociomoral reasoning was assessed using the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2) at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and a two-month follow-up. Analysis of Variance with Repeated Measurements indicated significant improvements in sociomoral reasoning scores for the experimental group compared to the control group (p < 0.01). The experimental group showed a notable increase in DIT-2 scores from pre-test to post-test, which was maintained at the two-month follow-up. The Bonferroni Post-Hoc Test further confirmed these findings, highlighting significant advancements in sociomoral reasoning immediately following the workshop, with sustained effects over time. The moral training workshop effectively enhanced sociomoral reasoning among adolescents, suggesting that structured moral education interventions can significantly impact ethical development. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating moral reasoning training in adolescent education, providing a foundation for ethical decision-making that can guide behavior across various life contexts.

The ethical formation of undergraduate students in pedagogy in times of "gender ideology": a cross-sectional study using the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2)

The ethical formation of undergraduate students in pedagogy in times of "gender ideology": a cross-sectional study using the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2)

Exploring Adolescent Moral Reasoning in Middle School: Relational Systemic Paradigm Study

This study aimed to describe the level of moral reasoning of adolescents in Yogyakarta with different levels of education as a measuring tool for comparison of results and examine them using a systemic-relational paradigm. The research design was a quantitative descriptive survey of adolescents in three secondary schools using purposive sampling. There were 94 junior high school, 93 high school, and 90 vocational high school students. The instrument used in this study was Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT2) to measure adolescent moral reasoning. The results showed that students' ethical reasoning at different levels of education was mainly at level II (conventional), with stage 4, which was oriented towards legal, social, and religious order, or law and order. The data were then analysed and reviewed using a relational systemic paradigm approach to determine the factors that influence the moral reasoning of adolescents at school. Students' moral reasoning is influenced by their interactions with their environment, family, peers, educational institutions, personal experiences, culture, religion, and perceptions of justice and truth. This paradigm recognises that moral reasoning is not only the result of individual processes but is also influenced by broader environmental factors. Therefore, moral education must focus on students' social and ecological contexts to facilitate the development of better moral reasoning.

Gen-Z's Current Behaviors, Consumption Patterns And Opinions Towards Single-use Plastics

This research delves into the behaviours, consumption patterns, and opinions of Generation Z (Gen-Z) in India concerning single-use plastics (SUPs). As the global community grapples with the repercussions of a disposable culture, understanding the stance of Gen-Z, a demographic poised to significantly influence future consumption patterns, becomes paramount. Employing a mixed-methods approach, comprising surveys, interviews, and the Defining Issues Test (DIT) based on Kohlberg's moral development theory, this study offers insights into Gen-Z's moral reasoning behind their interactions with SUPs. Preliminary findings suggest a heightened awareness (88%) of the environmental impact of SUPs among Gen-Z respondents. The majority exhibit post-conventional moral reasoning, underlining a deep-rooted ethical understanding of the issues surrounding SUPs. 55% of Gen-Z participants in this study demonstrated post-conventional moral reasoning, revealing an internalized understanding of single-use plastic's ethical implications, in contrast to 15% for pre-conventional and 30% for conventional. However, challenges such as cost, and availability of sustainable alternatives persist. This research emphasizes the critical role of Gen-Z in steering societal behaviours towards sustainable practices and provides recommendations for businesses, policymakers, and educators to harness this potential effectively.

