Keywords

College students -- India, College students -- United States, Identity (Psychology), Religiousness

Abstract

With the exception of a few studies (Leak, 2009; Fulton, 1997), psychological research on religion has not been studied from an Eriksonian identity status perspective (Erikson, 1959; Marcia, 1966). Further, Erikson’s (1963) concept of identity appears to be inherently individualistic and may be conceptualized differently in Eastern/Asian cultures (Cloninger, 2008; Paranjpe, 2010). This study aims to understand the relationship of religiosity and quest to identity development across two cultures: USA and India. A total of 326 undergraduate students (mean age= 19.47, sd= 1.58) participated from two urban colleges in Mumbai, India (n= 159) and one in Orlando, USA (n= 167). All participants completed a battery of measures, including the measure of Religiosity, Quest Scale, Identity Distress Survey, and Ego Identity Process Questionnaire. Our first hypothesis was confirmed that females would have greater religiosity as compared to males amongst the Indian and USA sample. The second hypothesis was also confirmed that the USA sample would be found more among the achieved and moratorium ego identity statuses as compared to the Indian sample, who would be found more frequently in the foreclosed or diffused ego identity statuses. Although the USA sample was found to be significantly higher in identity exploration, the Indian sample was found to experience greater identity distress. Finally, our third hypothesis was partially confirmed in regard to religiosity, as it was not differentially related to identity variables in both the Indian and USA groups. However, religious quest was differentially related to the identity variables, in that it was related to identity distress in the USA sample, but not in the Indian sample.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Berman, Steven

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Clinical Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003499

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003499

Language

English

Release Date

December 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences, Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

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