Cultural Fairness and the Measurement of Morality

Moral development is always measured by some standards and values. These standards typically originate in the value system of Western middle classes as most researchers and test makers have a Western middle class background. Therefore, we must ask whether the use of these tests in other classes and cultures is meaningful and whether a comparison across class and culture boundaries is fair. Obviously, this problem prompts another two questions, namely a) whether there is a universalistic definition of <moral’ and <moral development’ shared by all classes and cultures, and b) whether the test in question is a valid operationalization of this universalistic definition. We argue that Kohlberg’s early definition of moral judgment competence comes close to the ideal of being universalistic. Yet his Moral Judgment Interview and most other tests are vulnerable to criticism because they measure people’s moral judgment to a specific system of moral values. These tests measure a person’s moral judgment competence by the standards set forth in Kohlberg’s Stage model rather than by people’s own moral ideals. The Moral Judgment Test, used in a wide array of cross-cultural studies, corrects this shortcoming through measuring persons’ moral judgment competence by their own moral values. Cultural Fairness ... 3