WHAT I BELIEVE SCALE

Abstract

The What I Believe Scale (WIB) is a psychological instrument designed to differentiate between three primary religious/philosophical belief systems: the Judeo-Christian orientation, Spiritism/Occult beliefs, and Atheism/Secular Humanism. The scale further measures the degree to which these belief systems are associated with critical personality factors, such as self-esteem, which may influence academic performance among high school and college students.

The WIB scale comprises 50 statements requiring a True or False response. Scoring is structured to provide three distinct totals: a Judeo-Christian Total, an Atheism Total, and a Spiritism/Occult Total. The scoring methodology utilizes a combination of “core” statements, which are foundational to a specific ideology, and “satellite” responses, which are less crucial, to determine the strength and placement of an individual’s ideological category.

Keywords

What I Believe Scale, WIB, Religious belief systems, Judeo-Christian, Atheism, Spiritism/Occult, Secular Humanism, Self-esteem, Psychological measurement, Ideology.

Authors

N.T. Gill, L.H. Thornton

Purpose

The primary purpose of the What I Believe Scale (WIB) is twofold. Firstly, it serves as a tool for the categorical differentiation of an individual’s religious or philosophical worldview, specifically targeting the Judeo-Christian, Spiritism/Occult, and Atheism/Secular Humanism orientations.

Secondly, the scale was developed to quantify the strength of these beliefs and assess their empirical association with various psychological outcomes, particularly personality factors like self-esteem, which are known to influence educational or academic performance trajectories in student populations.

Construct

The WIB scale measures adherence to three distinct, broad ideologies, treating each as a measurable construct reflecting an individual’s worldview regarding the nature of reality and the supernatural. The constructs are operationalized through 50 True/False statements.

• Judeo-Christian Beliefs: Reflects classical theological views concerning God, creation, morality, and the nature of prayer, often scored across all 50 items.
• Atheism/Secular Humanism: Reflects a worldview emphasizing natural explanations for phenomena, reliance on human intelligence and science, and a rejection of supernatural entities or forces.
• Spiritism/Occult: Reflects belief in psychic phenomena, extrasensory powers, communication with the dead, and the potential control or use of supernatural forces or spirits.

The scoring methodology further distinguishes between core statements (foundational to a specific category) and satellite responses (less crucial statements). The combination of these responses ultimately determines the subject’s category placement and the strength of their belief system score.

Validity

The validity of the WIB instrument was primarily established through known-groups validation. This involved administering the scale to subjects who were independently identified as strongly representative of a particular belief category.

The findings indicated strong support for the scale’s validity: subjects highly identified with one category achieved near-perfect scores in that corresponding belief category while scoring significantly low on the other two belief categories. Additionally, correlational analysis provided further evidence of construct validity, demonstrating the expected inverse relationship between the Judeo-Christian score and the Atheism/Secular Humanism score, suggesting that the scale successfully measures opposing ideological poles.

Reliability

The reliability of the What I Believe Scale was assessed using the test-retest reliability method. This study involved a small sample of 17 subjects measured over a two-week interval.

The resulting reliability coefficient obtained was .79. The authors reported no other attempts to measure internal consistency reliability (such as Cronbach’s alpha) or other forms of reliability in the initial research documentation.

Factor Analysis

Information regarding the specific factor analysis of the What I Believe Scale (WIB) is not reported in the provided source content. While the scale is structured around three theoretical factors (Judeo-Christian, Atheism, Spiritism/Occult), empirical evidence supporting a factor structure derived from exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis is absent in these materials.

Instrument

Test Type: Belief System Inventory / Attitude Scale

Format: 50 statements requiring a dichotomous (True/False or A/B) response.

Language Available: English (based on available literature)

Population Group: High school and college students (adolescents and young adults).

Age Group: Typically 17.0 to 17.6 years (based on standardization sample).

Population Details: The standardization sample included 179 high school students, maintaining a homogeneous sample base. This included 92 senior honor students from public schools and 87 seniors from a Catholic school. Both genders were represented, though no formal assessment of economic similarity between the groups was conducted.

Test Methodology: The scale is self-administered and can be utilized in both group and individual settings. Administration requires approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Scoring involves determining the number of ideologically “correct” responses for each of the three categories and converting this count into a percentage score reflecting the strength of adherence.

Keywords

Belief assessment, Psychological scale, Ideologies, Core beliefs, Satellite responses, Test-retest reliability, Academic psychology, Religious orientation, High school sample.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not reported in source materials.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not reported in source materials.

Correspondence Address: Not reported in source materials.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Permissions for use must be sought directly from the authors (N.T. Gill and L.H. Thornton) or the journal publisher (The High School Journal).

