Religiosity Questionnaire

Abstract

The Religiosity Questionnaire (Brown, 1962) is a specialized psychological scale designed to measure various dimensions of religiosity, focusing particularly on the distinction between institutional and individual religious orientation, alongside the certainty of specific doctrinal beliefs. Developed by L.B. Brown, the instrument aims to capture the complexity of religious attitudes by assessing adherence to organized religious bodies, personal spiritual experience, and the acceptance of key tenets found within Orthodox Christianity. Respondents evaluate statements using a comprehensive 7-point scale measuring certainty of truth or falsehood.

Keywords

Religiosity, Religious Belief, Institutionalization, Individualism, Christian Beliefs, Psychological Measurement, Attitude Scale, L.B. Brown.

Authors

L.B. Brown

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Religiosity Questionnaire is to systematically quantify the structure and intensity of an individual’s religious convictions. It was developed to move beyond simplistic measures of religious affiliation, instead seeking to delineate how individuals balance adherence to institutional requirements (e.g., church attendance) against personal, internalized faith (e.g., private devotion). Furthermore, the scale serves to assess the degree of certainty an individual holds regarding specific theological and biblical statements.

This instrument provides a multifaceted assessment, allowing researchers to explore correlations between distinct types of religious orientation and other psychological or social variables. The scale’s design facilitates the study of religious development and the cognitive certainty associated with different domains of belief.

Construct

The scale measures the construct of Religious Belief and Attitude, conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct comprising several distinct factors. These factors reflect different loci of religious authority and specific doctrinal acceptance. The key psychological constructs measured include:

• Institutionalization: The extent to which an individual views the organized Church or religious institution as essential for moral guidance, security, and the preservation of religious concepts.
• Individualism: The emphasis placed on personal experience, private devotion, and individual understanding of faith principles over institutional mandates or public services.
• Doctrinal Orthodoxy: The acceptance and certainty regarding specific core tenets of Orthodox Christianity, segmented into categories such as Beliefs about Christ, Beliefs about God, and General Religious Beliefs (e.g., existence of the Devil, life after death).

Validity

While the initial source content does not explicitly provide quantitative validity coefficients (such as criterion or concurrent validity), the scale’s validity is supported by its clear theoretical structure, which was later examined and confirmed through empirical studies. L.B. Brown’s subsequent work (1966) focused on the structure of religious belief, implicitly supporting the construct validity of the scale by demonstrating that the items cluster into meaningful, theoretically distinct factors (Institutionalization, Individualism, and various Doctrinal Beliefs).

The face validity is high, as the items directly address core issues of Christian theological certainty and institutional versus personal faith. Subsequent research utilizing this instrument has demonstrated its utility in differentiating between various religious profiles, further establishing its capacity to measure the intended constructs accurately.

Reliability

The initial documentation from 1962 does not include specific reliability statistics, such as Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency or test-retest reliability. However, standard psychometric practice dictates that multi-dimensional scales like the Religiosity Questionnaire require high internal consistency within their specific subscales.

Researchers utilizing this instrument in later studies have reported acceptable levels of reliability for the individual subscales, indicating that the items within each factor consistently measure the same underlying dimension of religious belief. Users of the scale should consult subsequent literature, particularly Brown (1966), for detailed reliability data pertaining to specific factor scores.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the Religiosity Questionnaire clearly suggests a multi-factor model derived from initial exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis (as detailed in Brown, 1966). The scale is composed of items grouped into six primary conceptual factors, designed to capture the breadth of religious attitudes and beliefs:

1. Institutionalization
2. Individualism
3. Beliefs about Christ
4. Beliefs about God
5. Other Orthodox Christian Beliefs
6. General Religious Belief

This factor structure allows for the measurement of specific aspects of faith rather than just a single, monolithic score of religiosity. The segregation of institutional adherence from individual spirituality, coupled with the assessment of specific doctrinal acceptance, is the defining feature of the scale’s psychometric structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychological Scale; Attitude Measurement Instrument

Format: Self-report questionnaire consisting of multiple items grouped into six subscales. Responses are collected using a 7-point scale.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: General population, primarily focused on assessing adherence to Christian beliefs and institutions.

Age Group: Adults and potentially older adolescents capable of understanding complex theological concepts.

Population Details: Originally developed and tested within Western (likely British) populations.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of certainty regarding the truth or falsehood of each statement using the following 7-point Likert scale response format:

• I am completely certain that this statement is true.
• I am almost certain that this statement is true.
• I think that this statement is true, but I am not at all certain.
• I am completely uncertain about this statement.
• I think this statement is false, but I am not at all certain.
• I am almost certain that this statement is false.
• I am completely certain that this statement is false.

Keywords

Attitude Measurement, Doctrine, Certainty, Psychology of Religion, Institutional Religious Belief, Personal Faith.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in the source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in the source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in the source material (L.B. Brown was affiliated with the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, during parts of his career).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1962

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding current commercial permissions or fees is not available in the original source. As an instrument published in 1962, it is often used for non-commercial academic research, but users should verify intellectual property rights.

The original PDF containing this instrument and other measures of social psychological attitudes can be downloaded here: Measures of social psychological attitudes.

Reference’s

The following references are associated with the development and use of the Religiosity Questionnaire:

• Thouless, R. H. (1935). The tendency to certainty in religious belief. British Journal of Psychology, 26, 16-31.
• Brown, L.B. (1962). A study of religious Belief. British Journal of Psychology, 53, 259-272.
• Brown, L.B. (1966). The structure of religious Belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 5(2), 259-272.
• Robinson, John P., Shaver, Phillip R. (1969). Measures of Political Attitudes. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Brown, L.B. (1987). The psychology of religious belief. London: Academic Press.

Items of the Religiosity Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Institutionalization

1. The Church is necessary to establish and preserve concepts of right and wrong.
2. Every person needs to have the feeling of security given by a church.
3. For the vast majority of people, in order to live a truly religious life the Church or some such other organized religious body is an essential.
4. The aim of missionaries should be to establish church buildings where religious services and ceremonies can be conducted.

Individualism

1. A man ought to be guided by what his own experience tells him is right rather than by what any institution, such as the Church, tells him to do.
2. It is more important for an individual to understand the principles of his personal faith than to have a detailed knowledge of his own denomination.
3. Private devotions are more important in the religious life of a person than is attendance at public church services.
4. True Christianity is seen in the lives of individual men and women rather than in the activities of the Church.

Beliefs about Christ

1. Jesus Christ was God the Son.
2. Jesus changed water into wine.
3. Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin.
4. Jesus walked upon the water while his disciples waited for him in their boat.

Beliefs about God

1. There is a personal God.
2. The world was created by God.
3. There is a God who is all-powerful.
4. There is a God who is altogether good.
5. God made man out of dust and breathed life into him.
6. There is no God (personal or impersonal).*

Other Orthodox Christian Beliefs

1. There are spiritual realities of some kind.
2. There is a personal Devil.
3. Evil is a reality.
4. The spirits of human beings continue to exist after the death of their bodies.
5. Attendance at church is a better way of spending Sunday than taking a walk in the country General

Religious Belief

1. Matter is the sole reality. *
2. There are such spiritual beings as angels.
3. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and afterwards emerged alive.
4. Christianity is a better religion than Buddhism.
5. The Bible is literally true in all its parts.
6. There is a Hell in which the wicked will be everlastingly punished.
7. Right will triumph.
8. There is no life after death.*

* reversed scoring