DEVELOPMENT, VALIDATION, AND PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE INSTRUMENT MEASURING MORALITY (CIMM)

The present study was designed to develop and validate a comprehensive instrument measuring morality (CIMM) based on the four components of morality (moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character) presented by Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, and Bebeau (1999). We aim to check factor structure of CIMM through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and to confirm the resulting factor structure in a second sample using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study included a total of 917 adolescents. EFA presented three meaningful factors for moral sensitivity, four factors for both moral judgment and moral motivation, and five factors for moral character dimension. CFA on the second sample further confirmed the same factor structure extracted from EFA for all four dimensions of CIMM. Alpha reliabilities ranged from .63 to .85 for moral sensitivity, from .71 to .84 for moral judgment, from .64 to .84 for moral motivation, and from .50 to .83 for moral character. In conclusion, CIMM, containing 20 items for moral sensitivity, 39 items for moral judgment, 34 items for moral motivation, and 32 items for moral character, emerged as a reliable and valid instrument for comprehensive measure of morality and addressed all components of morality as presented by Rest et al. (1999).