God Image Measurement

God image measurement quantifies the emotional, relational picture a believer holds of God — not the doctrines they affirm, but how they experience the divine as, say, loving or wrathful, accepting or rejecting, near or distant, controlling or permissive. Peter Benson and Bernard Spilka's 1973 study established the empirical approach: they measured the God image along evaluative dimensions and showed that it is systematically tied to the self, with people higher in self-esteem and internal locus of control picturing a more loving and accepting God. The tradition distinguishes the God image (the affect-laden, experienced representation) from the God concept (the formally professed theological description) and measures the former as a multidimensional latent construct from ratings of attributed divine characteristics.