Measuring Religious Experience: An Item Response Theory Analysis of Religious Experiences
Joe Chelladurai
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Psychometric analysis |
|---|---|
| Key points | Most items on a measure of religious experiences show low discriminatory and low difficulty parameters, with one item measuring change as a result of religious experience performing differently. |
Abstract
Apart from its wide usage in educational testing and scale development, Item Response Theory analysis has not been used as much in the study of religion and spirituality. Taking advantage of the psychometric abilities of IRT, in this paper, I examine a measure of religious experiences. Particularly, I employ the Rasch model along with two parametric and three parametric logistic models for dichotomous outcomes. In general, findings from the analysis suggest low discriminatory and low difficulty parameters on the items except for one item which measured change as a result of religious experience.