Prototypes of Faith

Findings with the Faith Q-Sort

Bibliographic Data

ID2288082
AuthorsDonna Marie Wulff (0000-0003-0713-8902, Department of Psychology Wheaton College, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume58
Issue3
Pages643-665
Publication date2019-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8294 • E-ISSN: 1468-5906
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jssr.12615
OpenAlexW2967046427
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited50

Defining religion and finding ways to assess it in individual lives has long challenged psychologists of religion. At first, open-ended questionnaires were used, but with the advent of modern statistical methods, a succession of religiosity scales was developed. But these usually brief scales were typically based on the preconceptions of their authors, who were overwhelmingly Protestant Christian and often conservative, much as were those who completed them. To provide a more adequate way of assessing 'faith,' a term here encompassing both religious and nonreligious attitudes, a new assessment device was developed that incorporates the singular advantages of Q methodology. The Faith Q-Sort consists of 101 statements that respondents sort on a nine-category continuum, indicating the degree to which each statement describes himself or herself. Factor analysis based on correlations of the sorts rather than individual items yielded, for the initial group of participants, three major prototypes and five minor ones, accounting for 67 percent of the variance. Of the 42 participants, 31 proved to be exemplars of one or another of the eight prototypes. Subsequent explorations illustrate the wealth of possibilities the FQS offers, both as a research instrument and a counseling tool

Arithmetic · Epistemology · Faith · Protestantism · Religiosity · Sociology · sort · Statement (logic) · Variance (accounting) · Cultural Differences and Values · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Q Methodology Applications · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious studies · Social Psychology