MORAL REASONING AND INTENTION TO PERFORM UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR OF LECTURERS IN MALAYSIA

The process of deciding what is right or wrong in a particular scenario is known as moral reasoning. Moral reasoning is important as it will help to shape an individual’s intention whether to perform or not to perform an unethical behaviour. This study will examine the level of moral reasoning of lecturers in public universities of Malaysia and examine its relationship to intention to perform unethical behaviour. The Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2) via N2 scores was used to measure the level of moral reasoning of lecturers. Intention to perform unethical behaviour was measured using ethical dilemmas scenarios. Online survey was sent to 30 lecturers of the Faculty of Business/ Management from 20 public universities. 130 responses were received, and data collected was sent to the Centre for the Study of Ethical Development University of Alabama for reliability test, scoring and analysis, as it is copyrighted. Only 83 responses passed the DIT2 reliability test and was then used for further analysis. The result shows that the N2 score of lecturers is at the low level of 23.39 which falls in Kohlberg’s Cognitive Moral Development stage 2 and 3 representing the personal interest schema. The study also found that moral reasoning of lecturers does not affect their intention to perform unethical behaviour. This could be because the level of moral reasoning of lecturers are at a low level and thus do not affect intention to perform unethical behaviour. Thus, efforts should be taken to develop the moral reasoning to a higher level such as exposing them to ethics courses and ethics training program that can increase their cognitive moral development to a higher level so that they do not only focus on self but also on law, social order and universal ethical principles.

Measuring moral development in the pharmacy profession from undergraduate to established practitioner: a decadal longitudinal study.

The aim of this study is to measure and evaluate the moral reasoning of undergraduate pharmacy students as they progress through a British university, and onward through the early years of their professional practice. This study utilizes version 2 of Rest's Defining Issues Test in a longitudinal design, evaluating a single cohort of future pharmacists, which started a 4-year Master of Pharmacy degree program in 2008-09, completed their preregistration training, and progressed through their early careers. The final dataset was collected in 2019. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was subsequently carried out. The cohort experienced significant moral growth during the 4 years of their undergraduate degree, where they were exposed to an ethical education designed to engage students at the "plus one" level of moral reasoning. There is also evidence for work-based augmentation of moral development between graduation from university and qualification as pharmacists. The subjects underwent a marked increase in moral development as they progressed through their undergraduate studies, followed by another sizeable, though not statistically significant developmental progression during the preregistration year. The retrograde step in moral development observed between newly qualified level and established practitioner level requires further investigation: structured interviews with participants, which focus on changes to their experiences in practice and how these affected their moral agency are already underway.

How the COVID-19 pandemic affects the moral reasoning of pediatric residents and the general population

BackgroundKohlberg’s theory of moral development asserts that people progress through different stages of moral reasoning as their cognitive abilities and social interactions mature. Individuals at the lowest stage of moral reasoning (preconventional stage) judge moral issues based on self-interest, those with a medium stage (conventional stage) judge them based on compliance with rules and norms, and those at the highest stage (postconventional stage) judge moral issues based on universal principles and shared ideals. Upon attaining adulthood, it can be considered that there is stability in the stage of individuals’ moral development; however, the effect of a global population crisis such as the one experienced in March 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic, is unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in the moral reasoning of pediatric residents before and after one year of the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them with a general population group.MethodsThis is a naturalistic quasi-experimental study conducted with two groups, one comprised 47 pediatric residents of a tertiary hospital converted into a COVID hospital during the pandemic and another group comprised 47 beneficiaries of a family clinic who were not health workers. The defining issues test (DIT) was applied to the 94 participants during March 2020, before the pandemic initiated in Mexico, and later during March 2021. To assess intragroup changes, the McNemar-Bowker and Wilcoxon tests were used.ResultsPediatric residents showed higher baseline stages of moral reasoning: 53% in the postconventional group compared to the general population group (7%). In the preconventional group, 23% were residents and 64% belonged to the general population. In the second measurement, one year after the start of the pandemic, the group of residents had a significant decrease of 13 points in the P index, unlike the general population group in which a decrease of 3 points was observed. This decrease however, did not equalize baseline stages. Pediatric residents remained 10 points higher than the general population group. Moral reasoning stages were associated with age and educational stage.ConclusionsAfter a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found a decrease in the stage of moral reasoning development in pediatric residents of a hospital converted for the care of patients with COVID-19, while it remained stable in the general population group. Physicians showed higher stages of moral reasoning at baseline than the general population.

