Religious as quest and its relationship with intrinsic and extrinsic orientation

Abstract

Allport and Ross (1967) originally developed the religious orientation concept, identifying two types: intrinsic and extrinsic orientation. Later, Batson (1976) conceptualized a third type: the quest orientation, measured by the unidimensional Quest Religious Orientation Scale. However, subsequent works have reported the presence of a three-factor structure: preparation, self-criticism and openness. The aim of this work was the adaptation of the Quest Religious Orientation Scale to the Argentinean context in order to account for its dimensionality and to analyze its relationship with I-E Age Universal Scale (intrinsic and extrinsic orientation) in a sample of 334 university students (36.2% men) with an age range of 18 to 42 years (M = 24.8, SD = 2.63). The main results indicate a better fit of the data to the three correlated dimensions model of the Quest Religious Orientation Scale. This model allowed us to distinguish the relationship of each factor and the intrinsic and extrinsic orientations discovering significant differential relationships.