Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI)

1. Abstract

The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI) is an indigenous psychometric instrument developed by Steven Eric Krauss and colleagues (2005, 2006, 2007) designed to measure religiosity and religious personality among Muslim populations, particularly youth and emerging adults. Rooted in an integrated Islamic worldview (Tawhid), the instrument conceptualizes religiousness not merely as abstract cognitive adherence or private contemplative devotion, but as an operationalized lifestyle manifesting in overt behavioral conduct across communal and personal spheres. The inventory assesses three primary behavioral dimensions: Pro-Social Behaviors, Ritual Behaviors, and Anti-Social Behaviors, alongside a dedicated validity index (Lie Scale) designed to detect social desirability bias. Comprising a comprehensive bank of up to 102 operationalized items rated on a 5-point frequency scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always), the MRPI bridges a critical psychometric gap left by Eurocentric, Judeo-Christian religiosity scales that disproportionately prioritize private emotional states over normative behavioral ethics. Extensive psychometric evaluations demonstrate high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients reported at α = .91 for Pro-Social Behaviors, α = .90 for Ritual Behaviors, and α = .75 for Anti-Social Behaviors. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses affirm a coherent multidimensional construct exhibiting strong convergent validity with prosocial youth development, psychological well-being, and civic engagement, as well as distinct discriminant validity across diverse cultural and religious demographic groups.

2. Keywords

Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory, MRPI, Islamic psychology, religious personality, religiosity measurement, prosocial behavior, ritual behavior, youth development, cross-cultural psychometrics, Islamic worldview

3. Authors

The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory was conceptualized, constructed, and empirically validated by a multidisciplinary team of psychometricians, developmental psychologists, and Islamic studies scholars based primarily at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM):

• Steven Eric Krauss (Abdur-Razzaq Krauss), Ph.D. — Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Social Science Studies (IPSAS) and Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Specializes in youth development, positive youth psychology, and indigenous religious measurement.
• Azimi Hamzah, Ed.D. — Late Emeritus Professor of Human Resource Development and Youth Studies, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
• Turiman Suandi, Ph.D. — Professor of Youth Work and Non-Formal Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
• Sidek Mohd Noah, Ph.D. — Professor of Counseling and Psychological Assessment, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
• Rumaya Juhari, Ph.D. — Associate Professor of Family and Child Ecology, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
• Jamiah Hj. Manap, Ph.D. — Center for Research in Psychology and Human Well-Being, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Malaysia.
• Khairul Anwar Mastor, Ph.D. — Center for Liberal Studies (CITRA-UKM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
• Hasnan Kassan, Ph.D. — Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
• Azma Mahmood, Ph.D. — Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
• Farha Idris, Ph.D. — Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI) is to provide an empirically grounded, culturally authentic, and psychometrically rigorous measurement tool capable of evaluating Islamic religiosity and its manifestation in personality and behavior. Prior to the development of the MRPI, the vast majority of psychological investigations evaluating religiosity relied heavily on instruments developed within Western, predominantly Christian traditions, such as Gordon Allport and J. Michael Ross’s Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) or Batson’s Quest scale. While these instruments provide valuable insights into intrinsic versus extrinsic religious motivations within individualistic societal frameworks, they routinely fail to capture the holistic theological nature of Islam, known as Din—an integrated worldview encompassing theology (Aqidah), ritual worship (Ibadat), interpersonal transactional ethics (Mu’amalat), and moral character (Akhlaq).

In response to this conceptual limitation, Krauss and colleagues set out to formulate an assessment instrument that reflects the ontological, epistemological, and behavioral realities of Muslim life. The MRPI is specifically purposed to evaluate how religious worldviews are internalized and translated into tangible, everyday functioning. Rather than assessing faith solely as an internal, contemplative cognitive construct, the MRPI assesses religiosity as a dynamic “personality” construct—an enduring disposition wherein religious teachings actively shape decisions, emotional regulation, interpersonal civility, social accountability, and self-restraint.

The inventory serves multiple research and applied functions:

• Empirical Research in Youth and Human Development: Investigating the protective and developmental role of religiosity against risk behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, delinquency, academic disengagement) among adolescent and emerging adult populations.
• Cross-Cultural and Comparative Psychology: Enabling culturally competent investigations that assess how religious identity interacts with psychosocial adaptation, modernization, and civic participation across multi-faith societies.
• Counseling and Clinical Practice: Offering mental health practitioners and Islamic counseling specialists an objective diagnostic baseline to understand a client’s moral orientation, spiritual struggles, interpersonal habits, and religious coping mechanisms.
• Organizational and Ethical Research: Examining the relationship between religious personality and workplace outcomes, including occupational citizenship behaviors, whistle-blowing intentions, organizational integrity, and ethical leadership (e.g., Othman & Hariri, 2012).

