Allport’s Intrinsic religious orientation scale drifted far from his own 1966 construct definition.

Evidence

As I look them over, Iam struck by how poorly the Intrinsic items cover the construct Allport described in 1966. Four of the items (3, 5, 8, and 9) do ask whether religion unifies the whole being or floods the whole life. But there is nothing about faith being a supreme value, nothing about taking brotherhood seriously, nothing about tempering dogma with humility, and nothing about withholding judgment. Instead, one finds items about meditation, attending church, reading about your faith, praying alone, and preferring a Bible study group over a social club. Are these related to religion? Of course. Do they measure personal “devotion”? Yes. Do they measure what Allport (1966) said was an intrinsic orientation? I seriously doubt it. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2015

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘intrinsic religious orientation’ as operationalized diverged from the construct as theoretically defined.