Religious Attitude Scale

Abstract

The Religious Attitude Scale, developed by Poppleton and Pilkington in 1963, is a psychometric instrument designed to measure the intensity and direction of religious attitudes within specific populations, particularly university students. Utilizing a modified Thurstone scale methodology, the instrument consists of 21 statements covering various dimensions of religious belief, doubt, and practice.

Each item is associated with a pre-determined scale value, allowing for precise quantification of an individual’s stance toward religion. The scale covers a broad spectrum of belief, ranging from orthodox Christian commitment (low Thurstone values) to strong secularism or agnosticism (high Thurstone values), making it a comprehensive tool for social and educational psychological research.

Keywords

Religious attitudes, Psychological scale, Poppleton and Pilkington, Thurstone method, university population, religious belief, secularism, psychometrics, attitude measurement.

Authors

Pamela K. Poppleton, G. W. Pilkington.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Religious Attitude Scale was to provide a rigorous and quantifiable measure of religious orientation, suitable for research within academic environments. Specifically, the authors sought to track potential shifts and changes in religious belief and practice among students throughout their university degree courses, as evidenced by their later longitudinal work (Pilkington, Poppleton, & Robertshaw, 1965).

The scale was crucial for investigating the relationship between academic exposure, critical thinking, social change, and shifts in personal religiosity. It provided researchers with a highly differentiated tool capable of measuring varying degrees of religious commitment, skepticism, and indifference among young adults who were navigating complex intellectual environments.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of religious attitude. This construct is defined as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies toward the concept of religion, including specific doctrines, theological claims, institutional practices, and the perceived social role of faith.

The 21 items are designed to span a continuum of attitudes—from highly orthodox Christian belief (low Thurstone values, indicating acceptance) to profound skepticism or anti-religious sentiment (high Thurstone values, indicating rejection). This bipolar approach, characteristic of the Thurstone method, allows the scale to capture not just the presence or absence of belief, but the intensity, complexity, and directionality of the respondent’s overall orientation toward religious concepts.

Validity

The initial validation of the scale relied heavily on the rigorous methodology inherent in the Thurstone scaling process. This method requires expert judges to rate the intensity of each item, ensuring strong content validity—that the items adequately represent the full spectrum of attitudes being measured, from extreme belief to extreme disbelief.

Subsequent studies utilizing the instrument, particularly those comparing different scoring methods and tracking changes over time (Poppleton & Pilkington, 1964; Pilkington et al., 1965), provide supporting evidence for its construct validity. The scale scores demonstrated expected behavioral patterns when correlated with demographic variables (such as educational level) and longitudinal changes in self-reported religious practices, confirming that the scale measures the intended underlying construct.

Reliability

The reliability of the Religious Attitude Scale was a central focus of the authors’ follow-up research. Poppleton and Pilkington (1964) specifically compared four distinct methods of scoring the attitude scale in relation to its reliability and validity. This methodological rigor indicates a strong commitment to ensuring the instrument’s consistency.

While specific standard statistical coefficients (such as Cronbach’s alpha or test-retest correlations) are typically detailed in the full publication, the dedicated analysis of various scoring methods—including both Thurstone and Likert approaches—demonstrated that the scale possesses sufficient stability and internal consistency to be utilized effectively in comparative and longitudinal research settings.

Factor Analysis

Specific details regarding published factor analysis of the 21-item scale are not explicitly provided in the initial documentation excerpt. However, given the theological and philosophical breadth of the item content, the scale likely taps into several distinct, though related, dimensions of religious attitude.

Potential underlying factors that could emerge from an exploratory factor analysis include:

• Orthodoxy and Fundamentalism: Items related to literal belief in miracles, divinity, and sacrifice (e.g., Items 7, 9, 14).
• Moral and Social Necessity: Items concerning the essential role of religion in maintaining societal morals and leading a good life (e.g., Items 1, 13, 16).
• Secularism and Scientific Skepticism: Items contrasting religious claims with scientific advancement or rational thought (e.g., Items 5, 10, 20).
• Indifference/Agnosticism: Items reflecting uncertainty or irrelevance of religious truths (e.g., Items 3, 8).

