The confusing conclusions on the relationship of anxiety and maladjustment to religious orientation in past studies suggest a need for further clarification. On the one hand, one set of studies finds religion related to anxiety, and another set of stu...
The confusing conclusions on the relationship of anxiety and maladjustment to religious orientation in past studies suggest a need for further clarification. On the one hand, one set of studies finds religion related to anxiety, and another set of studies fins religion related to psychological maladjustment. On the other hand, other set of studes finds religion related to lower anxiety and in many cases religion is found to be associated with better psychological adjustment. The mixed conclusions as to the nature of religion's relationship with anxiety and maladjustment can be explained by looking at the simplistic definitions of religion in past research.
In this study, Extrinsic-Intrinsic measure of Religious Orientation Scale of Je Seok Bong(1995) was given to the subjects, while the measure selected to differentiate subjects in terms of trait anxiety was STAI(From Y) T-Anxiety Scale (Spielberger, Vagg, Barker, Donham, & Westberry, 1980). When extrinsic and intrinsic scales were correlated with T-anxiety, intrinsicness was negatively correlated with T-anxiety (r= -.16, < .001), while extrinsicness was positively correlated with T-anxiety((r= .34 < .001). This study also examined the relationship between religious orientation and maladjustment. The extrinsicness was postively correlated with the maladustment behaviors of 4 subscales of Mooney Problem Checklist (Social=Psychological, Personal=Psychological Reation, Home and Family, Morals and Religion), while
intrinsicness was negatively correlated with them.