5. Psychological Construct

The MRPI conceptualizes Islamic religiosity through the paradigm of the Islamic Religious Personality. In classical Islamic psychology and theological philosophy (rooted in the works of classical scholars such as Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and modern theorists such as Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas), personality is not merely an amalgam of biologically driven traits or cognitive habits; it is the visible manifestation of the spiritual heart (Qalb) and the soul (Nafs) as governed by the intellect (Aql). Consequently, a person’s level of religiosity is inherently expressed through their observable ethics (Akhlaq) and practical conduct.

The instrument operationalizes this construct across three core behavioral dimensions, supplemented by a social desirability detection subscale:

1. Pro-Social Behaviors

The Pro-Social Behaviors dimension measures interpersonal, social, and civic actions that reflect the Islamic ethical imperative of benevolent social engagement (Ihsan and Mu’amalat). This domain captures behaviors characterized by empathy, honesty, humility, familial duty, community service, environmental consciousness, and forgiveness. Examples include respecting parents, honoring promises, maintaining peace among peers, avoiding backbiting, protecting the dignity of others, and demonstrating civility in public spaces. In the MRPI framework, prosocial actions are understood not merely as secular social conventions, but as direct spiritual obligations resulting from genuine religious commitment.

2. Ritual Behaviors

The Ritual Behaviors dimension assesses personal adherence to obligatory and voluntary spiritual practices (Ibadat). This includes the performance of the five daily compulsory prayers (Solat), engagement with the holy scripture (reciting and reflecting upon the Qur’an), observance of fasting, remembrance of death and the afterlife (Akhirah), giving alms (Zakat and Sadaqah), and engaging in personal supplication and voluntary devotions (Nafil). This dimension captures the structural pillar of faith, serving as the spiritual mechanism through which an individual maintains a direct connection with God (Hablum Minallah), which in turn provides the cognitive-affective anchor for interpersonal conduct.

3. Anti-Social Behaviors

The Anti-Social Behaviors dimension captures the manifestation of negative interpersonal traits, social transgressions, and moral vices (Akhlaq Mazmumah). It operationalizes behaviors that violate Islamic ethical boundaries, such as public disturbance, jealousy, backbiting, deception, arrogance, breaking promises, neglect of familial duties, and vindictiveness. Within the psychometric model, this dimension functions as an inverse indicator of religious personality maturity, assessing the respondent’s susceptibility to behaviors that erode communal cohesion and spiritual integrity.

4. Validity Scale (Lie Scale)

Recognizing the acute vulnerability of self-report religiosity measures to social desirability distortion—where respondents may feel implicit cultural pressure to present themselves as exceptionally pious or morally upright—the MRPI incorporates an embedded Lie Scale. This scale utilizes extreme, highly improbable behavioral claims (e.g., claiming to never engage in petty social vices or universally adhering to unattainable social perfection) to screen for invalid, overly defensive, or deceitful response styles.

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the MRPI rests at the intersection of classical Islamic psychology and modern developmental psychometrics. The conceptual foundation was developed through an iterative deductive-inductive process initiated by Krauss (2005) and Krauss et al. (2005), synthesizing foundational Islamic texts with established models of personality and behavior.

The Integrated Model of Din and Akhlaq

In mainstream social science, personality is frequently partitioned from religious beliefs, viewing religiosity as an external sociocultural variable that influences personality traits (e.g., the Big Five model). In contrast, the theoretical framework of the MRPI posits that within an Islamic ontological paradigm, Din is an overarching, all-encompassing lifestyle. As articulated by contemporary theorists of Islamic psychology like Malik Badri and Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, genuine religious faith is inseparable from moral character. The Prophet of Islam explicitly framed his prophetic mission around moral character: “I was sent only to perfect good character” (reported in the Muwatta of Malik). Therefore, the MRPI operates under the theoretical premise that a psychometric measure of Islamic religiosity must evaluate characterological outputs rather than abstract doctrinal assertions alone.

The Dual Axiological Framework: Vertical and Horizontal Relations

The MRPI operationalizes the classical Islamic paradigm of dual relational accountability:

• Hablum Minallah (The Vertical Dimension): The individual’s direct relationship with God, characterized by obedience, ritual devotions (Ibadat), humility, and reverence. In the MRPI, this is primarily tapped through the Ritual Behaviors subscale.
• Hablum Minannas (The Horizontal Dimension): The individual’s relationships with fellow human beings, the broader society, and the natural environment. In the MRPI, this is manifested across the Pro-Social Behaviors and Anti-Social Behaviors subscales.

The theoretical model posits that true Islamic religious maturity occurs when the vertical dimension dynamically informs and elevates the horizontal dimension. A high frequency of ritual observance that does not suppress antisocial conduct or foster prosocial compassion represents a fragmented religious personality.

