Table of Contents

Variable:

The Nearness to God Scale was derived from the Religious Attitude Inventory developed by William E. Broen (1957a; reviewed in this volume). Items pertaining to the Nearness to God Scale assess the extent to which one feels God is real, constantly near, and accessible. Individuals scoring high on this scale are characterized as feeling that they “walk” and “talk” with God, communicating with God regularly. One’s nearness to God is evaluated from within the context of the Christian faith.

Description:

Broen’s (1957a,b) scale originally contained 31 items designed to mea sure nearness to God (see 8.9 in this volume for a review of Broen’s instrument). Gorsuch and Smith (1983) retained those items that they felt had the greatest contract validity given the cultural and theological shifts in American society since the original development of Broen’s instrument. Items I, 9, 13, 17, 21, and 23 from Broen’s instrument (Broen, 1957b, Factor I) were retained for the Nearness to God scale.

Practical Considerations:

The instrument is relatively straightforward and easily administered within a variety of settings. The scale is useful for both religious and nonreligious groups, although the instrument generally assumes a Christian orientation. Respondents simply note whether they agree or disagree with the item statements. Scoring is simple, since Gorsuch and Smith just added up the number of items with which the respondent agreed.

Norms/Standardization:

Gorsuch and Smith (1983) administered their revised version of Broen’s original instrument to 164 undergraduate students who were taking social science, nursing, and religion courses at a small Christian college. The Nearness to God mean was 5.24 (SD = 0.88).

Reliability:

Reliability coefficients are un available for Gorsuch’s six-item Nearness to God Scale. In an unpublished study, Gorsuch administered the Broen’s Religious Attitude Inventory to 50 students (32 males, I 8 females) at Texas Christian University. The interitem consistency coefficient for all 30 items in Broen’s instrument that pertained to the nearness to God dimension was 0.60 (K-Richardson formula). This would give some indication of what might be expected with the Gorsuch and Smith scale.

Validity:

No validity measures are available for the Nearness to God scale beyond what was already completed with Broen’s original instrument. In terms of construct validity, Gorsuch and Smith (1983) do note that individuals with a higher “nearness to God” score are significantly more likely to at tribute the responsibility to God for the out come of life events and experiences.

The following might give some indication of the construct validity of this mea sure. In an unpublished study, Lawrence Wrightsman and a student administered Broen’s Religious· Attitude Inventory to college students attending Belmont College, Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL), and Central Michigan University. They then correlated both the “Nearness to God” and “Fundamentalism” scores with scores from the Dimensions of the Philosophies of Human Nature Scale developed by Lawrence Wrightsman. For male students at Central Michigan University, scores on the Nearness to God Scale were significantly correlated with how negatively one viewed human nature (r = 0.27), with the extent to which one viewed persons as being less than trustworthy (r = 0.33), with the extent to which one viewed persons as being less than altruistic (r = 0.24), and with the extent to which one viewed per sons as being less than independent agents (r = 0.3 I). The findings were similar for the female students.