he European Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy 2015, Brighton, United Kingdom
Official Conference Proceedings

he European Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy 2015, Brighton, United Kingdom
Official Conference Proceedings

he European Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy 2015, Brighton, United Kingdom
Official Conference Proceedings

Practicing a religion for its own sake can make a person self-reliant and thus increase
one’s happiness and resilience. Conversely, following a religion for ends other than
the religion itself can lead to strong beliefs in fate and destiny, thereby reducing
happiness. The study aimed to test the relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic religious
orientations with happiness and resilience and to test the mediational role of locus of
control (LOC). It was hypothesized that intrinsic religious orientation will have a
positive correlation with happiness and resilience, mediated by an internal LOC;
while extrinsic religious orientation will have a negative correlation with happiness
and resilience, mediated by an external LOC. 190 adults filled out the Religious
Orientation Scale by Allport & Ross (1967), Levenson’s Locus of Control Scale
(1981), Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Hills & Argyle, 2002) and ConnorDavidson
Resilience
Scale
(2003).
The
data
was
analyzed
using
Pearson’s
correlation,

partial

correlation and regression analyses. It was found that neither of the religious
orientations correlated with happiness or resilience. It was also observed that
religiosity overall is declining in the population. Additional analyses showed that
extrinsic religious orientation was moderately associated with an external locus of
control and that internal locus of control was positively correlated with happiness as
well as resilience, while external locus of control was negatively correlated with the
same.
Keywords: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religious orientation, Happiness, Resilience, Locus
of Control.

Adwaita Deshmukh
Megha Deuskar