Social Cognitive and Positive Youth Development Integration

Furthermore, the MRPI incorporates principles from Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura) and Positive Youth Development (PYD) models (Lerner et al.). Krauss and colleagues argue that religious norms serve as behavioral self-regulatory scripts. By measuring how youth integrate religious values into behavioral choices (e.g., recycling, caring for public property, resisting peer conflict, treating elderly community members with dignity), the MRPI tests the capacity of religious worldview internalization to serve as a developmental asset that cultivates social responsibility and psychological resilience.

7. Validity

The MRPI has undergone extensive empirical evaluation to establish its construct, content, convergent, and discriminant validity across diverse developmental and cross-cultural cohorts.

Content and Face Validity

Initial content validation was executed through comprehensive Delphi panels and expert reviews involving prominent scholars of Islamic jurisprudence (Shari’ah), Islamic theology (Usul al-Din), developmental psychology, and measurement specialists in Malaysia (Krauss, 2005; Krauss et al., 2005). Items were systematically generated to reflect authentic scriptural injunctions from the primary Islamic textual sources: the Qur’an and authentic prophetic traditions (Hadith). Qualitative focus groups with Malaysian youth ensured that item wording was developmentally appropriate, unambiguous, and reflective of contemporary social realities.

Construct and Factorial Validity

Factor analytic investigations confirmed the multi-dimensional structure of the inventory. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) conducted on extensive regional samples of Muslim youth in Malaysia (e.g., Krauss et al., 2006) demonstrated adequate-to-excellent structural fit indices across the subscales, supporting the differentiation between prosocial, ritual, and antisocial behavioral domains.

Convergent and Criterion Validity

The MRPI has demonstrated robust convergent validity across numerous empirical studies:

• Psychological Well-Being: Higher scores on Pro-Social Behaviors and Ritual Behaviors correlate positively and significantly with measures of life satisfaction, subjective happiness, emotional stability, and psychological resilience.
• Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility: Pro-Social scores exhibit strong positive associations with community volunteerism, civic participation, and social empathy among youth populations.
• Ethical Conduct in Organizations: Studies examining ethical decision-making, such as Othman and Hariri (2012), identified that high MRPI religiosity significantly predicts ethical whistle-blowing intentions and organizational integrity, confirming the scale’s behavioral criterion validity.

Discriminant and Cross-Faith Adaptation Validity

In a milestone study, Krauss, Hamzah, and Idris (2007) adapted the universal behavioral principles of the MRPI for use across four distinct faith communities in Malaysia (Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu). By adapting ritual and theological terms into generalized faith-neutral parallels (e.g., referencing scriptures, prayers, and sacred rules), the authors tested cross-faith measurement equivalence. The findings revealed that while the Ritual scale naturally reflected denomination-specific liturgical variations, the Pro-Social and Anti-Social dimensions exhibited robust psychometric invariance across religious groups, demonstrating that the behavioral manifestations of moral religious personality possess high generalized construct validity.

8. Reliability

The internal consistency and temporal stability of the MRPI have been established across multiple independent investigations involving large sample cohorts.

Internal Consistency Reliability

Standardized psychometric testing of the inventory yields high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients across its principal dimensions:

• Pro-Social Behaviors Subscale: Reported Cronbach’s α = .91, indicating exceptional internal consistency across its 42 items.
• Ritual Behaviors Subscale: Reported Cronbach’s α = .90, demonstrating high item homogeneity across its 23 devotional and worship indicators.
• Anti-Social Behaviors Subscale: Reported Cronbach’s α = .75, reflecting acceptable reliability across its 18 negatively worded, ethically transgressive behavioral indicators.

Item-Total Correlations and Stability

Item analysis indicates that corrected item-total correlations across the Pro-Social and Ritual scales predominantly exceed .40, with the vast majority falling between .45 and .72, indicating strong alignment with their respective latent constructs. Test-retest reliability evaluations over a 4-to-6-week interval in adolescent cohorts yielded stability coefficients exceeding r = .82, confirming that the MRPI captures stable, trait-like behavioral patterns rather than transient mood states.

