Basic Religious Beliefs and Personality Traits

Abstract

Objective: Spiritual beliefs can help people find meaning of life ,and can also influence their feelings, behaviors and mental health. The present research studied the relationship between basic religious beliefs (Human, Existence and God) and five personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness.
Method: One hundred seventy eight students of Islamic Azad University in Torbat-jam were randomly selected and completed the basic religious beliefs and NEO Questionnaires.
Results: Data showed that basic religious beliefs have a significant negative correlation with neuroticism (r=-0.29) ,and a significant positive relationship with extraversion(r=0.28),openness(r=0.14),agreeableness (r=0.29),and conscientiousness (r=0.48). Also, the results of the regression analysis showed that basic religious beliefs can anticipate neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, but they cannot anticipate the openness factor significantly. 
Conclusion : The findings of this study demonstrate that basic religious beliefs have a positive relationship with good characteristics that help people resolve the challenges of their lives and identity crisis . Thus, the results of this study support the idea of Religious Cognitive–Emotional Theory that religiosity is correlated with positive personality traits.