Maslow's hierarchy of needs used to measure motivation for religious behaviour

Abstract

In order to test Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in relation to religion, the present study describes the development and initial psychometric validation work on the “Motivation for Religious Behaviour Questionnaire”. Data confirm the reliability and social validity of the new measure. Subsequently, scores on the “Motivation for Religious Behaviour Questionnaire” were correlated with scores on a measure of Maslow's Hierarchy. Contrary to expectations, no significant association was found between the measures. It is proposed that future empirical work should seek to examine Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in relation to other aspects of religion (i.e., religious attitude, beliefs and practice).