THE SOCIAL-RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL SCALE

Variable:

The Social-Religious-Political Scale was designed to measure social, reli­gious, and political attitudes of adult re­spondents. The two axes of the scale are de­ fined as liberal and conservative. The fundamental difference between the liberal position and the conservative position con­cerns the extent to which the respondent is open to individuals from other religious de­ nominations or political persuasions.

Description:

The author began by collating approximately 200 items from various atti­tude scales as well as adding original items pertinent to the constructs under considera­tion. These items were presented to 10 judges who were requested to judge the face validity of the items. A total of 60 items sur­vived this process: 20 relevant to social atti­tudes, 20 relevant to political attitudes, and 20 relevant to religious attitudes.

Originally compiled in English, the in­strument was translated into Afrikaans. The development of the present instrument emerged from factor analyses of the re­sponses of 210 white South African teacher trainees, 110 of whom were English speak­ers and 100 Afrikaans speakers, as well as 100 undergraduates, 50 of whom spoke English and 50 Afrikaans. Factor analysis identified two factors, one of which was la­beled “religious attitudes” and the other of which was labeled “sociopolitical atti­tudes.”

In its present form the scale contains 20 items. Each item is assessed on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 to 5. The five points are anchored as follows: 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = uncertain, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree. The first group of 12 items is concerned with the importance of religious affiliation; the second group of 8 items is concerned with the importance of political persuasion. Scale scores are com­puted as the product of the two separate sets of items. This means that scores on the religious subscale range between 12 and 60 and scores on the social-political subscale range between 8 and 40. In both cases a low score indicates a conservative attitude and a high score indicates a liberal attitude.

Practical Considerations:

This paper-and­ pencil measure requires no special examiner skill to administer, score, or interpret. Mini­ mal instructions are provided. Face validity of the scale is high in that items are clearly related to either the religious or the political dimension. The clear assumption of the items is that the individual respondents are both religiously and politically committed. The scale may appear inappropriate when these assumptions are not met.

Norms/Standardization: Using the original sample of 310 white South African stu­ dents, a principal components analysis with varimax rotation was performed on the data. Salient item loadings were set at the level; factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 and explaining more than 10% of the variance were retained. A scree-test served as an additional criterion. The au­thor has published no normative scores from this sample.

Reliability:

The author reports alpha relia­bility coefficients of .92 for the whole scale, and .94 and .93 for the religious atti­tudes and sociopolitical attitudes subscales respectively. Individual item-to-subscale correlations were not reported. Factor load­ings on the religious attitudes subscale ranged between .30 and .75. Factor load­ings on the sociopolitical subscale ranged between .31 and .73. It needs to be stated, however, that these published figures are for a 25-item version of the instrument rather than for the 20-item instrument pro­ vided by the author.

Validity:

No data have been provided on the validity of the scale in addition to the self-evident face validity suggested by the items themselves.

The Social-Religious-Political Scale

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.

Location: