The Social-Religious-Political Scale

Abstract

The Social-Religious-Political Scale (SRP Scale) is a psychometric instrument designed to quantify the social, religious, and political attitudes of adult respondents. The scale fundamentally operates along a continuum defined by liberal and conservative positions. The core focus is the extent of a respondent’s openness toward individuals holding differing religious or political views.

The instrument was developed by Y. J. Katz, initially involving the collation of approximately 200 items, which were refined to a 60-item version across three dimensions (social, political, religious) based on face validity judgments. The final, published version contains 20 items, administered on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Development included a factor analysis on a sample of 310 white South African students, which identified two primary factors: religious attitudes and sociopolitical attitudes.

Keywords

Social attitudes, Religious attitudes, Political attitudes, Liberalism, Conservatism, Factor analysis, Psychometric scale, South African students, Attitude measurement, Openness to difference.

Authors

Y. J. Katz

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Social-Religious-Political Scale is to measure an individual’s orientation toward specific social, religious, and political issues. It specifically aims to locate respondents along a fundamental continuum anchored by liberal and conservative viewpoints.

The scale measures an individual’s degree of openness or closedness toward those belonging to religious denominations or political persuasions different from their own, reflecting underlying social tolerance or exclusivity. The fundamental difference between the liberal and conservative positions is defined precisely by this extent of openness.

Construct

The SRP Scale measures the psychological construct of Attitudinal Openness vs. Conservatism across two primary dimensions: religious affiliation and political persuasion. The scale defines the conservative position as low openness and high exclusivity regarding other groups, while the liberal position signifies high openness and tolerance.

The instrument is structured into two main subscales: the religious subscale (12 items) focusing on the importance of religious affiliation, and the social-political subscale (8 items) focusing on the importance of political persuasion. Scoring is designed such that lower scores consistently indicate a conservative attitude, and higher scores reflect a liberal attitude.

Validity

Formal data regarding the construct or criterion validity of the SRP Scale have not been reported by the author beyond initial development stages. The primary evidence of validity rests solely on its face validity.

The author asserts that the scale possesses high face validity because the items are clearly and directly related to either the religious or political dimensions they are intended to measure. The scale operates under the assumption that individual respondents possess both religious and political commitment.

Reliability

High internal consistency was reported by the author (Katz) using the alpha reliability coefficient. For the whole scale, the reported coefficient was .92. The subscales also demonstrated excellent reliability: .94 for the religious attitudes subscale and .93 for the sociopolitical attitudes subscale.

However, it is necessary to state that these published reliability figures were calculated based on an earlier, 25-item version of the instrument, not the final 20-item version. Factor loadings were reported, ranging between .30 and .75 for the religious subscale and between .31 and .73 for the sociopolitical subscale, though individual item-to-subscale correlations were not provided.

Factor Analysis

The development of the scale utilized factor analysis on the responses of 310 white South African students (210 teacher trainees and 100 undergraduates). The analysis identified a two-factor structure, ultimately labeled Religious Attitudes and Sociopolitical Attitudes, confirming the scale’s dual focus.

A Principal Components Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was performed on the data for standardization. Factors were retained based on strict criteria: an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 and the factor explaining more than 10% of the variance. A supplementary scree-test was also used as a retention criterion.

Instrument

Test Type: Paper-and-pencil attitude measure

Format: 20 items, 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree)

Language Available: English, Afrikaans (and an earlier version used in Hebrew)

Population Group: Adult students/teacher trainees

Age Group: Adult (typically university/college age)

Population Details: The initial sample consisted of 310 white South African students (110 English speakers and 100 Afrikaans-speaking teacher trainees; 50 English speakers and 50 Afrikaans-speaking undergraduates). The administration assumes the respondents are both religiously and politically committed.

Test Methodology: Self-administered questionnaire requiring no special examiner skill to administer, score, or interpret. Scale scores are computed as the product of the two separate sets of items. Scores on the religious subscale range from 12 to 60, and scores on the social-political subscale range from 8 to 40. Low scores indicate a conservative attitude, while high scores indicate a liberal attitude.

Keywords

Attitude scale, Social tolerance, Political affiliation, Religious denomination, Alpha reliability coefficient, Psychometrics, Liberal-conservative continuum, Principal components analysis, South Africa.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1988 (Validation published)

Permissions and Fees: Information regarding current licensing, permissions, or associated fees is not provided in the original source documentation.

Norms/Standardization: The author has published no normative scores from the original standardization sample of 310 white South African students.

Subsequent Research: The instrument has reportedly not been employed in any subsequent research following its initial validation studies, although an earlier, shorter version was used by Katz (1976) in Hebrew.

Reference’s

Katz, Y. J. (1976). An investigation of social integration after the establishment of junior high schools in the Israeli educational system. Unpublished M.A. dissertation, Bar-Ban University, Israel.

Katz, Y. J. (1984). The influence of some attitudes on intelligence. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand.

Katz, Y. J. (1988). A validation of the social-religious-political scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48, 1025-1028.

Items of the THE SOCIAL-RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL SCALE

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

Please use the following scale to answer each item below.

• 1 = strongly agree
• 2 = agree
• 3 = uncertain
• 4 = disagree
• 5 = strongly disagree

1. I am often conscious of my affiliation to a certain religious denomination.
2. My religious denomination is morally superior to other religious denominations.
3. I prefer to work in the company of people belonging to my religious denomination.
4. I like to spend my leisure time with members of my religious denomination only.
5. My family objects to my befriending members of religious denominations different from mine.
6. I have no social relationships with members of religious denominations other than mine.
7. It should be forbidden for members of one religious denomination to marry members of another religious denomination.
8. When I consider forging a friendship with a person I have just met, I always take his religious denomination into consideration.
9. When choosing a home it is important to take the religious denomination of the neighbors into consideration.
10. When considering marriage it is important to take the religious affiliation of one’s future spouse into consideration.
11. l l. Praise heaped on a member of my religious denomination gratifies me personally.
12. I generally find a common bond with members of my religious denomination only.
13. My political persuasion is morally superior to other political persuasions.
14. I prefer to work in the company of people belonging to my political persuasion.
15. I would like to spend my leisure time with members of my political persuasion only.
16. I have no social relationships with members of political persuasions other than mine.
17. When I consider forging a friendship with a person I have just met, I always take his political persuasion into consideration.
18. When choosing a home it is important to take the political persuasions of the neighbors into consideration.
19. Praise heaped on someone of my political persuasion gratifies me personally.
20. I generally find a common bond with members of my political persuasion only.