ABSTRACT
An important area contributing to conservatism as a general factor in social attitudes is religious or theological conservatism. There has been growing interest over the last decade or so in the relationship of religious beliefs and behaviour with variables such as dogmatism, authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, conservatism and prejudice (Dittes, 1969). Instruments commonly used in these studies have included the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale (Rokeach, 1960), the F-Scale and E-Scale (Adorno et al., 1950). Although the Wilson-Patterson C-Scale has some different bases from these scales, it has been shown to correlate significantly with each of them (e.g. Crano, 1968). The present authors (Webster and Stewart, 1969) found a relationship of 0·59 between C- and D-Scales, and 0·65 between the C-Scale and the New Zealand Ethnocentrism Scale (adapted for the present study from the Australian Ethnocentrism Scale of Beswick and Hills, 1969). Because of their overlap with the C-Scale, some of the relevant work using these instruments is discussed.
