The German Post-Critical Belief Scale: Internal and External Validity

Abstract

Recently, Duriez, Fontaine and Hutsebaut (2000) and Fontaine, Duriez, Luyten and Hutsebaut (2003) constructed the Post-Critical Belief Scale in order to measure the two religiosity dimensions along which Wulff (1991 , 1997 ) summarized the various possible approaches to religion: Exclusion vs. Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs. Symbolic. In the present article, the German version of this scale is presented. Results obtained in a heterogeneous German sample (N = 216) suggest that the internal structure of the German version fits the internal structure of the original Dutch version. Moreover, the observed relation between the Literal vs. Symbolic dimension and racism, which was in line with previous studies ( Duriez, in press ), supports the external validity of the German version.

An Introduction to the Post-Critical Belief Scale: Internal Structure and External Relationships

“…Before doing so, we wish to stress once more that, although all of the results that were described are based on multiple samples, most samples were gathered in Flanders (Belgium). However, whenever data from other countries are available as well (e.g., Duriez et al, 2003;, results appear cross-culturally valid. And although the Post-Critical Belies Scale was constructed for the use in a Christian context, initial data gathered with a modified scale among Belgian Muslims suggest that the results can also be generalized across denomination (Vancauwenberghe, Van Hiel & Duriez, 2007).…”

“…Following the reasoning of Schluderman et al (2003), it might be that, although being religious seems to go hand in hand with certain aspect of (right-wing) authoritarianism, it might not be related to those aspects of (right-wing) authoritarianism that predict racism and ethnic prejudice. Therefore, Duriez (2004a, Duriez, Appel & Hutsebaut, 2003 examined the relationship between religiosity and ethnic prejudice in more detail. Results show that Exclusion versus Inclusion is not related to ethnic prejudice.…”

Post‐Critical Belief Scale and Scripture as Predictors of Prejudice

“…Using the PCBS, it has been demonstrated that two dimensions of religiosity predict different types of prejudice (Brandt and Van Tongeren ; Duriez ; Duriez, Appel, and Hutsebaut ; Shen et al. ).…”

The structure of the attitudes toward religion as measured by the Post-Critical Belief Scale: A structural modelling approach

“…FA and SCA-ECP showed the existence of three factors (Hutsebaut, 1996;Krysinska et al, 2014), while PCA yielded two factors, with the Inclusion vs. Exclusion of Transcendence factor being better fitted in some samples than Literal vs. Symbolic (Bartczuk et al, 2013;Cortés Gómez et al, 2016;Duriez et al, 2003). MDS analyses, in contrast, showed the existence of four factors (Aguilar-Vafaie & Moghanloo, 2008;Bartczuk et al, 2011;Bartczuk et al, 2013;Cortés Gómez et al, 2016;Duriez et al, 2003;Duriez et al, 2000;Duriez et al, 2005;Fontaine et al, 2003).…”

“…Symbolic (Bartczuk et al, 2013;Cortés Gómez et al, 2016;Duriez et al, 2003). MDS analyses, in contrast, showed the existence of four factors (Aguilar-Vafaie & Moghanloo, 2008;Bartczuk et al, 2011;Bartczuk et al, 2013;Cortés Gómez et al, 2016;Duriez et al, 2003;Duriez et al, 2000;Duriez et al, 2005;Fontaine et al, 2003).…”