Creation of the questionnaire “Social intervention and control (SIC)” for researching static components of totalitarianism in religious groups

Abstract

The article covers the procedure of elaborating the questionnaire “Social intervention and control in a religious group” (SIC) and its adaptation. The questionnaire was created as one of two methods for revealing totalitarian inclinations in various religious communities. Earlier, we had established that there are five static and one dynamic components characterising the totalitarianism in religious groups. The SIC questionnaire is aiming to reveal the static components. When elaborating the questionnaire, the specific features characterising each of the components have been found, based on an analysis of available sources of information. Those features have been generalized and organized into working scales. Furthermore, procedures for improving validity and reliability of the method have been conducted — expert evaluations, the pilot study and the main study, and re-testing. Currently, the method allows to estimate the degree of expression of the static components of totalitarianism in religious groups.