measure is a variable in a dataset that validly represents a theoretical concept. In practice, concepts tend not to be wholly captured by single measures; consequently, measures are usually limited and partial indicators of concepts.



Several files in theARDA's Data Archive have examples of Measures.

Questions aimed at gauging an individual’s belief in and experience of the “paranormal.”  Ghosts and unidentified monsters are potential topics that are covered.

A measure of whether an individual has changed religious affiliation as an adult.

A measure of an individual’s religious affiliation or salience as a child.

These are measures assessing the degree to which people approve or disapprove of public displays of religion.  Typical topics include prayer in schools and the display of religious symbols in public.  See Froese and Mencken (2009) for details on the construction a scale incorporating different topics.

A battery of questions was developed to assess traits posited as aspects of an “authoritarian personality.”  The battery examines a range of dimensions, but in general it attempts to determine levels of submission to authority and adherence to conventional or traditional values, accompanied by the belief that such values should be enforced on others.  A separate personality dimension called “social dominance” has also been proposed in order to explain the sources of prejudice.   

These are measures that assess what types of activities occur within the context of worship services in a given religious group.  Such practices are often used to delineate between liturgical and ritualistic practices, as opposed to emotive and extemporaneous practices.

This refers to measures that assess the makeup of religious groups with reference to the race or ethnicity of members.  See Dougherty and Houser (2008) for detail on the construction of an “entropy index” of racial composition.

This measure assesses the makeup of a religious group with reference to its social class, usually in the form of income or education levels.  Given that the measure is aimed at understanding group-level attributes, it is found in data sets at the congregational level or in data sets that ask individuals to estimate certain things about their congregation.

This divides affiliation within Protestantism into differing religious organizations.  This is a standard question available in a wide range of data sets.

Hood (1975) developed a series of questions based on Stace (1960) that were designed to tap into experiences perceived as transcending cultural and temporal conditions, indicating an individual’s level of mysticism. The original scale has been explored in a substantial amount of empirical research and remains in use currently.

This classifies people into those who do not believe in the existence of God and those who don’t believe humans can know whether there is a God or not, respectively.

This measures whether individuals are giving time, money, or other resources to their religious group or to organizations beyond the religious group.

This measures how often someone reads sacred texts such as the Bible, Koran, sutras etc.

This measures how “strict” a religious group’s rules and expectations are for adherents.  This can be measured by how many behavioral restrictions are placed on members.

This measures how religious a respondent considers him/herself to be.

This measures how often a respondent prays.

The Herfindahl Index is most commonly used in economics to measure the market share of industries.  Applied to religion, it assesses the “evenness” of religious groups pertaining to the overall market of adherents in a geo-political area.  Its use to predict attendance or adherence rates has been controversial, since a “mathematical relationship between [the] variables” may cause potentially erroneous results (Voas et al. 2002: 212).

A measure of whether a respondent considers him/herself spiritual.

In 2000, Steensland and colleagues proposed a new method for classifying religious tradition which was based on both doctrine and historical changes in religious groups.  The schematic divides religious traditions into black Protestant, Catholic, evangelical Protestant, Jewish, mainline Protestant, no religion, and “other” religion.  The ”other” category functions as a catch-all to reduce missing cases in multivariate analyses with listwise deletion, but should not be substantively interpreted, as it contains a mixture of Eastern religious traditions, Mormons, and everything in between.  The classification scheme is created by using variables such as affiliation and denomination to classify respondents.

A question that asks respondents what religion, if any, their spouse ascribes to. This variable allows researchers to investigate how religious capital affects spouse choice, as well as how network religious preferences affect individuals.  This variable also potentially allows researchers to approximate which religious traditions are more exclusive with regard to endogamy.

How a respondent identifies himself or herself religiously.  A variety of terms may be provided to determine which, if any, respondents identify with.

Respondents reveal whether or not they have had certain religious experiences.

This asks respondents what religious tradition their parents ascribe to and allows researchers to investigate why individuals maintain or change from the religious tradition they were exposed to when younger.

This measure approximates the extent to which respondents’ religious beliefs about salvation are inclusive or exclusive of those unlike them.

A series of questions with multiple sub-questions asking for respondents’ level of interaction with New Age materials and ideas.  These vary, reflecting the diffuse content of the subculture.  Bainbridge (2004) suggested that New Age, “paranormal” and UFO beliefs were all empirically distinguishable but related belief systems.  In addition to beliefs, there are measures of media consumption and experiences with regard to the New Age.

Questions covering issues pertaining to an individual’s mental health, views of mental health, attitudes toward those with mental health issues, medication, government intervention, etc.

These variables measure a respondent’s self-assessment of life satisfaction with family life, job, education, etc.  Subjective assessments contrast with more “objective” measures such as quality of life metrics, social status, or physical health.

Measurements of a respondent’s level of acceptance or condemnation of contact with those from a different religious of ideological persuasion.  These can be measured by asking about different contexts or scenarios.

Images of God are typically measured using a battery of questions inquiring about the traits that respondents attribute to God.  Typically these descriptions fall out along underlying dimensions, especially the following: level of engagement or distance from the world, wrath or anger, and love.  These dimensions, as well specific combinations of these dimensions, have been found to have a substantial relationship with political and moral ideology.

This measure assesses the extent to which a government regulates the religious economy present in the country.

An estimate of how many people in a respondent’s social network are religious.

These questions ask respondents where they met their closest friends or if the majority of their close friends are found in their church.

These variables can be used to explore whether or not respondents believe in a literal creation story or if creation should be taught in schools and whether they accept versions of evolutionary theory presented by contemporary science.

These variables ask whether a respondent identifies with undergoing a religious conversion experience of some kind.

These variables measure how much a respondent gives to his or her religious congregation or organization.

This measures how frequently respondents attend places of worship.  It is debatable how much measurement error is present in self-reported attendance, as people tend to over-estimate their participation (see Hadaway et al. 1993; Hout and Greeley 1998; Pressler and Stinson 1998; Smith 1998).

This asks respondents if the reason they attended or joined a religious group was due to the charisma of a minister.

These questions measure how literally respondents read the Bible or other sacred scriptures.  It is debatable whether this measure taps more of a belief or an identity.  Although certainly some of both, the latter seems to be more important, as “literalists” from different interpretive communities may disagree on which parts of the Bible are to be taken literally.

What is clear is that this question taps a dimension of religion important for understanding other aspects of religiosity, political attitudes, and views about moral authority more generally.  Accordingly this measure has become a standard control, along with service attendance and religious tradition.  It is also used as an indicator of fundamentalism.  Although some believers claim that belief in Biblical “inerrancy” is different, this too is typically taken to mean “literalism.”

Measures typically include three or four response options.  Researchers sometimes employ these as ordinal categories, while others utilize them as nominal categories.

This measures whether or not a respondent believes in Satan/the devil.

This assesses what respondents believe about the divinity (or lack thereof) regarding Jesus.

This assesses whether or not a respondent believes in Hell or Purgatory.

One’s views on the certainty of a positive afterlife existing, or occasionally, questions about who will be allowed to go there.

This assesses whether or not a respondent believes in God.

These variables measure whether or not a respondent believes in angels or demons.

Views toward certain religious predictions about the end of the world, such as Armageddon and the Rapture.

An approximation of how often respondents attended religious services and how religious they considered themselves at a given point in their childhood. This variable is used to approximate how respondents’ levels of religious involvement have changed over time and to estimate levels of religious socialization.

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