A study of the factors affecting self-esteem and religious attitudes

Primary aim of this thesis is to find out whether there is a relationship between self-esteem and level of religiosity or not, if so, to explain what kind of a relationship is built in between. This research is dedicated to justify the hypothesis of the thesis that self-esteem is inversely proportional to level of religiosity, namely, as the score of self-esteem scale increases, the score of Religious Attitude Scale decreases. While the previous studies focused solely on the correlation between self-esteem and religiosity, this thesis provides a broader scope by adding other important variables which could be effective in the construction of this relationship. Regardless of variables such age, sex, income level, the population of the study consists of at least university graduates reached via internet. Within the framework of the study, a Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher, Self Esteem subscale of Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Allport and Ross' s Religious Attitude Scale adapted to Turkish culture and Islam were administrated to 306 subjects through voluntariness-based random sampling. Findings obtained from the statistical analyses justified the hypothesis of the thesis. That is, self-esteem is inversely proportional to level of religiosity, namely, as the score of self-esteem scale increases, the score of Religious Attitude Scale decreases.