Does the Defining Issues Test Measure Ethical Judgment Ability or Political Position?
This article addresses the construct validity of the Defining Issues Test of ethical judgment (DIT/DIT-2). Alleging a political bias in the test, Emler and colleagues (1983, 1998, 1999, 2007), show that conservatives score higher when asked to fake as liberals, implying that they understand the reas...
| Published in: | Journal of Social Psychology Vol. 151; no. 3; pp. 314 - 331 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
2011
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=60106632&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 60106632 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00224545 JSY jtl: Journal of Social Psychology issn: 00224545 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2011 vid: 151 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 60106632 10.1080/00224545.2010.481690 ppf: 314 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 501KB tig: atl: Does the Defining Issues Test Measure Ethical Judgment Ability or Political Position? aug: au: Bailey, CharlesD. affil: University of Memphis su: Human behavior research Moral development Social psychology research Social values Social influence Influence Test validity sug: subj: Human behavior research Moral development Social psychology research Social values Social influence Influence Test validity keyword: construct validity defining issues test moral judgment political orientation construct validity defining issues test moral judgment political orientation ab: This article addresses the construct validity of the Defining Issues Test of ethical judgment (DIT/DIT-2). Alleging a political bias in the test, Emler and colleagues (1983, 1998, 1999, 2007), show that conservatives score higher when asked to fake as liberals, implying that they understand the reasoning associated with 'higher' moral development but avoid items they see as liberally biased. DIT proponents challenge the internal validity of faking studies, advocating an explained-variance validation. This study takes a new approach: Adult participants complete the DIT-2, then evaluate the raw responses of others to discern political orientation and ethical development. Results show that individuals scoring higher on the DIT-2 rank others' ethical judgment in a way consistent with DIT-2-based rankings. Accuracy at assessing political orientation, however, is low. Results support the DIT-2's validity as a measure of ethical development, not an expression of political position. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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