The Religious Orientation Scale: Review and Meta-Analysis of Social Desirability Effects

Abstract

Reliability and validity of scores on the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) are reviewed with respect to social desirability. ROS measures intrinsic religiousness (I; religion as an end unto itself) and extrinsic religiousness (E; religion as a means to some end, like friendship or solace). Development of the scale is briefly traced, including the modification of the E scale to include two subscales. Scores from the I scale have good internal consistency reliability (.83), but scores from E subscales (Social and Personal) have marginal internal consistency reliability (.63 and .64, respectively). I tends to correlate with desirable variables (mental health, altruism, religious commitment), and E correlates with that which is undesirable (prejudice, nonmarital sex). Meta-analysis revealed that I correlates .15 with social desirability but that E does not. Given the religious relevancy of social desirability measures, partialing out this variance is not recommended.