RESEARCH: Negatively Reinforcing Personal Extrinsic Motivations: Religious Orientation, Inner Awareness, and Mental Health in Iran and the United States

Abstract

In Iranian and American samples, a new Negatively Reinforcing Personal Extrinsic Religious Motivations Scale contained four factors. These four Personal-Negative factors correlated positively with the Allport and Ross Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scales. In correlations with measures of an inner psychological awareness, Intrinsic and Extrinsic constructs predicted greater Self-Consciousness and Self-Knowledge in Iran, but not in the United States. In both cultures, however, intrinsicness was associated with lower Alexithymia and greater Emotional Intelligence whereas the opposite was true of extrinsicness, especially after partialing out the Intrinsic Scale. A few findings suggested that Extrinsic motivations might have positive mental health implications, but linkages with Anxiety, Depression, Perceived Stress, and Self-Esteem overwhelmingly depicted intrinsicness as adjusted and extrinsicness as maladjusted. Each Personal-Negative factor displayed evidence of incremental validity. Factor analysis of all religious orientation variables in each sample yielded two components, a general religious motivation factor and a bipolar Intrinsic dimension. Iranians were higher on several Extrinsic measures. Americans displayed higher Intrinsic scores. These data suggested that religious motivation was more highly integrated within the Iranians and that Allportian concepts supplied a productive conceptual framework for understanding Iranian Muslim as well as American Christian religious commitments.