THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF A DERIVED, REVISED, AND AMENDED MEASURE OF THE RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION SCALE: THE ‘AGE-UNIVERSAL’ I-E SCALE – 12

Abstract

The accurate measurement of an intrinsic and extrinsic orientation toward religiosity has been an on-going rigorous psychometric investigation within the psychology of religion for over 30 years. With this debate, a number of suggestions have been made to improve the measurement of Intrinsic/Extrinsic religiosity. The aim of the present study was to combine some of the suggestions made, and examine whether or not a combination of these amendments still provides a psychometrically reliable measure of intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions to religiosity. Respondents were 3090 adults and schoolchildren (1408 males, 1984 females) from the USA (N = 513), England (N = 1421), Northern Ireland (N = 839) and the Republic of Ireland (N = 468). All respondents have completed a 15-item revised and amended version of the ‘Age- Universal’ I-E scale, Principal components analysis with oblimin rotation of the items suggest a 6-item intrinsic scale and 3-item measures of extrinsic-personal and extrinsic-social religiosity dimensions. The present findings suggest a 12-item measure of intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions to religiosity (‘Age-Universal’ I-E Scale – 12) which can be used among a number of Western samples, among adults and school children, and among religious and non-religious individuals.