Development and validation of superstitious beliefs scale

Title

Development and validation of superstitious beliefs scale

Creator

Chukkali S.; Dey A.M.

Description

Superstitions though considered as irrational beliefs are widely prevalent in all cultures. Most of the existing work on superstitions are predominantly based on traditional western beliefs. The relevance of established superstition scales which are developed in western societies in collective societies need to explored. Interdependent nature of self which is a characteristic of collectivistic culture also has a role in belief formation. The present study aims at developing a new self-report measure of superstitious beliefs scale. Study 1, focused on exploring the factor structure and establishing reliability over a sample of 338 undergraduate students. The 17-item Superstitious Belief Scale (SBS) developed distinguishes a six-factor structure namely, Popular Beliefs, Belief in Good Luck, Belief in Bad Luck, Personal Superstitions and Social Superstitions. The six-factor structure was evaluated on a new sample (N = 483) using confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2. The internal consistency values of the new SBS over Studies 1 and 2 indicated high reliability. The findings have important implications for existing theory on superstitions. The new framework proposes and demonstrates the need to base the understanding of measurement of superstitious beliefs relevant in India. AesthetixMS 2020.

Source

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol-12, No. 1

Date

2020-01-01

Publisher

Aesthetics Media Services

Subject

Bad luck; Factor structure; Good luck; Scale; Superstitious beliefs

Coverage

Chukkali S., Department of Psychology, Christ (Deemed to be University), Delhi-NCR, India; Dey A.M., Center for Research, Christ (Deemed to be University), India

Rights

All Open Access; Gold Open Access

Relation

ISSN: 9752935

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n1.32

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85083300611&doi=10.21659%2frupkatha.v12n1.32&partnerID=40&md5=8684f0ef3b1fefb34542c9e29d807d3d