Religious Orientation in Three Central European Environments: Quest, Intrinsic, and Extrinsic Dimensions

Abstract

The concepts of intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religiosity, as operationalized by tested instruments (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991a, 1991b, Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) were analyzed, tested, and validated in three different cultural settings in central Europe (among Bosnian Muslims, the Serbian Orthodox, and Slovenian Catholics). The study was carried out in spring 2005 on undergraduate university students. The study indicated that the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions functioned in line with expectations (intrinsic being consistent; extrinsic bifurcating into a social and a psychological component) in all samples. Quest religious orientation functioned in line with Edwards, Hall, and Slater (2002) in the two Christian settings, being decomposed into three entities. In the Muslim setting, quest behaved differently both as to decomposition and as to relationship to the other orientations, indicating a clear opposition to the latter, when correlations are considered.

Notes

^a n = 249.

^b n = 371.

^c n = 323. p < .05.

∗Correlation is significant at the .05 level, two-tailed.

∗∗Correlation is significant at the .01 level, two-tailed.