Moral reasoning development: norms for Defining Issue Test-2 (DIT2)

ABSTRACT This article presents normative information for the Defining Issue Test Version 2 (DIT2) schema scores and most common summary scores based on secondary data from the last 10 years DIT2 database (N = 73740, Mage = 23.11, SD = 7.87, the age range in year = 12–95) maintained by the University of Alabama’s Center for the Study of Ethical Development from 2011 to 2020. More specifically, the study provides (1) norms by education; (2) norms by gender and education; and (3) norms by gender and age for the DIT2. The norms indicate a general but not consistent trend that moral reasoning scores increase by education level. Additionally, the Personal Interest and Maintain Norms scores are higher for males than females for all education levels and age groups while Postconventional, N2, and Type indicator scores are higher for females than males for all education levels and age groups.

Beyond Moral Reasoning Scores: Life Story Interviews and the Interpersonal Nature of Advertising

The current study is the first to report N2 Defining Issues Test (DIT) moral reasoning scores and life-story interviews of advertising executives perceived as ethical leaders. Combining N2 scores with in-depth moral justifications provides a detailed view of morality to better understand what normatively appropriate behavior is, both in and outside of advertising, and how it develops. Scores reflect the preference to apply universal moral principles, especially when depicting strategic communication scenarios, yet there is less preference for universal moral reasoning when personal interest justifications are also considered. Life stories provide evidence of introspection and growth in response to adversity and ethical breaches; situational moral reasoning reflective of the human-centric, empathetic, and interpersonal nature of advertising; and a desire to do social good representative of empathy in action.

Collaborative Consumers Can Be Ethical Consumers: Adapting the Defining Issues Test to Understand Ethical Reasoning in Collaborative Consumption Markets

Collaborative consumption activities like saving food and buying used clothes are an important and rapidly growing part of sustainable consumer behavior. Many political and commercial campaigns promote collaborative consumption practices by highlighting subsets of normative motives, such as sustainable, social, and ecological effects. Whether or not consumers can comprehend these claims and incorporate them into their decision-making process is, however, unclear. This article introduces a new experimental study design to ethical consumer research—an adapted version of the Defining Issues Test—that enables to assess consumers’ ability to cognitively and intuitively understand moral arguments in collaborative consumption contexts. The experiment was conducted with N = 435 collaborative consumers from Germany. The findings indicate that in different collaborative consumption contexts, consumers consider different moral arguments as important. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that consumers can incorporate the provider’s point of view in their moral judgment.

Moral reasoning and moral competence as predictors of cooperative behavior in a social dilemma

The level of moral development may be crucial to understand behavior when people have to choose between prioritizing individual gains or pursuing general social benefits. This study evaluated whether two different psychological constructs, moral reasoning and moral competence, are associated with cooperative behavior in the context of the prisoner's dilemma game, a two-person social dilemma where individuals choose between cooperation or defection. One hundred and eighty-nine Mexican university students completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2; measuring moral reasoning) and the Moral Competence Test (MCT) and played an online version of the prisoner’s dilemma game, once against each participant in a group of 6–10 players. Our results indicate that cooperative behavior is strongly affected by the outcomes in previous rounds: Except when both participants cooperated, the probability of cooperation with other participants in subsequent rounds decreased. Both the DIT-2 and MCT independently moderated this effect of previous experiences, particularly in the case of sucker-outcomes. Individuals with high scores on both tests were not affected when in previous rounds the other player defected while they cooperated. Our findings suggest that more sophisticated moral reasoning and moral competence promote the maintenance of cooperative behaviors despite facing adverse situations.

