Ordering DITs and Materials

If you are interested in using the DIT, essentially the procedure is to order printed forms from the Center (included is the GUIDE), hand out the forms to subjects, send back to us the forms for scoring, then we send back to you a printed REPORT, and data on a floppy disk. The original 6-story DIT (beginning with the Heinz dilemma) takes about 45-50 minutes to complete, the 3-story DIT takes about 35-40 minutes, and the new 5-story DIT-2 (beginning with the Famine dilemma) takes about 40-45 minutes.

If you wish to proceed, refer to the "Order Form" on the back page. The following information relates to filling out the Order Form. (Orders can also be phoned in using the 24-hour answering service [612 624 0876]).

1. Name of principle investigator and institutional affiliation

If you are affiliated with a college or university as a student or faculty member and are conducting a project which will be reviewed by other faculty or peers, please indicate your institutional affiliation on the order form and whether this will be a student or faculty project.

If you are not affiliated with a college or university, please briefly describe your sample and the goal of your research. In all cases, indicate who will be principle investigator (the person responsible for conducting the research) for the project.

2. Student or non-student status

For many years we made a Manual for hand scoring available to graduate students who were p lanning to use the DIT for a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation. Hand scoring enabled a student (with permission from us) to make copies of DIT1 and calculate a P index. In the last five years, new indices have been developed that outperform the older P index. Hand-scoring by the Manual does not provide the new scores and indexes--these scores are too labor-intensive to be done by hand, and must be done by computer (using the Scoring Service). Whereas our REPORT to researchers still includes the P index (researchers will want to compare this index with older data reports), we now encourage researchers to use the newer indices. Recent publications and our new Guide for DIT 2 include norms for the new indices. For these reasons, we strongly urge graduate students to find money to purchase the forms and use the Center scoring service. Our view is that a criterion for a thesis or dissertation is that in addition to demonstrating research skills, the young researcher is expected to make a contribution to the literature. It is difficult to do so when relying on old indices.

If I am a student, can I get a discount? Please note that we price the DIT and scoring service to cover our costs. Our purpose is to enable researchers to use the test. Charges cover production of the test, scanning and scoring, and preparing a report. We also maintain data files and periodically use these files to study trends and maintain normative information for our users.

If, as a graduate student, you opt for hand scoring (and saving money), then you make copies of the DIT from the Manual yourself. (NOTE: Before you begin, you must have permission from the Center to proceed. The process is as follows. Submit a letter of request to us that includes a brief summary of your approved thesis or dissertation proposal. The letter must specify the exact number of copies you will make and must be signed by your thesis or dissertation advisor. NOTE: Only DIT-1 is available for hand scoring.

If you are a non-student, you need to order forms and to use the Scoring Service . The fees cover the costs of materials and printing, optical scanning and computer calculations, personnel and office costs, some mailing expenses, plus some of the development costs of the DIT.

3. Placing an order for DITs

a) DIT-1 or DIT-2?   The original DIT (“DIT-l”), first introduced in the 1970s (beginning with the Heinz dilemma), is the more proven test, has hundreds of studies on over 1/2 million subjects. In comparison, DIT-2 (beginning with the Famine dilemma) has only recently been introduced, has a much shorter track record, but is more up-to-date, shorter, retains more subjects in your sample (purges fewer subjects due to the reliability checks), has clearer instructions, and so far looks slightly more powerful in producing validity trends. We believe DIT-2 is better than DIT-1, however the proof is yet to come from independent researchers. The extended analyses--using the new index N2, using the New Subject Reliability Checks, and gathering about 50 variables on every subject--can be calculated on either DIT-1 or DIT-2. Both cost the same.
If you want to use a shorter form of the DIT (less than 5 stories), use DIT-1 since we have some experience and data for the short form of DIT- 1. (DIT-2 is too new for us to have much of a track record on individual stories or special combinations of stories.) Note that shortening the test generally lowers the reliability and power of validity trends (as a rough estimate, going to 3 stories from 6 stories on DIT- 1 costs about 10 points in reliability [Cronbach alpha], and also about 10 points in correlations with external variables).

b) Number of DITs. Decide how many tests you will need. (To determine how much this will cost, consult the Fee Schedule. However, you do not have to calculate costs exactly before placing an order--we will calculate costs and send an Invoice.) Determine the number of tests carefully since you will be charged for that number and we do not accept returned tests for refunds. You can place an order for DITs either by using the Order Form or by phoning our 24-hour line: (612-624 0876), or by FAX (612 624 8241).

c) Time and mailing. Typically we process orders at least once per week. However, to be safe please allow 3 weeks between when you place an order and when you need to collect data. In emergencies, we can send DITs by Federal Express within several days. However, this is expensive (in addition to the charge for Federal Express, we charge extra for rush handling since different personnel are involved in processing rush orders). Please plan ahead and avoid the expense of rush orders.

d) Billing. Charges are on a prepaid basis--that is, charges must be paid before we can score the DITs and send you a report. If you do not send in a check with your order for the correct amount, we will send a billing invoice with your order. If it is important to have an institutional purchase order number on the invoice, give us that number when you place an order. We can bill at one address and send materials to another address. Make checks payable to the University of Minnesota. (Our IRS tax ID number is 41600 7513 G.) Unpaid balances after the third month, will be charged a 1% late fee per month. Note: We cannot accept credit cards.

e) Contents of order. An order includes the DIT answer sheets, instruction booklets, and a GUIDE. The GUIDE gives information on special instructions to subjects, how to fill in each ID for the answer sheets, how to mail the answer sheets back to us, what the REPORT contains, what the diskette accompanying the paper REPORT will contain, how to interpret the REPORT, what statistics are given in each REPORT and how to read them, and a bibliography of hundreds of DIT studies which may be helpful in the interpretation of your data. ( Note that the GUIDE comes along with an order of DITs, and so you do not have to special order it. Also note that the GUIDE is largely redundant with the Manual, and so you should not order the Manual if you are using the Scoring Service.) Typically, we do optical scanning and computer scoring at least once a week, and so the “turn around” time typically will be whatever time the mail takes plus a week. After you have sent in the answer forms for scoring, we then return the REPORT and as described in the GUIDE.

f) Multiple runs. Please note that the charges assume that you are sending in your entire set of DITs for scoring at one time. If you send in part of your sample for scoring at one time, and another part of the sample for scoring at another time (i.e., if you send in multiple batches of DITs for scoring), there will be a $25.00 additional set up fee for each time beyond the first time that you send in DITs for scoring. Also if you send in separate batches at one time, and we have to make separate runs to process your data, then you will be charged for additional runs.

g) Statistics. The statistical analysis that we provide with the Scoring Service is actually only preliminary and many researchers will want to do further statistical analysis. Our statistics calculate means and standard deviations for the sample as a whole, then use the first digit of the ID number as a basis for creating subgroups and do t-test contrasts on all the subgroups. For instance, if all the males in your sample have IDs beginning with 1(followed by 4 numbers) and all the females have IDs beginning with 2, then the REPORT will contain averages and t-test differences between males and females. The statistical routines built into the Scoring Service do not run correlations with other measures or demographic data, or match subjects for pre-and-post testings. Therefore additional statistical analyses will be necessary for many studies.

• For information on the cost of the DIT's, click here PRICES
• For access to an order form, click here ORDER FORM