Description

The Christian Fundamentalist Belief Scale (CFBS) is a psychometric tool designed to measure the fundamental religious beliefs of Christians who follow fundamentalism. This scale examines various aspects of Christian fundamentalism, such as:
Belief in the inerrancy of the Bible.
Emphasis on salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Rejection of the scientific explanation of creation.
Adherence to traditional moral values.

Purpose

The main objectives of the CFBS are:
Assessment of Fundamentalist Beliefs: To capture the fundamental religious beliefs that characterize Christian fundamentalism.
Understanding Religious and Social Attitudes: To explore how fundamentalist religious beliefs influence social and moral attitudes of individuals.
Group Categorization: To categorize individuals based on their level of fundamentalism, facilitating comparisons and analysis of different demographic and religious groups.
Support for Research and Interventions: To provide data for developing research programs and interventions aimed at understanding and addressing the impacts of religious fundamentalism on society.

Analysis

The analysis of the data collected through the CFBS includes the following steps:
Data Collection: Participants complete a questionnaire containing questions about their fundamentalist religious beliefs, moral values, social attitudes, and political ideology.
Quantitative Evaluation: The responses are scored and analyzed statistically using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and correlation analyses to understand the dominant trends and relationships.
Interpretation of Results: The results are interpreted to identify the prevailing trends and relationships between fundamentalist religious beliefs and other psychological and social factors.
Group Comparison: Differences in religious and social attitudes between various demographic and religious groups are examined.

Calibration

The calibration of the CFBS includes:
Ensuring Reliability: The use of reliability indices such as Cronbach’s alpha to assess the internal consistency of the responses.
Ensuring Validity: Confirming the validity of the tool through confirmatory factor analysis and other evaluation methods.
Repetition Testing: Conducting repeat tests with different groups of participants to confirm the reliability and validity of the tool across different contexts.

Bibliography

Altemeyer, B., & Hunsberger, B. (1992). “Authoritarianism, Religious Fundamentalism, Quest, and Prejudice.” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2(2), 113-133.
Hunsberger, B. (1996). “Religious Fundamentalism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Hostility Toward Homosexuals in Non-Christian Religious Groups.” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 6(1), 39-49.
Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1993). “Fundamentalism, Christian Orthodoxy, and Intrinsic Religious Orientation as Predictors of Discriminatory Attitudes.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32(3), 256-268.
Laythe, B., Finkel, D. G., Bringle, R. G., & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (2002). “Religious Fundamentalism as a Predictor of Prejudice: A Two-Component Model.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41(4), 623-635.
Rowatt, W. C., & Franklin, L. M. (2004). “Christian Orthodoxy, Religious Fundamentalism, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism as Predictors of Prejudice.” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 14(2), 125-138.