The extent of religiosity and its relationship with university students' identity styles

Abstract

Introduction: Religion and religiosity have a great impact on physical and psychological aspects of human. One of the most important aspects that have significant relationship with religion is the identity that people shape during adolescence and youth. The aim of the present study is to assess religiosity and its relationship with identity styles among university students.Method: Four hundred and thirty six students from Payame-Noor University of Tehran participated in the study by completing Extended Version of the Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS), and Religious Questionnaire.Results: The results of the study indicated that the mean score of religiosity among the sample was at a high level although the mean scores of ideological and experimental dimensions were higher than the scores of consequential and ritualistic dimensions. The results of Pearson correlation showed that achievement identity and foreclosure identity styles had a significant and positive relation with all dimensions of religiosity whereas moratorium identity had a significant and negative relation with religiosity dimension.Conclusions: The findings of the study indicated that religiosity has a complex relation with identity styles and people’s cognitive processing, and individuals with achievement and foreclosure identity styles have more commitment to religious beliefs gained by their own explorations or from their significant others.