Validating the behavioral Defining Issues Test across different genders, political, and religious affiliations

AbstractThe Defining Issues Test (DIT) has been widely used in psychological experiments to assess one’s developmental level of moral reasoning in terms of postconventional reasoning. However, there have been concerns regarding whether the tool is biased across people with different genders and political and religious views. To address the limitations, in the present study, I tested the validity of the brief version of the test, that is, the behavioral DIT, in terms of the measurement invariance and differential item functioning (DIF). I could not find any significant non-invariance at the test level or any item demonstrating practically significant DIF at the item level. The findings indicate that neither the test nor any of its items showed a significant bias toward any particular group. As a result, the collected validity evidence supports the use of test scores across different groups, enabling researchers who intend to examine participants’ moral reasoning development across heterogeneous groups to draw conclusions based on the scores.

Water Saving Using Thermal Imagery-Based Thresholds for Timing Irrigation in Potatoes under Drip and Furrow Irrigation Systems

Under the current water crisis in agriculture, irrigation methods for saving and conserving water are necessary. However, these methods must guarantee an appropriate yield with a concomitant economic benefit and a reduced environmental impact. In this study, two irrigation thresholds for irrigation timing (IT) based on thermal imagery were analyzed with the UNICA potato variety in three trials under drip (DI) and furrow (FI) irrigation during 2017–2018 in Lima, Peru. The control (T1) remained at >70% of soil field capacity. For other treatments, thresholds were defined based on stomatal conductance at light saturation (T2: 0.15 and T3: 0.05 mol H2O m−2s−1) and crop water stress index (T2: 0.4 and T3: 0.6) based on canopy temperature. An integrated index (IIN) was established for the valuation of treatments using the criteria of high fresh tuber yield (FTY) and a low total amount of irrigated water, production cost (PC), and total C emissions (TE) and using criteria of a score. FI-T2 (0.69–0.72) and DI-T3 (0.19–0.29) showed the highest and lowest IIN value, respectively. FTY in T2 was not significantly reduced under FI, resulting in a lower PC regarding DI–T2 and emphasizing the usefulness of thermal imagery in determining watering schedules in potatoes under furrow irrigation systems.

Differences in moral reasoning among medical graduates, graduates with other degrees, and nonprofessional adults

BackgroundReasoning and moral action are necessary to resolve day-to-day moral conflicts, and there are certain professions where a greater moral character is expected, e.g., medicine. Thus, it is desirable that medical students develop skills in this field. Some studies have evaluated the level of moral reasoning among medical students; however, there are no comparative studies involving other types of populations. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare the moral reasoning among medical graduates with that of a group of young graduates with other degrees and of a group of nonprofessional adults.MethodsAn exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted. Pediatric residents and pediatric subspecialty residents at a pediatric hospital were invited to participate, forming the group of “medical graduates”. A group of young people from a social program and students with a master’s degree in a science from the same pediatric hospital were also invited to participate, comprising the group of “graduates with other degrees”. Finally, a group of beneficiaries of a family clinic was invited to participate, which we categorized as “nonprofessionals”. To evaluate the differences in moral reasoning between these 3 groups, we applied the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a moral reasoning questionnaire designed by James Rest using Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.ResultsThe moral reasoning of 237 subjects—88 from the “medical graduates” group, 82 from the “graduates with other degrees” group and 67 from the “nonprofessionals” group— was evaluated. We found differences in the profiles of moral development of the groups. The profile of the “nonprofessionals” showed a very high predominance of subjects at the preconventional level, 70%, but only 4.5% at the postconventional level. Among the “medical graduates”, we observed 37.5% at the preconventional level and 34% at the postconventional level (X2p < 0.001); this group had the highest percentage in this category. This large difference could be because the differences in the ages and socioeducational levels of nonprofessionals are much wider than those among medical graduates. However, significant differences were also found when the profiles of medical graduates were compared with those of graduates with other degrees, since the latter demonstrated 56% at the preconventional level and 18% at the postconventional level (X2 test, p = 0.02).ConclusionsSignificant differences were found in moral reasoning among the groups that we evaluated. Among the group of medical graduates, there was a higher percentage of subjects at the postconventional level than among the group of graduates with other degrees and a much higher percentage than among the group of nonprofessionals. Our conclusions give the first evidence that studying medicine seems to influence the development of moral reasoning in its students. Therefore, we consider it relevant to develop educational strategies where the student is involved in simulated but realistic decision-making situations, where there are moral dilemmas to resolve from their early years of training.

