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.

KEYWORDS:

• Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2)
• moral judgment
• stage
• norms

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Dr. Steve Thoma for his very helpful review and comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are also appreciative for the helpful comments and suggestions from the editor and anonymous reviewers.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Due to ethical concerns, supporting data cannot be made openly available. Information about the data and conditions for access are available at the Center for the Study of Ethical Development at https://ethicaldevelopment.ua.edu/

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was conducted at the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Ethical Development.