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Manual
For
Dr. Alpana Sen Gupta (Ph.D.)
MoraL Associate Professor of Psychology
College of Commerce (MU)
PATNA (Bihar)

DeveLoPMenT Dr. Shagufta Fakhruddin (Ph.D.)

ScaLe Ad-hoc Teacher
Mohmadan Anglo Arabic Plus Two School
PATNA CITY (Bihar)

MDS-GAFS
Manual
for C

MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
SCALE

MDS-GAFS
Dr. AlpanaSen Gupta, Ph. D.
Dr. Shagufta Fakhruddin, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Psychology Ad-hoc Teacher
College of Commerce (MU) Mohmadan Anglo Arabic Plus Two School
PATNA (Bihar) PATNACITY (Bihar)

OLOGICA,

T. M. Regd. No. 564838

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 INTRODUCTION
The word 'Moral' comes from Latin word 'MOS' which means Custom, practice,
rule away of accomplishing things. Thus, morality means "Belonging to manner and
conduct of men"' pertaining to right, wrong and good in conduct (Varms, 1976). Morality
is aconcept which deals with socially desirable behaviour. These are various factors
which play their vital role in the development of moral reasoning. Value a person carries
to direct his/her behaviour may also be reasoned to have its key role in his/her moral
value development.
Moral development has three components,and emotional, cognitive and behavioral
components, wher youth witness or cause another's distress, atypical reaction is to
empathize or feel guilty. These emotions promote morality through the adoption of
social norms in response to emotions. As youth learn to think about their social
experiences, they develop social understanding, which allow them to make judgments
about whether actions are right or wrong. As youth experience these moraly related
thoughts and feelings, the chance increases that they willact in agreement with them.
Moral development involves changes with age in thoughts, feelings and behavior
regarding the principles and values that guide,what person should do in a given
situation. Moraldevelopment has both an interpersonal dimension which regulates
person's activities when he or she is not involved in social interaction and an
interpersonal dimension regulates social interaction (Gibbs et al; 2003, Walker &Pitts,
1999).
Jean Piaget (1932) was the first psychologist whoshowed interest in how children
think about moral issues and he extensively studied children from the ages of 4 to 12
years. He further said that from heteronomous morality (1 st stage 4 to 7 years) children
reaches second stage,that is, autonomous morality (10 yrs. and above age) where
they become aware that laws and rules are created by the people, Kohlberg's (1981)
theory also gave emphasis upon cognitive moral development. He extensively observed
children from the ages of 4 to 12 yrs. Kohlbergopined that the reasoning processes
in children are developmental in nautre. The rate of cognitive moral development
depends on the social environment, cultural factors, reasoning ability and also the
opportunities to assume the role of others (Suar, 2000). The main concern of the
cognitive development approach to moral awareness and moral thinking all are
interrelated. The cognitive theory of moraldevelopment of child has bean established
by Piaget (1932). He says that all morality consists in a system of rules and essence
of morality is to be sought for in respect which the individual for these 'rules'. However,
Kohlberg's theory is more important for understanding moral development in
adolescence becasue they try to understand things like, society, rules, and roles,
 4 Manual for MDS-eAFS
institutions and relationships. Such basic conceptions are
for them ideology becomes very important in guiding theirfundamental
| to
adolescents,
lives and making decisione
Development of moral judgment is a by product of situation and
judgment involves reasoning ability as itcompares an action person.
with moral standardMoral
pronounces it to be right or wrong. It is judgment of value as distinguished from and
judgment of fact.
METHOD
Moral Development Scale (MDS) has been
age range is 13 to 18 yrs. The test consisted ofdeveloped five
for adolescents and the
dishonesty (c) stealing (d) cheating and (e) moral dimensions, like, (a) lyina, (b)
contained 7 items while (b)dimension contained 6 itemsreasoning.and (e)
Dimension (a) (c)
8items that is, moral reasoning. diemension
Initially the test consisted of 44 items. Aftercontained
out item analysis based upon Kelley's carrving
method,
each dimension now consisted of only 7 items (3x7 only 35 items were retained. Thus.
and another item has 8 items and total =21)and one item has 6 items
administered on 370 adolescent boys and girls (21+6+8=35) item is 35. The test was
of 13 to 18 yrs. of age. The top 27%
and bottom 27% adolescents were selected. In
the
was given to those items which had high positive selection of items first preference
After the item analysis 9 items were rejected and discrimination index (Singh, 2013).
final test retained of 35 items only.
Instructions and administration of the test;
(1)Before starting the test, rapport must be
is the essential prerequisite of established with each children which
administration of the test.
(2)Testees first asked to seat
comfortably
(3)There is no fixed time limit. However, 10to 15 mins, time is
test. needed to finish the
(4) There is nothing rightor wrong in the
answer.
(5) Testees are asked to give their own
consult their peers or friends while giving responses. They are also asked not to
(6) Children are asked to raise their responses.
hands if they have any confusion.
(7)Children are asked to read the instruction
properly before giving responses.
(8) They are also asked not to leave any
questions unturned.
(9)After all these instructions, testees are
asked to start giving responses.
(10) As sOonas the testee finish their task. test booklets and
be collected from them with thanks. answer sheets WOula
 Manual for MDS-GAFS 5
Scoring
The maximum possible score of the present scale is 51. Adolescents are asked to
read each question carefully andalso ask to tick mark on either "Yes" or "No". Each
correct answer is given +1o,an incorrect answer is given a score of 0 (zero). This is
done in 27 items whereas in remaining eight items, there are four response options
a, b,c and d, which are scored as 3, 2, 1,0. Testees are asked to select one correct
answer from them. The maximum score is three for each such item separately. Thus,
the maximum score of this scale is (27+24) 51. High score on this score indicates
high moral development and low score indicates low moral development on the part of
the testees. Table 1shows the correct answers that are to be given a score of+1 and
3, 2, 1and wrong answers are to be given a score of zero.
Sr. No. Dimensions Item No. Total

