Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Reliability and validity of scores on the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) are reviewed with respect to social desirability. ROS measures intrinsic religiousness (I; religion as an end unto itself) and extrinsic religiousness (E; religion as a means to some end, like friendship or solace). Development of the scale is briefly traced, including the modification of the E scale to include two subscales. Scores from the I scale have good internal consistency reliability (.83), but scores from E subscales (Social and Personal) have marginal internal consistency reliability (.63 and .64, respectively). I tends to correlate with desirable variables (mental health, altruism, religious commitment), and E correlates with that which is undesirable (prejudice, nonmarital sex). Meta-analysis revealed that I correlates .15 with social desirability but that E does not. Given the religious relevancy of social desirability measures, partialing out this variance is not recommended.
Douglas Trimble (Mon,) studied this question.