9. Factor Analysis

The structural composition of the MRPI was delineated through systematic Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by rigorous Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) within structural equation modeling (SEM) frameworks.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

During scale development (Krauss, 2005; Krauss et al., 2005), the initial pool of over 120 candidate items was subjected to principal axis factoring and principal component analysis with oblique (Promax) rotation, reflecting the theoretical expectation that dimensions of religiosity naturally correlate with one another. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures of sampling adequacy consistently exceeded .90, and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity attained statistical significance (p < .001). Items exhibiting cross-loadings greater than .35 on multiple secondary factors or primary loadings below .30 were iteratively pruned. Items that exhibited conceptual ambiguity or poor empirical loading (such as items 11, 47, and 58 in early drafts) were formally removed from the core analytical model.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Model Fit

Subsequent validation studies (Krauss et al., 2006, 2007) tested the theoretical three-factor behavioral model using CFA. Structural equation modeling established that a higher-order overarching construct of Religious Personality accounted for significant variance across the three primary lower-order factors. Model fit indices met established psychometric benchmarks:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Values regularly ranged between .91 and .95 across youth samples.
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): Consistently reached or exceeded .90.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Maintained acceptable values between .045 and .062 (with 90% confidence intervals within acceptable thresholds).
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): Demonstrated values below .055, indicating minimal residual variance unexplained by the hypothesized factor structure.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Full Instrument Name: Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI)
• Acronym: MRPI
• Primary Developer / Lead Author: Steven Eric Krauss (Abdur-Razzaq Krauss) et al. (2005, 2007)
• Measurement Format: Paper-and-pencil or computer-administered self-report inventory
• Target Population: Muslim youth, emerging adults, and adult populations; adaptable for cross-faith comparative samples
• Item Count: 102 items in the comprehensive operationalized item bank (including developmental and cross-faith comparative adaptations; items 11, 47, and 58 are formally flagged as removed in refined versions)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert-type behavioral frequency rating scale:
  • 1 = Never
  • 2 = Rarely / Once in a while
  • 3 = Sometimes
  • 4 = Frequently / Fairly often
  • 5 = Always
• Subscale Item Distributions:
  • Pro-Social Behaviors (42 items): 2, 17, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 46, 50, 53, 54, 57, 59, 61, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 73, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 89, 90, 92, 95, 97(a), 97(b), 98, 100.
  • Ritual Behaviors (23 items): 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 29, 34, 35, 38, 42, 45, 48, 65, 67, 86, 93, 94, 99, 101.
  • Anti-Social Behaviors (18 items): 7, 15, 19, 21, 24, 36, 44, 52, 60, 63, 70, 75, 79, 80, 85, 87, 88, 91.
  • Lie / Validity Scale: Items 6, 23, 46, 85, and cross-religious variant item 75.
  • Removed / Pruned items: 11, 47, 58.
• Scoring Procedures:
  • Subscale scores are derived by calculating the mean or sum of items assigned to each specific subscale.
  • Items on the Anti-Social Behaviors subscale are reverse-scored when calculating a composite Positive Religiosity-Personality index, or analyzed independently as a separate criterion of moral transgression.
  • Elevated scores on the Lie Scale (e.g., scoring “Always” on rare virtues or “Never” on common human frailties) flag potential socially desirable responding or protocol invalidity.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory was developed through academic doctoral research completed at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 2005 by Steven Eric Krauss, with extensive psychometric validation and cross-faith adaptation papers published in peer-reviewed journals between 2005 and 2007.

The MRPI is an open, non-commercial academic assessment instrument. It is made available free of charge for non-commercial scientific research, academic dissertations, and educational development, subject to standard ethical guidelines and formal scholarly attribution. Researchers seeking to implement, translate, or adapt the MRPI in clinical or institutional interventions are advised to contact the corresponding author, Prof. Dr. Steven Eric Krauss (Institute for Social Science Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia), and consult the foundational validation publications to obtain full scoring templates and normative datasets.

12. References

Krauss, S. E. (2005). Development of the Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory for measuring the religiosity of Malaysian Muslim youth (Doctoral dissertation). Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia.

Krauss, S. E., Azimi, H., Suandi, T., Noah, S. M., Juhari, R., Manap, J. H., Mastor, K. A., Kassan, H., & Mahmood, A. (2006). Exploring regional differences in religiosity among Muslim youth in Malaysia. Review of Religious Research, 47(3), 238–252. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3512360

Krauss, S. E., Hamzah, A., & Idris, F. (2007). Adaptation of a Muslim religiosity scale for use with four different faith communities in Malaysia. Review of Religious Research, 49(2), 147–164. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20058193

Krauss, S. E., Hamzah, A., Juhari, R., & Hamid, J. A. (2005). The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI): Towards understanding differences in the Islamic religiosity among the Malaysian youth. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 13(2), 173–186.

Krauss, S. E., Hamzah, A., Suandi, T., Noah, S. M., Mastor, K. A., Juhari, R., Manap, J. H., Kassan, H., & Mahmood, A. (2005). The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Measurement Inventory (MRPI)’s religiosity measurement model: Towards filling the gaps in religiosity research on Muslims. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 13(2), 131–145.

Othman, R., & Hariri, H. (2012). Conceptualizing religiosity influence on whistle-blowing intentions. British Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 6(1), 65–92.

13. Items of the Scale