The instrument was developed in Norway in the Norwegian language. The items were directly based upon the theory and no other instruments were used in the construction of the scale. In total 32 items were formulated that were meant to reflect each of the upper four stages (2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b) of moral development, i.e. eight items for each stage. The items were constructed by the participants in the research group after thorough studies of Kohlberg's theory (Kohlberg,
1976, 1984). Item content and item formulation of every single item were considered satisfying for testing when consensus was reached among the researchers. Content validity of these items was safeguarded through expertise advice from a university professor in the field. Each item could be answered on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 stands for “not agree at all” and 5 for “agree completely”. An item score of 3 was assigned the neutral value “neither disagree nor agree”.