A study on the relationships between faith development and religious fundamentalism in a sample of university students

The aim of this study, first of all, is to examine the relationship between Faith Development (FD) and Religious Fundamentalism (RF); later, the relationships between the same variables and demografical variables such as age, gender, class, socio-economic status (SES) and education.The sampling group of study (411 students: 167 male, 244 female) are randomly selected from the pool of students who study at faculties of Dokuz Eylul University such as Divinity and Education Sciences. The age of samples range from 17 to 30 (mean age=21.34).Faith Development Scale, which is constructed and developed by Leak, Loucks and Bowlin and Religious Fundamentalism Scale, which is constructed and developed by Altemeyer and Hunsberger, are instruments which are used for gathering data.The results showed that, FD was correlated with RF, age and class variables at p<.001 significant level; but not correlated to the other variables such as gender, education and SES. As a result of the one-way analysis of variance which is carried out in order to determine the difference between FD avarage points from the point of students? classes, it is assigned that there is a significant difference between first and forth classes.As for the variable of RF, it has been found that it was significantly correlated with education and class variables at p<.001. However, but not correlated to the other variables such as gender and SES. As a result of the one-way analysis of variance which is carried out in order to determine the difference between RF avarage points from the point of students? education, it is assigned that there is a significant difference between the departments of DKAB and Ilahiyat. In addition, one-way analysis of variance which is carried out in order to determine the difference between RF avarage points from the point of students? classes, it is assigned that there is a significant difference between first, third and forth classes. However, it has been found that variance between the second class? RF avarage points and forth? avarage points at p<.01 significant level.Key Words: 1) Faith Development Theory, 2) Stages of Faith Development, 3)James W. Fowler, 4) Religious Fundamentalism