False Self Scale: Relationships with Other Christians

Abstract

The False Self Scale-Relationships with Other Christians is an adapted psychometric instrument designed to measure the extent to which individuals experience inauthenticity, or the adoption of a False Self, when interacting within their Christian social environment. This specific version is derived from the original False Self Scale developed by Sippola, Buchanan, and Kehoe (2007) for assessing inauthenticity in adolescent romantic relationships. The adaptation shifts the focus to the religious context, assessing relationship-specific inauthenticity tendencies encountered during interactions with other Christians, and implicitly, how this relates to one’s general experience in relationship with God.

The scale utilizes a brief set of items focusing on behaviors such as acting a certain way to please others, feeling difficulty being oneself, and concealing personal details to maintain acceptance within the faith community. It provides researchers and clinicians a tool to explore the psychological impact of perceived social pressure and the struggle for Authenticity within high-commitment religious settings.

Keywords

False Self, Authenticity, Inauthenticity, Christian relationships, Social pressure, Religious psychology, Self-concept, False Self, Spiritual development

Authors

L. K. Sippola, C. M. Buchanan, S. Kehoe (Original Scale Developers); Adaptation authors vary based on specific research context.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the False Self Scale-Relationships with Other Christians is to quantify the degree of perceived inauthenticity an individual exhibits or feels compelled to exhibit when interacting with members of their Christian community. This measurement helps identify individuals who feel they must mask their true self—their thoughts, feelings, or past experiences—to meet the normative expectations or perceived standards of their religious peer group.

By assessing this phenomenon, the scale facilitates research into the complex intersection of social psychology, religious identity, and mental health. Specifically, it can be used to investigate how the pressure to maintain a facade of piety or conformity affects spiritual well-being, interpersonal trust, and overall self-esteem within a faith-based context.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of the False Self, as operationalized in social relationships. The False Self is typically understood as a defensive facade adopted when an individual perceives that their genuine self is unacceptable or vulnerable to rejection. In this adaptation, the construct specifically applies to the religious domain, encompassing two key dimensions:

• Inauthentic Presentation: The active effort to suppress genuine feelings or attitudes and display behaviors that are socially desirable within the Christian group (e.g., acting a certain way to please others).
• Perceived Unknowingness: The feeling that one is fundamentally misunderstood or unknown by others in the community, leading to a sense of isolation or separation from the “true” self.

Validity

While the original False Self Scale demonstrated solid Construct Validity within the context of adolescent romantic relationships, the validity of the specific adaptation focusing on relationships with other Christians must be established through independent empirical studies. Researchers utilizing this adapted instrument typically assess several forms of validity:

• Content Validity: The items are judged to be highly relevant to the experience of inauthenticity specifically within a religious social context, reflecting pressure to conform to group norms.
• Convergent Validity: Scores on the False Self Scale-Relationships with Other Christians are expected to correlate positively with measures of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and religious perfectionism.
• Discriminant Validity: Scores should show low correlation with measures of constructs such as general extraversion or social engagement that are not inherently linked to inauthenticity.

Reliability

Reliability refers to the consistency of the scale’s measurement. For the original scale, internal consistency (usually measured by Cronbach’s alpha) was reported as high, indicating that the items reliably measure a single underlying construct. For the adapted version, standard psychometric practice requires re-establishing reliability within the target religious population.

• Internal Consistency: High internal consistency is expected, suggesting that all seven items cohere to measure the singular dimension of false self presentation among peers.
• Test-Retest Reliability: This should be moderate to high, indicating that the individual’s tendency toward presenting a False Self in this specific social context is stable over short periods.

Factor Analysis

The original False Self Scale typically yields a strong single-factor solution, confirming its unidimensional nature. For the adapted version used in Christian relationship research, a confirmatory or exploratory factor analysis is necessary to verify this structure. Given the brevity of the scale (seven items), it is generally hypothesized to load onto a single factor representing overall social inauthenticity/false self presentation within the religious peer group.

If factor analysis were to yield multiple factors, they might separate into dimensions such as Active Concealment (items related to hiding things) and Passive Discomfort (items related to feeling like a different person or difficulty being oneself). However, consistent with the original instrument, a single, highly correlated factor is the most likely outcome when assessing the overall experience of the False Self.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: 7 items, scored on a 5-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Primary research language)

Population Group: Individuals engaged in a Christian community or religious social context.

Age Group: Typically utilized with adolescents and adults, depending on the research adaptation.

Population Details: This adaptation is specific to individuals who have social interactions with “other Christians” and reflects on their relationship experiences within that context.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of agreement with each statement based on their experiences in relationship with God and other Christians, using the following scale:

1= Strongly disagree. 2= Somewhat disagree. 3= Neither agree nor disagree. 4= Somewhat Agree. 5= Strongly Agree.

Keywords

Religious conformity, Social psychology of religion, Christian identity, Authenticity, Spiritual authenticity, Scale adaptation, Likert scale, Psychological testing

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original scale items were adapted from the work published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2007) and were used with permission from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Researchers must adhere to standard academic permissions when utilizing or further adapting these items. The specific adaptation year and fee structure vary depending on the research context in which this version is deployed.

The original PDF detailing the context of use, potentially related to Attachment to God research, can be downloaded here: http://www.acu.edu/academics/cas/psychology/documents/beck/Attachment%20to%20God.pdf

Reference’s

• Sippola, L. K., Buchanan, C. M., & Kehoe, S. (2007). Correlates of False Self in Adolescent Romantic Relationships. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36(4), 515–521.
• Beck, R., & Beck, T. (n.d.). Attachment to God [Contextual document where the scale adaptation may have been used]. Abilene Christian University. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.acu.edu/academics/cas/psychology/documents/beck/Attachment%20to%20God.pdf

Items of the False Self Scale-Relationships with Other Christians

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

Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of the statements listed below. Answer each item based on your experiences in relationship with God. We are interested in how you generally experience your relationship with God‚ not just in what is happening in that relationship currently.

1= Strongly disagree. 2= Somewhat disagree‚ 3= Neither agree nor disagree‚ 4= Somewhat Agree‚ 5= Strongly Agree

___1. It is harder to be myself when I am interacting with other Christians than when I am not.

___2. I feel I have to act a certain way to please other Christians.

___3. I feel like I am a different person when I am interacting with other Christians.

___4. In order for other Christians to like me‚ I cannot reveal cel1ain things about myself to them.

___5. I don’t really act like my true self when I am interacting with other Christians.

___6. Other Christians appreciate me for who I am.

___7. I feel that other Christians don’t know the “true” me.