Psycho-epistemological styles and religious beliefs

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between psycho-epistemological styles and three religious dimensions. The psycho-epistemological items which were used in our study are based on the three factors (naive realism, logical inquiry and skeptical subjectivism) Wilkinson & Migotsky (1994) found in their attempt to develop a single comprehensive measuring device. The factor analysis with varimax rotation on the 32 epistemological items did indeed reveal three significant factors, but those could better be interpreted as dualism, relativism and commitment (Perry, 1970). The religious dimensions were orthodoxy, historical relativism and external criticism (Hutsebaut, 1996; 1997a; 1997b). Results showed that dualism correlates with orthodoxy and external criticism, and that relativism and commitment correlate with historical relativism.