Personal Religious Orientation Research Articles

Ramadan Experience and Behavior: Relationships with Religious Orientation among Pakistani Muslims

Within the Ideological Surround Model of the social sciences and religion, so-called “universal” perspectives within the psychology of religion can dialogically clarify and be clarified by the “particular” elements of Muslim (and other forms of religious) commitment. This study developed new scales for operationalizing the experience and behavior of Pakistani Muslims during Ramadan. In a sample of university students, one set of experiential factors apparently facilitated, whereas another interfered with the practices of Ramadan. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations correlated with greater and the Extrinsic Social motivation with lower levels of involvement in Ramadan. Relative to these religious orientation measures, Ramadan experience scales displayed incremental validity by explaining additional variance in Ramadan behavior. Women proved to be more religious than men. At the most general level, these data further supported the dialogic assumptions of the Ideological Surround Model of research in the psychology of religion.

Fostering the Moral and Spiritual Development of Emerging Adults: Introductory Commentary for What They're Reading

In this issue of the Journal of College and Character we have an opportunity to explore two perspectives on the issues and challenges with which young people grapple as they seek to understand and develop their personal values, spiritual and religious orientation, and their “inner core” or moral compass. The two recent publications reviewed provide some important insights into the moral and spiritual lives of the young adults with whom we work on college campuses, their “big questions and worthy dreams,” as suggested by Sharon Daloz Parks (2000).

Relationships between personal religious orientation and ethical ideologies

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personal religious orientation and ethical ideologies. Demographic variables were also taken into consideration as moderators to examine if moderating effects exist. 265 questionnaires were collected to test the conceptual framework. We found that personal religious orientation is significantly negatively correlated with relativism, but nonsignificantly correlated with idealism. Age and education have moderate effects on the relationship between personal religious orientation and ethical ideology. The theoretical and practical implications of religious orientation and ethical ideology are also discussed.

Afterlife Motivation Scale: Correlations With Maladjustment and Incremental Validity in Iranian Muslims

In a previous study of Iranian Muslims, two scales measuring religious commitments based on a desire to avoid hell and to reach heaven predicted maladjustment. The responding of Iranian university students in this investigation revealed that these two forms of desire could be reduced to a single factor that was adequately operationalized in a brief six-item instrument. This Afterlife Motivation Scale displayed strong internal consistency and correlated positively with the extrinsic personal, extrinsic social, and intrinsic religious orientations and with nearness to God, depression, anxiety, and death anxiety. Multiple regression analyses indicated that this scale recorded a specific form of religious psychological functioning that could not be reduced to more general intrinsic and extrinsic forms of religiousness. This brief instrument could be useful in future efforts to better understand one way in which heaven and hell might be meaningful for Iranian and perhaps other Muslims and for followers of other religious traditions.

Is intrinsic religious orientation a culturally specific American Protestant concept? The fusion of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation among non‐Protestants

AbstractThe relationship between intrinsic and personal extrinsic religious orientation as suggested by Gorsuch and McPherson is studied within four denominational samples of university students in four different cultural environments. Results show that intrinsic and extrinsic personal religious orientation form two separate dimensions only within the American Protestant sample. In three different European religious environments (one Eastern Orthodox, one Islamic, and one Roman Catholic), all extrinsic personal and intrinsic items can be combined into a single dimension. It is speculated that the intrinsic orientation may be culturally tied to Protestantism. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Intergroup Perspective on Religion and Prejudice

Based on the reasoning that religious groups evidence intergroup processes that can create prejudice, two studies examined the relation between religiosity and attitudes toward religious and non-religious others. In both studies, among more religious individuals, attitudes toward religious others were very positive and attitudes toward non-religious others were quite negative. These relations emerged on all measures of traditional religiosity used. Some prejudice against religious others existed among less religious individuals, but it was less pronounced and less pervasive than the prejudice of more religious people. It is suggested that intergroup processes such as competition between religious groups for resources or value promotion likely foster prejudice against religious outgroup members, perhaps irrespective of personal religious orientation.

Depressive symptoms and religious orientation: examining the relationship between religiosity and depression within the context of other correlates of depression

Abstract The role of cognitive, personality and social variables to explain the relationship between religious orientation and aspects of psychological well-being is often speculated at a theoretical level, but tends not to be explored empirically. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between religious orientation and depressive symptoms among cognitive, personality and social correlates of depression. A total of 360 (172 males, 188 females) English University students completed measures of depressive symptoms, religious orientation, anxiety, neuroticism, coping style, attribution style and self-esteem. Among men and women, depressive symptoms are significantly associated with higher scores on the measures of extrinsic-social and extrinsic personal religious orientation, neuroticism, attribution style, wish and avoidance coping; and lower scores on the measures of intrinsic religious orientation, optimism, self-esteem and problem-focussed and support seeking coping. A multiple regression shows that, among men, all three religious orientations, and among women, two of the three religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic-social), represent separate dimensions that are important in accounting for unique variance in depression within the context of a number of cognitive, social and personality explanations of depression.