|Lying 1, 10, 18, 23, 28, 32, 35 7

Il. Stealing 2, 11,15, 19, 24, 29, 33 7
III. Dishonesty 3,7, 12, 20, 25, 30
IV. Cheating 4, 8, 13, 16, 17,21, 26 7
V. Moral reasoning 5, 6, 9, 14, 22, 27, 31, 34
Total items 35

Scoring Key
Sr. No. Dimension Item No. Answer
1, 32
() Lying
10, 18, 23, 28, 35 B

2, 11, 24, A
(ii) Stealing
15, 19, 29, 33 B

7,12 A
(iii) Dishonesty
3, 20, 25, 30 BRA

13, 16, 21, 26 AA

(iv) Cheating
4, 8, 17 BT
1Mark for above Answer Maximum Score Ito IV Dimensions = 27
6 Manual for MDS-6AFS
Item No. Answer
(v) Moral 3 2 1 0
5 Al B
Reasoning c DE

6 BD cA

9 CT A| BD

14 DA cB
22 c B
BI A D

27 D A|

31 B
cADDT

34 clarBaD
D A
Maximum Score Item V 24 Maximum Scale Score = 51
Reliability
The test-retest reliability was calculated by administering the test on 100 sample
after a gap of fortnight, (or 14 days) and was found to be .82 and the split half reliablity
was found to be.73. All reliability coefficients were significant at.01 level of
significance.
Validity
Moral Development Scale (MDS) was validated against Moral Value Scale (MV)
developed by Sen Gupta and Singh (1998) and Moral Judgment Test (MJ) (1992)
developed by Sinha and Varma. MVS measures moral value which involves how moral
values developed in children whereas MJT measures moral iudament which involves
the cognitive capacity and insight to see the relationship between the abstract principles
and concrete cases and to judge the situations as right or wrong keeping in vieW tne
knowledge of moral development. The concurrent validity was found to be.73, whicit
was significant at .01 level of significance. For this purp0se, both scales had beeii
administrated on the 100sample (N =100).
 Manual for MDS-GAFS 7
Norms
Perpentie noms were constructed for MDS. In order to construct percentile norms,
MOS as aominstered on a fresh sample of 500. 250 from each of
the two groups.
hatis 13 yrs to 19 yrs. Table 2 presents the P. values and
Soores
corresponding integral
TABLE 2: Percentile Noms
Percentile Integral score Percentile Integral score
Rank 13 to 15 yrs. Rank 16 to 19 yrs. N=250
Pes 51
Pg5 53
47 48
46 47

Pro 43
Pr0 45
41
P70 43

Pso 40
Ps0 41
38
P40 40

P3o 36
P30 37

Pzo 35
P20 36

P0 32
P10 33

Qualitative Interpretation
The ootained scores on Moral Development Scale can also be qualitatively
Sxplained witn the nelp ofthe following Table:
TABLE 3
Quantiative Interpretation of the obtained percentile rank
PR Interpretation
Pg and above Very High
P to P High
Po to Pe8 Medium
P to Pag Low
P and below Very Low
 8 Manual for MDS-GAFS
Thetest constitutes a useful research tool. The present scale is a valid and reliabla
tool for measuring moral development to adolescents (age ranging from 13 to 19
Vrs.). This test is a self administering test and useful for individual as well as aroup
testing.
The test has been developed and standardized on Indian sample and there is
scarcity of test in moral development for adolescents. Thus, Keeping in view of its
psychometric propities, this scale is very useful for researchers.
REFERENCES
Gibbes,J. C., Basinger, K. S. and Grime, R. L. (2003). Moral judgement maturity :
From clinical to standard measures. In S. J. Lopez &C. R. Snyder (Eds.). Handbook
of Positive Psychological Assessment, Washington : D. C. , American
Psychological Association, 361-373.
Piaget, J. (1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child, London : Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trubner and Co. Ltd.
Sen Gupta, A. and Singh, A.K. (1998). Moral Values Scale. Agra: National
PsychologicalCorporation.
Singh, A.K. (2013). Tests, Measurements and Research Methods in Behavioural
Sciences. Bharti Bhawan Publishers & Distributors.
Sinha, D. and Verma, M. (1992). Moral Judgment Test. Agra: Natinal Psychological
Corporation.
Suar, D. (2000). Aman can be made human understanding and enhancing morality
values and ethical behaviour, Indian Psychological Abstractsand Reviews, 7(1),
1-39.
Varna, M. (1976). Moral Development in children. Allahabad: Chug Publications.
Walker, L.J. and Pitts, R.C. (1998). Naturalistic Conceptions of Moral Matuity.
Developmental Psychology, 54, 6-26.

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written permission of the publisher. Manual for Moral Development Scale (MDS-GAFS).