The Moral Judgments of Chinese Students

Abstract

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) was translated into Chinese and administered to 84 male and 84 female Chinese subjects in Hong Kong. No significant sex differences in all of the stage scores derived from DIT ratings and rankings were found. In addition, the Pearson correlation matrix of Stage 2 through 6 scores for the females but not for the males approximated a simplex-like pattern. The unrotated factor loadings of the Principal Components Analysis for the female subjects provided clear support to the claim of an ordered sequence of Kohlberg's stages measured by the DIT. The factor loadings on the higher stages (4, 5, and 6), however, were less discriminating and consistent in the male factor pattern.