This study explored the role of context in moral judgement measurement by addressing
a recent contention that moral dilemmas are not essential for the successful
assessment of moral judgement. We evaluated a new instrument, the Sociomoral
Reflection Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF), that uses contextually open-ended stimuli
instead of moral dilemmas. SRM-SF data were collected from 509 male and female
subjects, 8 to 81 years of age, including 94 delinquent males. The SRM-SF evidenced
acceptable levels of reliability (inter-rater, test-retest, internal consistency)
and validity (criterion-related and construct-related). For example, the SRM-SF
demonstrated acceptable concurrent validity with the Moral Judgement Interview and
discriminated delinquents as developmentally delayed in moral judgement. The SRM-SF
was found to be procedurally efficient in terms of group administrability,
completion time, self-training for scoring, and scoring. The factor structure of
moral judgement as elicited by the SRM-SF was found to be unidimensional. Also,
females were found to be more advanced in moral judgement than males in early
adolescence, but the difference disappeared in late adolescence and adulthood.
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