Moral comprehension and what it might tell us about moral reasoning and political orientation

Abstract

Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlbergian claims that moral reasoning development is cognitive in nature. Because a psychometrically appropriate moral comprehension instrument does not appear to exist, the Moral Comprehension Questionnaire (MCQ) was constructed in Study 1 and displayed some positive reliability and validity findings. Study 2 used this questionnaire to examine whether the increased Defining Issue Test (DIT) p scores shown by liberals is indicative of increased cognitive development. While liberals displayed slightly greater moral comprehension than conservatives, moral comprehension and political orientation mostly appear to contribute independently to high p scores. Additionally, consistent with Kohlbergian theory, comprehension of Stage 5 moral reasoning is more challenging than comprehension of Stage 3 or 4 reasoning. Consequently, while p scores are somewhat cognitive developmental in nature, they also are independently predicted by political orientation.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Joshua McGrane for his help and advice in running the Rasch analysis. This research was partially supported by a Departmental Research Grant (DRG) to the first author and was performed as part of his PhD.

Notes

1. The reason that ‘temporary’ is included in the title is to avoid any confusion with the final, shorter version of the questionnaire that is employed in Study 2.