The Denning Issues Test, Version 2 (DIT2), updates dilemmas and items, shortens the original Defining Issues Test (DIT1) of moral judgment, and purges fewer participants for doubtful response reliability. DIT1 has been used for over 25 years. DIT2 makes 3 changes: in dilemmas and items, in the algorithm of indexing, and in the method of detecting unreliable participants. With all 3 changes, DIT2 is an improvement over DIT1. The validity criteria for DIT2 are (a) significant age and educational differences among 9th graders, high school graduates, college seniors, and students in graduate and professional schools; (b) prediction of views on public policy issues (e.g., abortion, religion in schools, rights of homosexuals, women's roles); (c) internal reliability; and (d) correlation with DIT1. However, the increased power of DIT2 over DIT1 is primarily due to the new methods of analysis (a new index called N2, new checks) rather than to changes in dilemmas, items, or instructions. Although DIT2 presents updated dilemmas and smoother wording in a shorter test (practical improvements), the improvements in analyses account for the validity improvements.

Kohlberg's LegacyForemost in Larry Kohlberg's legacy is his modelling of openness to new developments and possibilities. When he was rst formulating his theory of moral development, the work of Jean Piaget was coming to the attention of American psychologists (e.g. Flavell, 1963), and the work of John Rawls in moral philosophy (1971) was recognised as a new way for moral philosophy to say something signi cant (beyond clarifying moral language) about normative ethics. Kohlberg's fusion of Piaget and Rawls excited many researchers because of its interdisciplinary approach (taking seriously the questions and contributions of developmental psychology and of normative ethics), and because it addressed issues of the day (e.g. what is social justice?). Recall that in the 1960s and 1970s the US Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal were all controversial issues that divided

For over 20 years, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) has used the P index. In view of criticisms, a search has been underway for a new index. The authors propose a working definition of construct validity, systematically reanalyze existing data sets ("classic" studies) with new indexes, and make comparisons to trends obtained using the P index. The criteria for construct validity are (a) sensitivity to educational interventions, (b) differentiation of age-educational groups, (c) upward movement in longitudinal studies, (d) correlations with moral comprehension, (e) correlations with prosocial behavior, and (f) correlations with civil libertarian attitudes. As meta-analysis demonstrates, a new index, N2, generally outperforms the P index.

There are variations in the extent to which particular types of inferences or activations are made during reading (G. McKoon & R. Ratcliff, 1992;M. Singer, 1994). In this study, the authors investigated the influence of reading purpose (for entertainment or study) on inference generation. Participants read 2 texts aloud and 2 texts for comprehension measures. Reading purpose did not influence off-line behavior (comprehension) but did influence on-line reader behavior (thinking aloud). Readers with a study purpose more often repeated the text, acknowledged a lack of background knowledge, and evaluated the text content and writing than did readers with an entertainment purpose. This pattern was stronger for the expository text than for the narrative text. Reading purpose, and possibly text type, affects the kinds of inferences that readers generate. Hence, inferential activities are at least partially under the reader's strategic control.

Moral judgment cannot be reduced to cultural ideology, or vice versa. But when each construct is measured separately, then combined, the product predicts powerfully to moral thinking. In Study 1, 2 churches (N = 96) were selected for their differences on religious ideology, political identity, and moral judgment. By combining these 3 variables, a multiple correlation of .79 predicted to members' moral thinking (opinions on human rights issues). Study 2 replicated this finding in a secular sample, with the formula established in Study 1 (R = .11). Individual conceptual development in moral judgment and socialization into cultural ideology co-occur, simultaneously and reciprocally, in parallel, and not serially. Individual development in moral judgment provides the epistemological categories for cultural ideology, which in turn influences the course of moral judgment, to produce moral thinking (e.g., opinions about abortion, free speech).Theories of moral development typically invoke two processes to explain change over time: (a) socialization of the individual into cultural ideology and (b) the individual's cognitive construction of social and moral meaning. Theorists differ in terms of emphasizing one process or the other and in terms of which process is assumed to be dominant at one period of time. The concepts of autonomy and heteronomy are used to refer, respectively, to the individual, cognitive-constructionist, agentic aspect of morality and to the external, shared-group, conforming aspect. Autonomy and heteronomy are the yin and the yang of moral theorists. On the one hand, cognitive-developmental theories, centering on the construct of moral judgment, emphasize the development of autonomy. On the other hand, social learning theories and cultural psychology theories, centering on cultural transmission, emphasize heteronomy. Moreover, Piaget (1932/1965 postulated that development consists of moving from heteronomy to autonomy; Kohlberg