Religious Sentiment as Peripheral: Cross-Cultural Study of Religious Orientation by Multidimensional Scaling

Authors

  • Sergej Flere
    University of Maribor, Department of Sociology
  • Miran Lavrič
    University of Maribor, Department of Sociology
  • Bojan Musil
    University of Maribor, Department of Psychology
  • Rudi Klanjšek
    University of Maribor, Department of Sociology

Abstract

The relation between intrinsic and extrinsic orientations was studied in four samples of believing affiliates (Bosnian Muslims, Serbian Orthodox, Slovenian Catholics and US Protestants). By exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and by multidimensional scaling (MDS), differences in patterns of religious orientations were discerned in the various cultures. By EFA, in the two European settings a closeness between intrinsic (I) and extrinsic personal (EP) orientation was noted. Beside that extrinsic other (EO) items, indicating peripheral nature of the religious sentiment, appeared as a separate dimension. The CFA produced slight differences in this direction, still allowing for a four component finding. The two dimensional presentation in MDS also indicated a similarity in pattern of the dimensions of religious orientation. In all four cases a pattern in the distribution of items appears allowing for naming the vertical axis as indicating the variation between centrality and periphery, and the horizontal one as indicating the variation between social and personal dimensions in religious sentiment.