The Protestant Ethic: Weber's Model and the Empirical Literature

Empirical research with regard to the Protestant ethic is reviewed in relation to Weber's model of the part a specifically religious ethos played in the rise of capitalism. Weber argued that Western legal and commercial changes were not in themselves an adequate explanation. Essential also was the set of values emphasized by ascetic Protestantism: self-discipline, hard work, the careful use of time, the reinvestment of one's gains, personal honesty, creative innovation, and faith in the rewards of a just God. Empirical research has found positive correlations between Protestant ethic values and internal locus of control (self-discipline), hard work, honesty, and belief in a just world. Findings with regard to the use of time and money are inconclusive. The relationship with creative innovation has not been examined. There is a need for empirical study of the relationship between the Protestant ethic and personal religious orientation.

Attitudes toward women and their work roles: Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations

This study examined the effects of personal religious orientation, religious denomination, and gender on attitudes toward women and their work roles using a sample of 263 single undergraduate university students. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation put significantly more emphasis on family than career in their anticipated general lifestyle relative to those with a low intrinsic religious orientation. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation were also more likely to anticipate the female spouse spending less time in a profession during the children's early years. Males showed more traditional attitudes toward women than females, but there were no gender effects on measures of preferred general lifestyle, preferred child-care distribution, or preferred career involvement for the wife. Subjects belonging to mainline and conservative denomination did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward women or their work roles.

Indiscriminate Proreligiousness: Conceptualization and Measurement

This paper examines indiscriminate proreligiousness as construct which holds important implications for the scientific study of religion. Approaches by researchers relevant to the construct are critically reviewed. As an alternative, our research team developed two scales directly measuring personal and congregational aspects of indiscriminate proreligiousness. The scales were refined using factor analytic methods and were empirically validated on samples of church members and churchgoing students. Both scales demonstrated evidence of content validity, internal consistency, construct validity, genernlizability, and utility. A number of empirical and theoretical questions about the antecedents and consequents of indiscriminate proreligiousness are raised. Indiscriminate proreligiousness has been thorn in the side of the scientific study of religion for many years. The term grew out of Allport's studies of personal religious orientation. Allport was puzzled by the lack of strong negative correlation between the intrinsic and extrinsic religious dimensions, dimensions which he had conceptualized as two contrasting poles lying on single continuum. He resolved this discrepancy, in part, by defining those who endorse both intrinsic and extrinsic items as inconsistently proreligious, that sizable group of muddleheads who refuse to conform to our neat religious logic (Allport, 1966: 6). In later work, Allport broadened his conception of this phenomenon to one which had more general implications for the scientific study of religion (Allport & Ross, 1967). He noted that there are some individuals who respond to religious material with a superficial or hit and run approach. These people fail to make

Personal Religious Orientation and Frankl's Will-To-Meaning in Four Religious Communities

Numerous theorists argue that the anomie characteristic of contemporary mass-society results in a lack of meaning and personal identity and that membership of small religious communities serves to relieve, if not eliminate, this existential vacuum. In order to explore this area further, four religious communities in Johannesburg — the Jesus People, the Hare Krishna Devotees, the Maharaj Ji Premies and a Catholic Priest community — were given the Purpose-in-Life test together with its complementary scale (Seeking-of-Noetic- Goals Test) as well as the Religious Orientation Scale. Analysis of the data confirmed the hypotheses that as a function of integration into any one of these groups individuals' lives take on greater meaning and purpose and that the motivation to seek meaning decreases. The results also indicate that members' personal religious orientations become more intrinsic.

Research Models and Pedagogical Paradigms in Psychology of Religion

The author contends that psychologists' personal religious orientations, research models, and pedagogical paradigms are closely related. He suggests three religious orientations (prophetic, priestly, and mystical) are related to three research models in the psychology of religion (bi-polar, multi-dimensional, and open-ended). These three research models, in turn, are related to three corresponding pedagogical paradigms.

Philosophies of Human Nature and Personal Religious Orientation

Two hundred subjects were dichotomized into extrinsic and intrinsic along the dimension of Personal Religious Orientation (Allport, 1968). Tests for differences between means of these two groups revealed a significant tendency for the intrinsics to hold a more positive view of human nature as measured on the Philosophy of Human Nature Scale (Wrightsman, 1964). A further comparison between the upper and lower quartiles of the same sample revealed that the differences occurred primarily on the subscale designating trustworthiness, in that instrinsics perceived people to be more trustworthy than did extrinsics.

Personal religious orientation and prejudice.

Personal religious orientation and prejudice.

Personal religious orientation and prejudice.

Personal religious orientation and prejudice.