The Relationship between Religious Orientation and Psychological Well-Being among University Students

Subject Areas : Journal of Educational Psychology

Mohammad Ebrahim Maddahi ¹ , Mona Samadzadeh ² , Mohammad Mojtaba Keikhayfarzaneh ³

1 - Assistant professor. Department of Psychology Shahed University. Tehran. Iran
2 - M.A Psychology
3 - Young Researchers Club, Zahedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Iran

Received: 2011-02-07 Accepted : 2011-05-23 Published : 2011-05-22

Keywords: Religion, mental health, psychological well-being, Religious orientation,

Abstract :

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between religious orientation (internal/external) and psychological well-being which has been conducted in a correlation method. The population of the study included all Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch. The research sample volume included 71 students selected randomly via cluster sampling from management, law and psychology colleges. The scales of religious orientation (Allport, 1950) and PWI psychological well-being (Carol, 1988) were used to collect the data of the study. Stepwise regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the internal and external religious orientation scores and psychological well-being. On the other hand, the results obtained from stepwise regression analysis showed that both internal and external religious orientations were capable to predict psychological well-being. These results could be determined in such a way that the more internal youth’s religious orientation, the more their psychological well-being and the more external youth’s religious orientation, the less their psychological well-being. On the other hand, religious orientation was capable to predict the psychological well-being.