چکیده:
The subject of measuring religiosity has always been one of the fundamental concerns of researchers in the field of religion, and accordingly, many researchers have dedicated their efforts to constructing appropriate measures of religiosity. Although some of the developed measures have been used more than others, there is still no consensus regarding the suitability of these measures. The question that serves as the starting point for this research is whether different measures of religiosity, or using different measures, leads to different results regarding the level of religiosity compared to other variables? To investigate this issue, three famous measures of religiosity used in Iranian research or constructed for this purpose (the Glock and Stark measure, the Shojaei Zand measure, and the Khodayari Fard measure) were tested in a single population. This was conducted using the survey method with a sample of 352 dormitory students at Semnan University during the 2006-2007 academic year. Research findings showed that, first, all three measures possess high validity and reliability. Second, in terms of determining the level of religiosity, the Khodayari Fard measure shows a higher level of religiosity than the other two measures. However, this difference is not very significant, and the level of religiosity of the sample according to all three religiosity measures is at a high level. Third, in terms of the relationship between religiosity and other variables, the relationships obtained for all three measures were almost identical. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed in detail.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Based on these findings, as far as determining the level of religiosity of a target population is concerned, the Shojaei Zand and Glock and Stark measures do not differ, and researchers can use either one to measure religiosity without concern.
Consequently, as far as researchers are seeking to examine the relationship between religiosity and other variables, based on the findings of this research, the use of each of the three measures does not lead to a difference in the result; however, as previously mentioned, the Khodayari Fard measure does not possess practical desirability due to its length.
Another conclusion of this research could be that despite the theoretical criticisms made against the localized measure based on the Glock and Stark model, which considered it unsuitable for Islam and Iran (Shojaei Zand, 1384), the suitability and competence of this measure from an empirical standpoint is not less than its rival model, and even in terms of criterion group validity, it is slightly more.
At the same time, the findings of this research showed that when the researchers' goal is to examine the relationship between religiosity and other variables (and most studies that undertake the construction of a religiosity measure have such a goal), Iranian researchers can use either the Glock and Stark or the Shojaei Zand measure with empirical and methodological confidence, without theoretical concerns.
Variables under study Religiosity: As explained, the main variable of this research is religiosity, which has been operationally defined based on three measures by Glock and Stark, Shojaei Zand, and Khodayari Fard, with 26, 29, and 113 items, respectively.
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