Allport believed that a deep religious commitment was a mark of a mature person
Allport believed that a
deep religious commitment was a mark of a mature person, but he also saw that many regular church-goers did not have a mature religious orientation and were capable of deep racial and social prejudice. In other words, he saw a curvilinear relationship between church attendance and prejudice.
This insight led Allport to develop and use the
Religious Orientation Scale to assess both an intrinsic orientation and an extrinsic orientation toward religion. Allport and Michael Ross (1967) found that people with an extrinsic orientation toward religion tend to be quite prejudiced, whereas those with an intrinsic orientation tend to be low on racial and social prejudice.
Religious Orientation Scale sample items:
- It doesn’t much matter what I believe so long as I am good.
- It is important to me to spend time in private thought and prayer.
- I go to church mostly to spend time with my friends
- My whole approach to life is based on my religion.
Extrinsic – Using religion to
achieve non-religious goals. It is used by people who go to religious gatherings and claim certain religious ideologies to establish or maintain social networks while minimally adhering to the teachings of the religion
- Often prone to twist religious beliefs to serve their own political goals
- An example would be a politician who goes to church in order to gain votes.
Intrinsic – Sincerely believe in their religion and all its teachings and attempt to live their lives as their religion preaches that they should. Those with this orientation find their religion to be the most important aspect of their life and seek to contextualize other aspects of their life through their religion.
People who score high on the Intrinsic scale of the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) tend to have overall better personal functioning than those who score high on the Extrinsic scale.
So, how about you? Please answer the prompts below:
- Do you consider yourself to have an Intrinsic or Extrinsic orientation towards religion? How did you develop that orientation? What would need to happen to alter your orientation?
- From your personal experience, do you agree with the results of the studies that indicate that those with more of an extrinsic orientation tend to be more prejudiced whereas those with an intrinsic orientation tend to have overall better personal functioning? What do you think influences those correlations?
Your submission should be 500 words, minimum, and should be submitted in
Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx).
This assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. (CT) on Sunday of Module/Week 6.
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