<p>It really depends on your theory.  If you can write measurement of morality in google scholar you would find many morality theories and attempts to measure it such as (Ziv, 1976). Most theories, as far as I know, use stories and evaluate children's responces to those theories. I'm not aware of any scale to measure moral development.</p>

<p>By the way, one of the most commonly used theory of moral development is Kohlberg's stage based moral development theory (Kohlberg, 1971). In that article, although I have not read fully, Kohlberg talks about some stories he used to measure moral development.</p>

<p>Of course there are many critiques to this stage based measurement of moral development. (Bandura 2014) can guide you on current theories. I haven't read any of those articles but they seem to be good starting point.</p>

<p><strong>References:</strong></p>

<p>Bandura, A. (2014). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of moral behavior and development (pp. 69-128). Psychology Press.</p>

<p>Kohlberg, L. (1971). Stages of moral development. <em>Moral education</em>, 1, 23-92.</p>

<p>Ziv, A. (1976). Measuring aspects of morality. <em>Journal of Moral Education</em>, 5(2), 189-201.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-13T18:21:32.283Z
Well, there is some evidence (me) that Kohlberg's theory is not universal. Additionally people can be at higher stages than 2, that does mean people do not think about consequences. And consequentialism can be universal ethical theory meaning it's stage 6.
rus9384
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2018-09-19T20:10:18.700Z
@rus9384:  Kohlberg’s theory has well-known limitations https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20464/how-does-kohlbergs-moral-reasoning-work-can-i-measure-it-myself Nevertheless it has been used as a basis for some scales e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defining_Issues_Test
got trolled too much this week
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2018-09-19T21:09:09.320Z
@Fizz, interesting regarding DIT because I am thinking in terms of society as a whole... well, ever since I can remember.
rus9384
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-13T17:50:31.450Z
2018-05-15T07:21:54.647Z
2018-05-15T07:21:54.647Z
Erdem
<p>According to <a href="https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/9728/how-do-moral-judgments-change-for-older-adults/9745#9745">this</a> answer, there are some kind of points used for moral reasoning. Therefore, I'm interested now, how the amount of points given for reasoning? Is there some kind of ideal moral theory used for it, or is it just how consistent the reasoning is or what?</p>

<moral-psychology>
How moral reasoning is measured?
rus9384
# How moral reasoning is measured?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-12)

According to [this](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/9728/how-do-moral-judgments-change-for-older-adults/9745#9745) answer, there are some kind of points used for moral reasoning. Therefore, I'm interested now, how the amount of points given for reasoning? Is there some kind of ideal moral theory used for it, or is it just how consistent the reasoning is or what?

**Tags:** moral-psychology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-05-13. Score: 2

It really depends on your theory. If you can write measurement of morality in google scholar you would find many morality theories and attempts to measure it such as (Ziv, 1976). Most theories, as far as I know, use stories and evaluate children's responces to those theories. I'm not aware of any scale to measure moral development.

By the way, one of the most commonly used theory of moral development is Kohlberg's stage based moral development theory (Kohlberg, 1971). In that article, although I have not read fully, Kohlberg talks about some stories he used to measure moral development.

Of course there are many critiques to this stage based measurement of moral development. (Bandura 2014) can guide you on current theories. I haven't read any of those articles but they seem to be good starting point.

**References:**

Bandura, A. (2014). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of moral behavior and development (pp. 69-128). Psychology Press.

Kohlberg, L. (1971). Stages of moral development. *Moral education*, 1, 23-92.

Ziv, A. (1976). Measuring aspects of morality. *Journal of Moral Education*, 5(2), 189-201.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Well, there is some evidence (me) that Kohlberg's theory is not universal. Additionally people can be at higher stages than 2, that does mean people do not think about consequences. And consequentialism can be universal ethical theory meaning it's stage 6.  
> **username_2**: @username_0:  Kohlberg’s theory has well-known limitations https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/20464/how-does-kohlbergs-moral-reasoning-work-can-i-measure-it-myself Nevertheless it has been used as a basis for some scales e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defining_Issues_Test  
> **username_0**: @Fizz, interesting regarding DIT because I am thinking in terms of society as a whole... well, ever since I can remember.  

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