The Internal Consistency of Moral Reasoning: A Multitrait-Multimethod Assessment

The consistency of moral judgment across five dimensions (immanent justice, moral realism, retribution vs. restitution, efficacy of severe punishment, and communicable responsibility) from two basic, structural components of the cognitive-developmental approach was examined. The two components were (a) the more general concept of level and (b) the more specific concept of stage. Multitrait-multimethod analysis supported the compatibility between the two constructs. The methods differed in their degree of association between the five measured dimensions; the stage technique appeared to be more consistent than the level scale. Finally, comparisons between dimensions indicated that the notion of moral development seems to be multidimensional, vis-à-vis unidimensional, as originally implied by Piaget and later by Kohlberg.