Reflective Practice: Adult Student Engagement in Character Education

This paper outlines how I assessed and revised a proprietary character education program of study administered to non-traditional students attending an accelerated academic program at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. John Dewey’s reflection practice doctrine provided the theoretical foundation and lens for conducting the analysis. Given the unique characteristics associated with non-traditional students, three main challenges are outlined: (1) students matriculate at varying levels of academic readiness and moral development, (2) there is low student engagement rate in character education, and (3) there is limited time for ethical instruction in a full academic curriculum and busy student lives. The reflection process included quantitative data from the Defining Issues Test-2 and qualitative data from observations, student and staff responses, and interviews. The presentation concludes with key takeaways and recommendations for future research.

Ethical reasoning in tax practice: Law or is there more?

Private sector tax practitioners are often accused of unethical behavior in developing contrived tax avoidance arrangements. Such arrangements usually comply with the letter of the law but contravene its underlying (often unstated) ‘spirit’. Prior research comparing the ethical reasoning of private sector tax practitioners, government revenue tax practitioners and a non-tax (control) group in both social and tax contexts found no significant differences between them in a social context. However, where tax dilemmas were concerned, private sector tax practitioners demonstrated lower levels of ethical reasoning. We seek here to examine whether this difference results from the regard private sector tax practitioners have for the law – in other words, whether they have a law and order orientation when facing ethical issues or whether the professional context offers other motives. Using the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a tax-specific context version of the DIT, we test whether there is a law and order dominance in the ethical reasoning of private sector tax practitioners in both tax and social contexts, in comparison with government revenue tax practitioners and a non-tax control group.

Online dilemma discussions as a method of enhancing moral reasoning among health and social care graduate students

Dilemma discussions have been proven to be one of the most effective methods to enhance students’ moral reasoning in ethics education. Dilemma discussions are increasingly arranged online, but research on the topic has remained sparse, especially in the context of continuing professional education. The aim of the present paper was to develop a method of dilemma discussions for professional ethics. The method was based on asynchronous discussions in small groups. Health and social care students raised work-related dilemmas from their experiences and discussed them in terms of professional values, ethical guidelines and theories. Participants in this quasi-experimental study were 87 first-term graduate students at a Finnish university of applied sciences. Health and social care students in two consecutive ethics courses constituted two experiment groups, whereas health and social care students and business students in other programmes served as control groups. Students filled in a Defining Issues Test (DIT2) at the beginning of their studies and three months apart. Statically significant increase in moral reasoning was evidenced for experiment group 2, when discussion groups were purportedly composed to maximise differences in initial levels of moral reasoning. Findings suggest that online dilemma discussions can advance students’ moral reasoning development, especially when students’ exposure to higher-level arguments is ensured through complementary means, such as instructions, examples and plenary discussions. Online real-life dilemma discussions may also serve other important goals of ethics education, especially acquiring ethical concepts, and they can promote other components of ethical decision making: ethical sensitivity and motivation, and acquisition of implementation skills.

The Impact of a Theological Studies Course on The Ethical Development of Undergraduate Business Students

In this article, the researcher examined the impact of a theological studies course on the ethical development of undergraduate business students. The researcher administered the Defining Issues Test version 2 (DIT2) instrument to participants and compared their assessed levels of ethical development. Participants were grouped according to whether they had completed a theological studies course prior to participation. Participants completing a theological studies course were not assessed to have superior levels of ethical development to those who had not completed a theological studies course. The findings suggest that exposure to theological studies courses alone is insufficient to improve ethical development.