Examining the perception of haram in terms of psycholgy of religion

The words haram, hürmet, muhterem, ihram are known to be synonymous with the word harem and come from the same root. The word haram, which originally means "to cover, to conceal, to withhold from others" in Akkadian, means "untouchable, protected, blessed, sacred" in Arabic. For this reason, that is why Mecca is called al- Beled al-haram, the Kaaba is called al-Bayt al-haram, and the mosque around it is called al-Masjid al-haram. The Creator informs us that the Ka'ba, the first sanctuary established for human beings on earth, is the blessed house of al-Masjid al-haram. In terms of religious psychology, the most important aim of the research is to develop a "Haram Perception Scale" by determining how adult individuals perceive the concept of haram. In this context, it is to reveal whether the levels of perception of God, psychological well-being and haram perception differ according to demographic variables. In the first part of the research, the concept of haram and its derivatives, closely related concepts, psychological effects on the individual, the five basic principles that should be protected in İslâm and Kohlberg's moral development theory are included. In the second section, information about qualitative data analysis, research process studies and analysis carried out to create a scale, and quantitative data analysis are given. The third section includes the discussion and conclusion sections where the data obtained are interpreted. The research was conducted as an exploratory sequential mixed design with appropriate sampling method. The population of the study consisted of adults over the age of 18 living in Turkey in the 2021-22 academic year. The study was conducted with 601 volunteer participants living in Turkey. Data were obtained through "Personal Information Form", "Perception of God Scale", "Psychological Well-Being Scale" and "Haram Perception Scale". As a result of the factor analysis of the scale items analyzed with the SPSS program, a two-dimensional 'Haram Perception Scale' with high reliability and validity coefficients was developed. As a result of the study, it was determined that as the scores of the participants' Love Oriented Perception of the Creator dimension increased, the scores of the perception of prohibition of the concept of haram decreased and the scores of the perception of reverence increased positively at a high level; as the scores of the Fear-Oriented Perception of the Creator dimension increased, the scores of the perception of prohibition of the concept of haram increased at a similar high level and the scores of the perception of reverence decreased. As the participants' autonomy, environmental dominance, self-acceptance, positive relationships with people, personal development and general psychological well-being dimension scores increased, it was determined that the perception of prohibition of the concept of haram decreased. As the participants' environmental dominance, purpose of life, self-acceptance, positive relationships with people and general psychological well-being scores increased, it was determined that the perception of reverence scores of the concept of haram increased in a similar direction at a high level. While the perception of reverence supports psychological health, it is thought that the perception of prohibition negatively affects psychological health.