Fee: Fee information is not provided in the source materials.

Test Year: The scale was developed and first reported in academic papers presented in 1988, with key publication in 1989.

Reference’s

Gill, N.T., & Thornton, L.H. (1988, November). Religious orientation and self-esteem among college students. Paper presented at the meeting of the Florida Educational Research Association, Sarasota, FL.

Gill, N.T., & Thornton, L.H. (1989, October/November). Religious orientation and self-esteem among high school students. The High School Journal, 73(1), 47-60.

Thornton, L.H., & Gill, N.T. (1989, November). Consistency of religious beliefs and self-esteem among high school students. Paper presented at the meeting of the Florida Educational Research Association, Tallahassee, FL.

Thornton, L. H., & Gill, N. T. (1990, November). Student interest and religious beliefs. Paper presented at the meeting of the Florida Educational Research Association.

Items of the WHAT I BELIEVE SCALE

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

Directions: This is to be an anonymous survey of some of your basic beliefs. Read each statement carefully and indicate in the space provided whether you feel the statement is true (A) or false (B). Please do not discuss the statements with others until everyone has completed the survey. Please respond to all 50 items.

True False

(A) (B)

1. A religious faith passionately believed in can act as a catalyst releasing psychic forces.
2. Human nature is really neither good nor bad
3. Such things as black magic and voodoo interest me
4. I tend to believe only in what I can see or can be explained.
5. I see no harm in wearing good luck charms
6. I believe any unusual powers exhibited by people can be explained scientifically as resulting from an external energy force, such as the sun. In such cases, people are merely acting as channels or conductors.
7. Personally, I’m drawn to the psychic approach when details are so specific as to rule out coincidence.
8. Discussing spiritual occurrences and supernatural phenomena is foolish and absurd.
9. Generally speaking, people can not be trusted Reality exists only in the mind.
10. The supernatural power which exists externally
11. from us is a being or beings with motivation and intent.
12. Prayer is a psychic phenomena.
13. Although some things are still not known or understood, some day all will be known by increasing our own human intelligence.
14. I find the occult interesting.
15. Life on this planet has deteriorated and will most probably become worse.
16. The mind has extrasensory powers.
17. Supernatural explanations lie totally within the human potential or ability.
18. There are two supernatural spiritual
    1. beings of major significance in the universe:
    2. a loving and just creator, and an evil force or spirit.
19. Man’s basic or fundamental nature is selfish.
20. Prayer is merely a material power, like electricity, available to all persons no matter what they believe.
21. Life on earth is relatively quite good and will probably get much better.
22. I believe the only supernatural force in the universe is that of a loving God.
23. There is a natural order to everything and all phenomena can be explained naturally.
24. Every human being is a member of the cosmos and “God” is the cosmic mind.
25. People are basically good.
26. Voodoo deaths are most probably due to mind control.
27. I see nothing harmful in transcendental meditation or the practice of Yoga.
28. Some events can only be explained supernaturally and are thus unexplainable through logic or science.
29. All so called “miracles” are either myths or can be explained scientifically.
30. The notion of an everlasting hell is a repugnant religious doctrine and completely unacceptable.
31. We live in an objective world in which what we see is generally the way things really are.
32. There are many gods and spirits of which some are good and some are evil.

True False

ِ(A) (B)

33. People are generally honest and in most cases should be trusted.
34. In some instances, it is possible to communicate with people after death.
35. There is a universal conspiracy to control and enslave people.
36. The existing supernatural force is only energy or force, not a thinking or feeling being with a personality.
37. Miracles, such as instant healing and the raising of the dead, may have actually occurred at some point in history, but are certainly not happening today.
38. Strange occurrences, such as hauntings and ghosts, may be attributed to the restless spirits of people who have died.
39. The only supernatural force of any consequence in the universe is evil.
40. Following an individual’s death, their spirit may inhabit the body of another living person.
41. I see no harm in periodically reading one’s horoscope.
42. Any mysterious or unexplained powers exhibited by people today will in time be explained scientifically in terms of human potential or talent.
43. Supernatural forces or spirits can be controlled and used to one’s own advantage if one is clever.
44. Explanations for the supernatural must lie outside of human potential or ability.
45. There is both a spiritual as well as a natural side to reality.
46. The supernatural spirit or force is a being with a personality and a close intimate or personal relationship is possible.
47. It is foolish to believe there is no God.
48. Humility and meekness, for the most part, are human characteristics of individual weakness.
49. I enjoy tales of the supernatural, horror and the macabre.
50. Halloween is a very important time of the year.

True (A)False (B)