The Moral Judgment Test is an operationalization of Kohlberg's notion of moral judgment competence and Piaget's two-aspect model of behavior and thus differs from tests of preferred moral orientations and Kohlberg's own Stage measurement. As this best presents counter-arguments to be rated in regard to their moral quality, it is a difficult task for many, and the C score reflects the respondents' competence to cope with the task. Validation studies of 27 language versions and thirty years of use in research and evaluation studies have indicated the Moral Judgment Test is valid and useful for assessing affective and cognitive aspects of moral behavior for research and evaluation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonN. H. (1990) Contributions to information integration theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
2.
BatagliaP.Schillinger-AgatiM.LindG.QuevedoT. L. (2003) Testing the segmentation hypothesis with an Extended Version of the MJT. Poster presented at the meeting of the Association for Moral Education, Krakow, July 19, 2003.
3.
BrunswikE. (1955) Representative design and probabilistic theory in a functional psychology. Psychological Review, 62, 193–217.
4.
ColbyA.KohlbergL.AbrahamiA.GibbsJ.HigginsA.SpeicherB. (1987) The measurement of moral judgment. Vols. I & II. New York: Columbia Univer. Press.
5.
EmlerN.RenwickS.MaloneB. (1983) The relationship between moral reasoning and political orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1073–1080.
6.
GrossM. (1997) Ethics and activism: the theory and practice of politcal morality. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univer. Press.
7.
GuttmanL. (1971) Measurement as structural theory. Psychometrika, 36, 329–347.
8.
KeaseyC. B. (1973) The influence of opinion-agreement and qualitative supportive reasoning in the evaluation of moral judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 477–482.
9.
KellyG. A. (1955) The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.
10.
KohlbergL. (1958) The development of modes of moral thinking and choice in the years 10 to 16. Unpublished dissertation, Univer. of Chicago.
11.
KohlbergL. (1964) Development of moral character and moral ideology. In HoffmanM. L.HoffmanL. W. (Eds.), Review of child development research. Vol. I. New York: Russell Sage Found. Pp. 381–431.
12.
KohlbergL. (1984) Essays on moral development. Vol. I. The psychology of moral development. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
13.
LerkiatbunditS.UtaipanP.LaohawiriyanonC.TeoA. (in press) Randomized controlled study of the impact of the Konstanz method of dilemma discussion on moral judgement. Journal of Allied Health.
14.
LindG. (1978) Wie misst man moralisches Urteil? Probleme und alternative Möglichkeiten der Messung eines komplexen Konstrukts. [How does one measure moral judgment? Problems and alternative possibilites of measuring a complex construct]. In PorteleG., (Ed.), Sozialisation und Moral. Weinheim: Beltz. Pp. 171–201.
15.
LindG. (1989) Measuring moral judgment: review of ‘The Measurement of Moral Judgment’ by Anne Colby and Lawrence Kohlberg. Human Development, 32, 388–397.
16.
LindG. (2002) 1st Moral lehrbar? Ergebnisse der modernen moralpsychologischen Forschung [Can morality be taught? Research findings from modern moral psychology]. (3rd ed.) Berlin: Logos.
17.
LindG. (2003) Moral ist lehrbar: Handbuch zur Theorie und Praxis moralischer und demokratischer Bildung [Morality can be taught: handbook on theory and practice of moral and democratic education]. München: Oldenbourg.
18.
LindG. (in press) The meaning and measurement of moral judgment competence—a dual aspect theory. In FaskoD.WillisW. (Eds.), Contemporary philosophical and psychological perspectives on moral development and education. Creskill, NJ: Hampton.
19.
LindG.AlthofW. (1992) Does the Just Community program make a difference? Measuring and evaluating the effect of the DES project. Moral Education Forum, 17, 19–28.
20.
LindG.WakenhutR. (1985) Testing for moral judgment competence. In LindG.HartmannH. A.WakenhutR. (Eds.), Moral development and the the social environment: studies in the philosophy and psychology of moral judgment and education. Chicago, IL: Precedent Publ. Pp. 79–105.
21.
MischelW.ShodaY. (1995) A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality. Psychological Review, 102, 246–268.
22.
PiagetJ. (1976) The affective unconscious and the cognitive unconscious. In InhelderB.ChipmanH. H. (Eds.), Piaget and his school. New York: Springer. Pp. 63–71.
23.
RestJ. R. (1969) Level of moral development as a determinant of preference and comprehension of moral judgments made by others. Journal of Personality, 37, 220–228.
24.
RestJ. R.NarvaezD.BebeauM. J.ThomaS. J. (1999) Postconventional moral thinking: a neo-Kohlbergian approach. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
25.
Schillinger-AgatiM.LindG. (2003) Moral judgment competence in Brazilian and German university students. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, Chicago, April 2003.
26.
SchläfliA.RestJ. R.ThomaS. J. (1985) Does moral education improve moral judgment? A meta-analysis of intervention studies using the Defining Issues Test. Review of Educational Research, 55, 319–352.
27.
de PosadaC. Villegas (2005) Some problems in use of the Moral Judgment Test. Psychological Reports, 96, 698–700.
