Toward Motivational Theories of Intrinsic Religious Commitment

Abstract

G. W. Allport referred to religious intrinsicness as an “orientation.” The scales in Allport and J. M. Ross reflect that concern, including items that illustrate not only affect and values in the religious domain but also behavior, such as church attendance. The results were as predicted from a motivational theory of intrinsic religiousness and were directly counter to Allport’s position: Those whose commitment to their faith was internalized and whose religious group had a norm of prejudice were indeed prejudiced; those whose religious norms included tolerance were tolerant. Cognitive theories are only indirectly motivational, but they do seek to explain some of the same phenomena. The affect/value distinction is useful for hypothesizing which motivational theory relates to what part of religious commitment. Debates over attributions of causation are widely known in psychology. In social psychology, attributing a cause to a personal source rather than to environmental forces is referred to as the fundamental attribution error.