Moral Judgment and Values as Predictors of Religiosity

Abstract

Religion is defined as a system of faith and worship which consists of a collection of beliefs, practices, and values which are based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. Religion is seen as having the ability to shape an individual’s attitudes and beliefs (Emmons, 1999). Values are important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by members of any culture that define what is desirable or undesirable. Values influence a person’s behavior and attitude and serve as broad guidelines for action in all situations. Moral judgment involves the cognitive capacity and insight to the relationship between an abstract principle and concrete case and judge the situation as right or wrong keeping in view the knowledge of moral standards. It is the byproduct of individual’s general social experience which enables him to evaluate worthiness or unworthiness of an action as good or bad. In order to explain the Interrelationship between Religiosity, Values & Moral judgment the present study was conducted on 100 females, between the age group of 16 to 20 (mean age 18) years studying at various educational institutions of Haryana. Tools used for data collection were the (1) Religiosity scale (L.I. Bhushan 1970), (2) Study of Values (S.P.Kulshrestha1998), and Moral Judgment Test (Ranjana Gupta 1989). Subjects were contacted in groups for data collection. The responses were scored and statistically analyzed. Pearson’s correlation and stepwise regression analysis were calculated. Results indicated that Religiosity has significant inverse correlations with Moral Realism dimension of moral judgment and Political values dimension of values. Stepwise regression analysis revealed moral realism and communicable responsibility of moral judgment as strong predictors of Religiosity. Political value has also emerged as a predictor of religiosity. These results have important implications in regard to our current understanding of the relationships between Religiosity, Values & Moral judgment.