Multidimensional Ten Commandments Questionnaire [M10CQ-50]

Description

The Multidimensional Ten Commandments Questionnaire (M10CQ-50) was developed by William E. Snell Jr. in 1995. It is a 50-item self-report instrument designed to assess individuals’ attitudes toward and agreement with the religious and moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments.

The questionnaire contains ten subscales, each corresponding to one commandment and comprising five items. Its content is explicitly situated within a Judeo-Christian and, more specifically, Christian framework. Therefore, it should not be regarded as a religiously neutral or cross-cultural measure of general morality.

Aim

The M10CQ-50 assesses acceptance of specific religious and moral principles, including faith in God, respect for God’s name and the holy day, honoring one’s parents, and rejecting murder, adultery, theft, false testimony, and coveting what belongs to others.

Its multidimensional structure enables researchers to identify differences across the individual commandments. For example, respondents may strongly endorse interpersonal moral principles while expressing lower agreement with particular religious requirements.

Data Analysis and Use

A separate score is calculated for each commandment using its five corresponding items. A single overall score should only be calculated when supported by evidence concerning the factor structure and reliability of the particular version administered.

Analysis may include descriptive statistics, internal consistency assessment for each subscale, and correlations with religiosity, spirituality, moral values, and participation in religious activities. Confirmatory factor analysis may be employed to evaluate the proposed ten-dimensional structure.

Results require careful interpretation in non-Christian, nonreligious, or culturally diverse populations. A low score does not necessarily indicate low morality; it may instead reflect limited agreement with the instrument’s particular religious framework.

Scoring

Responses are recorded on a five-point scale:

A = Strongly disagree
B = Slightly disagree
C = Neither agree nor disagree
D = Slightly agree
E = Strongly agree

The response categories may be numerically coded from 1 to 5. Items 28 and 29 are oppositely worded and should be reverse-scored. With 1–5 coding, each subscale score ranges from 5 to 25. Higher scores indicate stronger agreement with the corresponding commandment.

No diagnostic cut-off scores have been established. The instrument is intended for research on religious and moral attitudes rather than clinical diagnosis or judgment of an individual’s moral character. According to the available instructions, written permission from the instrument’s developer is required before use.

References

Snell, W. E., Jr. (1995). Measuring the Ten Commandments: Construction and preliminary evidence for reliability and validity [Manuscript in preparation].

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141

Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.