fei75766_ch12_377-407.indd 401  02/06/20 12:56 PM
Chapter 12    Allport: Psychology of the Individual401
measure ofintrinsic andextrinsic Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) isitsstarting 
andending point isonereligion—Christianity. Thequestion therefore becomes, Is
Allport andRoss’s model applicable toother religions? 
Since the2000s researchers haveattempted toanswer thisquestion, especially 
asitmight apply toIslamic religion. Among thefirsttoexpand Allport’s theory ofreli-
gious motivation toMuslims wasNima Ghorbani andcolleagues (2002); Ghorbani, 
Watson, Gharibi, andChen (2018); Ghorbani, Watson, Tahbaz, andChen (2017); 
andWatson etal.(2002). Ghorbani andcolleagues (2002) developed anewscale, the
Muslim –Christian Religious Orientation Scales (MCROS) thatwasnotonlygeared to
Muslim andChristian belief systems butitalsoexpanded thedefinition andmeasure -
ment ofextrinsic religiosity. Inspired byandexpanding Kirkpatrick’s (1989) findings 
withtheROS, Ghorbani andcolleagues developed atotalofeight subscales ofextrin -
sicreligiosity byfirstdistinguishing “This -Worldly” from “Other-Worldly” religious 
activities. This-Worldly activities occur onearth andOther-Worldly onesoccur inan
after-life. Moreover, This-Worldly wasfurther divided intothree effects (personal (P),
social (S),andcultural (C))andtwooutcomes (Positive (P)andNegative (N)). This
leads tosixexternal This-Worldly Scales (Personal-Positive (P-P), Personal-Negative 
(P-N), Social-Positive (S-P), Social-Negative (S-N), Cultural-Positive (C-P), andCul-
turalNegative (C-N)) (seeTable 12.2forsample items). 
Ghorbani andcolleagues (2002) validated thenewmeasure byalsoadminis -
tering theAllport –Ross ROS toagroup ofU.S./Christian (N =188)andIranian/
Muslim (N=187)university students. Additionally, allparticipants completed 
various measures ofpsychological outcomes suchasanxiety, depression, obsession– 
compulsion, andinterpersonal sensitivity. 
They found thatthequestions ontheMROCS were internally consistent 
andreliable inboththeU.S.andIranian samples. Moreover, thenewscales in
general were positively correlated withtheROIIntrinsic andExtrinsic Religiosity 
Scales ofAllport andRoss. Butthiswasnotalways thecase. Infact,most MCROS 
extrinsic scales were positively correlated withROS Intrinsic andExtrinsic Religios -
ity.Thisresult counters Allport’s theory thatintrinsic andextrinsic religiosity are
polar opposites. Moreover, ingeneral terms, extrinsic religiosity asmeasured by
theMROC waspositively correlated withpsychological maladjustment (anxiety, 
depression, obsessive–compulsive disorder) intheIranian butnottheAmerican 
sample. Finally, thenewMCROS suggests thatextrinsic religiosity canhaveposi-
tivemental outcomes, suchaswhen theExternal This-Worldly Cultural-Positive 
scale correlated negatively withdepression intheIranian sample. Recall, that
scale consisted ofitems suchas“Iamreligious because Iwant tospend eternity in
heaven,” suggesting thatpeople whoendorsed those kinds ofquestions were less
depressed thanthose whodidnot.
Other researchers haveusedmodified measures oftheAllport –Ross ROS Scale 
instudying theconnection between religiosity andpsychological health outcomes 
inMuslim students (Butt, 2014). Themodified ROIisknown asthe“Age-Universal 
I-EScale” (Maltby, 1999) andconsists of6questions forintrinsic orientation, 3for
extrinsic-personal, and3forextrinsic-social. Butt(2014) alsoadministered measures 
ofpsychological health (depression, anxiety, positive andnegative mood, andwell-
being) toasample of209Pakistani Muslim students. Buttalsofound support forthe
ideathatintrinsic religiosity isnegatively related toanxiety andpositively related toFinal PDF to printer