Description

The “Attitude Toward the Church Scale” (ATCS) is an assessment tool designed to measure individuals’ attitudes toward the church as an institution. This scale evaluates the positive and negative views, beliefs, and feelings that people have regarding the church, its functions, and its role in society.

Objective

The main objectives of the ATCS are:
Assessment of Attitudes: To record individuals’ attitudes and beliefs regarding the church.
Understanding Influences: To understand the factors that shape attitudes toward the church, such as personal religious experience, social influence, and cultural tradition.
Examination of Relationships: To examine how attitudes toward the church relate to other psychological, social, or religious variables.
Prevention and Intervention: To provide data that may be used to develop intervention strategies aimed at improving religious experience and social cohesion.

Analysis

The analysis of the data collected through the scale includes the following steps:
Data Collection: Participants complete the ATCS questionnaire, which includes questions assessing their attitude toward the church using Likert scales.
Quantitative Evaluation: Responses are scored and analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and other statistical methods to understand dominant trends and relationships.
Interpretation of Results: The results are interpreted to identify key trends and relationships between attitudes toward the church and other variables.
Group Comparison: Differences in attitudes toward the church are examined between different demographic, cultural, and religious groups.

Standardization

The standardization of the ATCS includes:
Ensuring Reliability: Evaluation of the internal consistency of the scale using reliability indices such as Cronbach’s alpha.
Ensuring Validity: Confirming the validity of the tool through confirmatory factor analysis methods and other assessment tools.
Test-Retest: Conducting test-retest trials with different participant groups to confirm the reliability and validity of the scale in various contexts.

Bibliography

Glock, C. Y., & Stark, R. (1965). Religion and Society in Tension. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). “Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432-443.
Gorsuch, R. L. (1984). “Measurement: The Boon and Bane of Investigating Religion.” American Psychologist, 39(3), 228-236.
Hill, P. C., & Hood, R. W. (1999). Measures of Religiosity. Birmingham, Alabama: Religious Education Press.
Koenig, H. G., McCullough, M. E., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Handbook of Religion and Health. Oxford University Press.