CHAPTER
19
Measures of Religiosity
Harold G. Koenig1,2, Faten Al Zaben2, Doaa Ahmed Khalifa2
and Saad Al Shohaib2
1Duke University, Durham, NC, USA;2King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The construct ‘religion’ is defined as beliefs, practices, and rituals having to do with the ‘Transcendent’ or the
‘Divine’. It is conceived as a multidimensional construct that covers both organizational and non-organizational
kinds of activities, as well as personal beliefs, commitments, and experiences. In Western religious traditions, the
Transcendent refers to God, Allah, or HaShem. In Eastern traditions, the Transcendent may be manifested as
Vishnu or Krishna in Hinduism, or as Buddha in Buddhism. In Buddhism, depending on the particular tradition
within Buddhism, the Transcendent is expressed in concepts such as Ultimate Truth or Reality, and may or may
not involve Divine entities.
Religion can also involve beliefs about angels, demons, spirits, or other forces that exist outside of the natural
world yet interact with humans on various levels. Religion typically includes beliefs about life after death, and
how that life is influenced by a person’s actions during the present life. These beliefs are organized into doctrines
and teachings that serve to guide attitudes and behaviors of members of those organizations to maximize har-
mony and cooperation within the group. However, as indicated above, people may also have religious beliefs
even if they are not members of a religious institution, yet share the beliefs held by members. This might include
personal expressions of religiosity such as prayer, scripture reading, or rituals practiced alone or at home. Again,
central to the definition of religion is that it involves a set of common beliefs, practices and rituals held by a
group of people that are related to the Transcendent ( Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012 , pp. 35 /C050).
There are at least 10 major dimensions of religiosity that one should consider in the measurement of religion.
The major dimensions of religiosity include belief, religious motivation, organizational religious activities (ORA),
non-organizational activities (NORA), attachment to God, trust in God, religious experience, religious coping,
religious maturity, and history of lifetime exposure to religion (also see Koenig, 2011 , pp. 207 /C0218). Note that
only one of these 10 dimensions have to do with institutional religion (organizational religious activity), so one
should not equate religiosity with only involvement in organized religion. The 10 dimensions above cover most
aspects of religiosity, but they are not exhaustive. All, however, assess constructs that are directly connected
with the Transcendent in one way or another, which in our opinion is the hallmark of what it means to be
religious.
MEASURES REVIEWED HERE
The following 15 measures assess religiosity, and can be administered to people from a range of different reli-
gious backgrounds. Measures of spirituality will be presented briefly in a later section. Historically, most of these
measures of religiosity were developed in Protestant and Catholic Christian populations. They apply to most
branches of Christianity and even to Jewish and Muslim populations to some extent. However, this is not always
the case (see religion-specific measures below).
530Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386915-9.00019-X ©2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.