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale (Thurstone-type attitude measure).

Format: The instrument consists of 21 statements. Respondents rate their agreement using a 5-point Likert-type response scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Uncertain, Disagree, Strongly disagree. Scoring is based on the pre-calculated Thurstone scale values (ranging from 0 to 11) assigned to each item, where the respondent’s attitude score is typically derived from the median or mean of the scale values of the items they endorse.

Language Available: English (Original research context).

Population Group: Non-clinical; optimized for social psychological research.

Age Group: Late adolescence and adulthood (typically 18 years and older).

Population Details: Primarily developed and validated on a university population in the United Kingdom, making it especially suitable for highly educated samples or those undergoing complex intellectual development.

Test Methodology: This scale is notable for combining a Likert response format with a rigorous Thurstone scoring system. The original PDF describing the context of this instrument can be downloaded here: Measures of social psychological attitudes.

Keywords

Attitude measurement, religious skepticism, Christian orthodoxy, social psychology, psychometrics, higher education research, Poppleton, Pilkington.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided or applicable for 1963 research).

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided).

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1963.

Permissions & Fee: The scale is widely published in academic literature and included in major compendiums of social psychological measures (e.g., Robinson & Shaver, 1969). It is generally considered available for academic research use, provided that researchers properly cite the original source (Poppleton and Pilkington, 1963).

Reference’s

• Poppleton, Pamela K., and Pilkington, G. W. (1963). The measurement of religious attitudes in a university population. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2(1), 20-36.
• Poppleton, Pamela K., and Pilkington, G. W. (1964). A Comparison of Four Methods of Scoring an Attitude Scale in Relation to its Reliability and Validity. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 3(1), 36-39.
• Pilkington, G. W., Poppleton, Pamela K., Robertshaw, G. (1965). Changes in religious attitude and practices among students during university degree courses. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 35(2), 150-157.
• Robinson, John P., Shaver, Phillip R. (1969). Measures of Political Attitudes. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Items of the Religious Attitude Scale

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

1. To lead a good life it is necessary to have some religious belief. (3.15)
2. Jesus Christ was an important and interesting historical figure‚ but in no way divine. (9.84)
3. I genuinely do not know whether or not God exists. (5.59)
4. People without religious beliefs can lead just as moral and useful lives as people with religious beliefs. (6.90)
5. Religious faith is merely another name for belief which is contrary to reason. (10.05)
6. The existence of disease‚ famine and strife in the world makes one doubt some religious doctrines. (7.43)
7. The miracles recorded in the Bible really happened.
8. It makes no difference to me whether religious belief s are true or false. (6.20)
9. Christ atoned for our sins by His sacrifice on the cross. (0.62)
10. The truth of the Bible diminishes with the advance of science. (9.00)
11. Without belief in God life is meaningless. (0.73)
12. The more scientific discoveries are made the more the glory of God is revealed. (1.47)
13. Religious education is essential to preserve the morals of our society. (2.64)
14. The proof that Christ was the Son of God lies in there cord of the Gospels. (1.53)
15. The best explanation of miracles is as an exaggeration of ordinary events in to myths and legends. (8.71)
16. International peace depends on the world wide adoption of religion. (2.06)
17. I f you lead a good and decent life it is not necessary to go to church. (7.33)
18. Parents have a duty to teach elementary Christian truths to their children. (2.70)
19. There is no survival of any kind after death. (10.37)
20. The psychiatrist rather than the theologian can best explain the phenomena of religious experience. (8.88)
21. On the whole‚ religious belief s make for better and happier living. (3.32)

Note: The numbers in parentheses after each statement refer to the Thurstone scale values of the items. Values range from 0 to 11.